Jay-Z returned to the stage for a rare solo performance on Saturday night (May 30), playing a career-spanning set laced with barbs at Nicki Minaj, Drake, and more.
Hip-hop collective The Roots shocked fans earlier this year by announcing the rapper as one of this year’s headliners for Roots Picnic, and went on to join him on stage as he stormed through some of his biggest hits.
He played a mammoth 35-song set, and brought out a series of special guests for the occasion, including Jazmine Sullivan, who joined him on ‘Feelin’ It’, Bilal for ‘No Church In The Wild’, as well as Peedi Crakk, Freeway, Beanie Sigel, Meek Mill, and Young Gunz.
It was his first festival show in seven years, but Saturday’s performance at Philadelphia’s Belmont Plateau drew more attention for the disses aimed at his previous collaborators in the opening freestyle.
Not only did his freestyle see Jay-Z take aim at West, who now goes by Ye, Minaj, and Drake, but also his Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder, Damon ‘Dame’ Dash, and Tory Lanez.
He called out Minaj with a nod to her recent efforts to cosy up to Republican politicians, as well as the rape allegations against her husband, Kenneth Petty. “That lady back on the stuff, she sound like she in love with him/ Her Ken can’t even pick they kids, enough of them,” he rapped.
“That lady back on that stuff, she sounds like she’s in love with ‘em / Her Ken can’t even… pick they kid…..enough of them / A rapper can’t be my opp, I got maga republicans”
— Jay-Z shades Nicki Minaj at his Roots Picnic show tonight. pic.twitter.com/PfFa6T3QRw
— Pop Tingz (@PopTingz) May 31, 2026
