Jay-Z Planned to Bring Killer Mike On Grammys Stage Before Arrest

Armon Sadler
·2 min read
1

Killer Mike had a huge moment at the 2024 Grammys, nearly sweeping the entire Rap category. Unfortunately, none of the Rap awards were televised, and he was arrested before the live broadcast. We now know that Jay-Z planned to give the Atlanta rapper his proper due by bringing him on stage when he received the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award.

Mike shared this revelation during his Wednesday (Feb. 14) appearance on The Breakfast Club. “Man, what’s crazy is though, Jay was hitting me. I didn’t realize as I was going through my [arrest,]” he said. “Jay was hitting me like, ‘Hold on, stick around. I wanna toast to you.’ And then he hit me later saying, ‘I was gonna concede my time to you.’ Shouts out to Hov.”

Charlamagne Tha God confirmed that he, too, heard Hov planned to bring the Michael artist on stage. “It’s love, though. I appreciate it,” Mike said. “[I got that text] after I got out. Me and him laughing. He said, ‘You want to go and get locked up in the biggest moment ever?!’ I was laughing. It was hilarious, man. You couldn’t do nothing but laugh.”

While Jay-Z wasn’t able to celebrate Killer Mike, he did make a major impact at the Grammys with his speech. He called the Grammys out for never giving his wife Beyoncé the Album Of The Year award, despite being the winningest artist in Grammys history.

He admitted that while artists like himself, Will Smith, and DJ Jazzy Jeff boycotted the show in the past, they would still tune in, displaying that all artists crave Grammy validation. “We wanna get it right,” he said, referring to the Recording Academy’s voters and their process. “Obviously it’s subjective because its opinion based.”

He closed his speech by encouraging Black artists to “keep showing up,” not just for the Grammys but in everything they do. Check out the speech below.

More from VIBE.com