A Jay-Z comeback has Dame Dash talking again, and this time he is making it clear that he does not want to hear a new album from his former Roc-A-Fella partner. Dash argued that Jay has simply aged out of the kind of rap comeback some fans are hoping to see.
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“N***a, rappers are not supposed to come back at 60. Do you understand this? It’s over, bro. It was over 30 years ago. We don’t want a comeback album,” Dash said. He continued the age based attack by asking, “Who wants to see a wrinkled up 60-year-old camel face come out and be old with his back hurt, a little arthritis, not moving the same?”The comments arrive while talk of a Jay-Z comeback album has picked up considerably. However, there is an important distinction between speculation and confirmation. Music executive Ray Daniels recently claimed he had heard Jay’s next album was “completely done.” Roc Nation responded through Instagram Stories by writing, “‘Album done’ … Fake news.”
Jay himself sounded far less certain about his recording plans when GQ asked him in March what a great Jay-Z album would look like today.
“I don’t know yet. I don’t know,” he said. Jay explained that any future music would have to honestly reflect where he is in life rather than simply satisfy expectations from listeners.
The latest remarks are also not the first time Dash has used age to question whether a Hov comeback makes sense. After Jay performed at the Roots Picnic in May, Dash told The Art of Dialogue that watching his former business partner still perform at this stage of his life made him uncomfortable.
“And I felt bad because I was like, ‘It must be embarrassing for him to now have to be on that stage, not the same version of himself, and still have to work at that age because he has to,’” Dash said. “For him to have to come out 20 years later, I just felt kinda embarrassed for him.”
Dash’s repeated references to 60 also exaggerate Jay’s actual age. The rapper is 56, and his last solo album, “4:44,” arrived in 2017. Jay performed three sold out shows at Yankee Stadium while celebrating 30 years since “Reasonable Doubt.”
For Dash, though, the issue appears bigger than whether the rumored album is finished. His argument is that rap itself should have an expiration point, and he believes Jay has already crossed it. That position keeps putting him at odds with the renewed attention surrounding Jay’s music, performances and potential next chapter. Until Jay actually announces a project, the loudest conversation around his next album may continue to be about whether he should make one at all.
