Jay-Z Debuts New Afro Look At Roots Picnic, Smokes  Drake & Damon Dash With Vicious Bars

Jay-Z shows up at Roots Picnic with a brand new look and takes direct aim at Drake’s recent subliminal campaign.

Jay-Z stepped onto the Roots Picnic stage this past weekend with a completely different energy, ditching the dreadlocks that defined his look for decades and rocking a wild, massive afro that had everyone talking.

The first tonight at the legendary Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia on May 30 became the perfect backdrop for what many are reading as a direct response to Drake’s relentless subliminal campaign on his new Iceman album, which dropped just two weeks earlier.

During his set, Hov didn’t hold back with his freestyle, taking aim at his many critics, with bars that many field were directed at Drake, Jaguar Wright, Damon Dash and others.

Another one fumbled his wonder how I get the blame/N##### teeth is tumbling out they mouth and somehow I’m the one who done its a murder mystery gang

That nut ass n#### still stuttering/the Chatty Patty is down on his luck again/Quest introduced me to Jaguar, I don’t know why I still f### with him

Drake’s been working overtime on Iceman, which he released alongside two other projects, and he’s been particularly focused on dismantling Jay-Z’s legacy and influence throughout the album.

On “Janice S###,” Drake raps, “You boys got big on my name, that’s big enough… the jig is up,” directly questioning whether Hov’s relevance is tied to Drake’s own success.

Hov dropped some either at Drake:

My next update, the jig is up, n#### I’m up 10 (billion)/ wrong chart champ, you got to look up again, n##### look up to Hov I never looked up to them/The crackers got your publishing gangta go talk tough to them/Don’t talk success to me you n##### is workers/ in perpetuity is how your contract is worded, don’t make me go further

But the most personal bar comes on “Whisper My Name,” where Drake says, “I take 500K, not a dinner, I never could learn s### from none of y’all,” a direct reference to the famous debate about whether you’d take half a million dollars or have dinner with Jay-Z.

Hov responded to that with some clever word play that worked in his billionaire status, and one of his wife Beyoncé’s best known hits with Destiny’s Child.

I ain’t much for meetings no how, cancel the brunches es. I remember the hunger pains/The price of the brick is going up. it’s going to cost you a b to even say my name

The timing of Jay-Z’s new look and his freestyle at the Roots Picnic feels intentional, especially considering he’s also rebranding himself as JAŸ-Z, taking it back to his 90s aesthetic.

Many are speculating. the new look means new music is also on the way.

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