Joey Bada$$ Says Jay-Z Wanted to Manage Him Early in His Career

Joey Badass sat down with Red Bull for a story published Tuesday (May 13), during which he talked about almost signing with Jay-Z‘s Roc Nation and his relationship with 50 Cent.

When he talked about almost signing with Roc Nation back in 2010, Joey blamed it on an old manager and a lack of communication because Jay-Z didn’t want to sign him to a label deal, he actually wanted to manage the up-and-coming Brooklyn rapper. “It was a chain of communication that I didn’t have any part in,” he revealed. “Jay is my favorite rapper, even to this day, and within a year of being in the game, he wanted to sign me. 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.”

Billboard reached out to Roc Nation for comment.

He then talked about his role as Unique on Power Book III: Raising Kanan and what he’s learned working with the show’s executive producer 50 Cent. “He’s a very interesting individual; he surprised me,” Joey said of the Queens mogul. “Not that I didn’t think he was smart, but I think he’s much smarter than people may think. His mind is very interesting and very multidimensional. He reminds me a lot of myself, like, how he thinks. It was really dope to have some one-on-one time with him to understand his level of thought.”

When it comes to playing Unique — a rival drug dealer to Kanan and his mother Raquel — he says he’s in character as soon as he puts on his vintage early ’90s clothes on. “As soon as I land on set and I put them clothes on, it’s just time, you know? I’m in there. I’m in that mindset, I’m in that mode. I’m in that frame of thought.”