Jay-Z has shut down allegations of undermining Drake with Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl pick. Speaking with GQ in an exclusive interview, when asked about whether the beef between the duo extended to him, he said:"I chose the guy that was having a monster year. I think it was the right choice. What do I care about them two guys battling? What’s that got to do with me? Have at it. They drag everybody in it, like everyone’s part of this conspiracy to undermine Drake, I guess. But, it’s like, what the f*ck? I’m f*cking Jay-Z! [Laughs.]"The singer continued:"All due respect to him. I’m f*cking Hov. Respectfully. It doesn’t make any sense. It couldn’t be that these guys just don’t like each other. I think this has been brewing, just like me and Nas was brewing. It didn’t happen at the Summer Jam—that happened with “Lex with TV sets, the minimum.” It was a whole bunch of stuff leading up to that point. I actually regret that because I really like Nas."For context, the performers for the NFL Super Bowl halftime show are chosen by the NFL in partnership with Roc Nation and Jay-Z. After Kendrick Lamar was chosen to be the performer for the Super Bowl, there were allegations of Jay-Z and Roc taking sides in the feud. Kendrick Lamar was chosen soon after he and Drake had a public feud, with multiple diss tracks exchanged and several other artists pulled in.Around the same time, Drake filed a defamation lawsuit against UMG, which was eventually dismissed by the court in October 2025. As per ABC in October 2025, Drake was going to appeal the dismissal.Some netizens are still not convinced that Jay-Z did not choose a side in the matter, even after his statement to GQ having a refutal of such allegations. Comments responding to the singer shutting down such allegations included ones that pointed out that the singer did choose Lamar after he alleged Drake was a pedophile in a diss track. Netizens also mentioned that the singer and Drake have had their own issues in the past:𝑱𝒐𝒆 ☆ @yzyszn23LINKYou chose someone who went on the biggest stage in the world, with over 500 million viewers, and accused another person of being a pedophile. That doesn’t happen by accident; he used your platform to go after someone. You definitely have an alliance.You can’t backtrack now….Jesse @jniz4presidentLINKHe definitely doesn't have his own well-documented issues with Drake. The same guy that's arrogant enough to answer "I'm fucking Jay-Z!" to the question of if he sees someone else as a threat, definitely isn't insecure. Case closed, guysJay-Z expressed his views on the Kendrick Lamar-Drake diss track exchangeEarlier in the interview with GQ, the singer was asked about his views on the exchange between Kendrick Lamar and Drake in 2024. In response, the singer said that there were four pillars of hip-hop, with the last of the four being rap battling, before going on to talk about the negativity in rap battling at the moment:"And the last pillar is battling. We love the excitement and I love the sparring, but in this day and age there’s so much negative stuff that comes with it that you almost wish it didn’t happen."The singer added:"Now, people that like Kendrick hate Drake, no matter what he makes. It’s like an attack on his character. I don’t know if I love that. I don’t know if it’s helpful to our growth where the fallout lands, especially on social media."🦂 @xAlmightyDJLINKJay Z hand picked Kendrick Lamar to perform “Not Like Us” during the Super Bowl in front of 100 Million people Just for Drake to remain the most streamed Hip Hop artist Then proceeds to double back and say beef shouldn’t be apart of Rap culture ICEMAN on the wayIn other news, the singer was recently mentioned in the Epstein files releases by the Department of Justice in January 2026. As per Variety, he was named in an FBI hotline tip by an anonymous complainer alongside Pusha T and Harvey Weinstein.