Memphis Bleek on Why Jay-Z Distanced Himself From Roc-A-Fella

Memphis Bleek understands why Jay-Z eventually decided to distance himself from his Roc-A-Fella Records crew during the early 2000s.

While sitting down with The Breakfast Club on Monday (June 16), Bleek responded to co-host Charlamagne tha God‘s question about Jay “drifting apart” from everybody else. “I knew he had to,” he admitted. “For Jay to be where he at, he couldn’t be around us everyday. I’m a liability. Me now being married, being a businessman, of course, things have changed. But the reckless Bleek? You couldn’t be around us. Anything could happen, and then it spills right back to you.”

Bleek continued, saying the “Empire State of Mind” rapper had business pursuits to think about along with his rap career. “It’s not that he don’t rock with you, or don’t rock with us,” he said “It’s, ‘Aye, dawg, I’m over here gettin’ to these millions, ya still in the club poppin’ bottles. I don’t need that look.’”

Bleek was then asked why he was able to see signs while others in their camp couldn’t. “I don’t know. I tried to tell these guys,” he replied. “That’s the thing, if you really sit down — see, a lot of people, when these cameras cut on, they got an image, they gotta keep it up. But if they really sit down and have a real conversation with the reality pills on the table, they’ll tell you that I told these guys this was coming.”

He then recalled a time when his former labelmate Beanie Sigel called him a “hater” when Bleek tried to offer him business advice. “I remember a time Beans had his clothing line State Property … and it said, ‘Manufactured by Rocawear,’” Bleek revealed. “So, I’m telling him as a brother, ‘Yo, bro, check your contracts and all that. Make sure everything is right because I see it’s manufactured by Rocawear — I don’t think Rocawear was making their own clothes, so how they making your clothes?’ And he looked at me — this is when I knew me and Beans’ relationship wasn’t the same — because he was like, ‘Yo, it sound like you hatin’ on me, fam,’ and I’m like, ‘What you mean?’ And he’s like, ‘If Jay your man like you say, why you ain’t got no record label?’”

You can watch the full conversation below.