Joey Bada$$ Says He Was Almost Managed by Jay-Z

May 15, 2025 671 70 4

Joey Bada$ is looking back on his early career moves and reflecting on his beginnings with hip-hop mogul Jay-Z. In an interview with Red Bull, the Brooklyn rhymer talked about how the BK icon took an interest in managing him when the then-17-year-old emcee’s career was beginning to take off.

“I didn’t necessarily opt to go the indie route; it was a chain of communication that I didn’t have any part in,” Joey told Red Bull.

He went to say that signing with Jay would have been a “dream.”

“Jay is my favorite rapper, even to this day, and within a year of being in the game he wanted to sign me,” Joey recalled. “But he didn’t want to sign me as an artist, he wanted to manage me. I had a manager at the time and I always wonder if that’s how it got botched.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Bada$ talked about the significance of 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G. and their different approaches to rhyming.

“Biggie, to me, is just like a flow master,” Joey noted. “He’s got one of the hardest flows ever. And then ’Pac to me is just all spirit. He’s got that purpose, he’s gonna give you a message. He’s gonna speak to you. So I think those two elements right there are what I carry for sure.”

Joey would also go on to work with 50 Cent, whom he also mentioned in the Red Bull conversation. Bada$ stars on the STARZ drama Power – Book Three: Raising Kanan, which is executive-produced by 50. He praised the Queens icon’s shrewdness as a businessman.

“He reminds me a lot of myself, like how he thinks,” Joey explained. “ It was really dope to have some one-on-one time with him to understand his level of thought.”

In addition to the sitdown, Joey Bada$ just took part in a Red Bull-hosted cypher with Ab-Soul and Big Sean to kick off the third season of the “Red Bull Spiral Freestyle” series.The three rappers represent for the Midwest, West Coast and East Coast.

You can watch the new Red Bull Spiral Freestyle below.