Rap mogul Jay Z has hit back in a new song against a conservative commentator who criticized his drug-dealing past.
The hip-hop star includes a recording from Tomi Lahren, a host on pundit Glenn Beck’s network TheBlaze who had attacked Jay Z’s wife Beyonce over her performance at this year’s Super Bowl.
The host had accused Beyonce of using the top television event to promote the militant Black Panther movement in her performance of “Formation,” whose video takes aim at police brutality.
“Your husband was a drug dealer for 14 years / He sold crack cocaine,” Lahren says to discredit Beyonce in a snippet sampled into “Drug Dealers Anonymous,” a collaboration between Jay Z and rapper Pusha T that came out Tuesday evening.
Jay Z then offers his own take on the 14-year period that apparently refers to the time before he switched to music in his mid-20s, boasting about how much wealth he has amassed.
“Fourteen-year drug dealer and still counting / Who deserves the Medal of Freedom is my accountant,” he raps, speaking of avoiding taxes.
Born in Brooklyn as Shawn Carter, Jay Z spoke of his drug-dealing as a formative youth experience in his 2010 autobiography “Decoded.”
He goes into greater detail in “Drug Dealers Anonymous,” describing his forays into narcotics in Virginia.
“Life made me ambidextrous / Countin’ with my right / Whippin’ white with my left wrist,” he raps in reference to cash and cocaine.
Lahren replied sarcastically to the song on Twitter, writing: “Always wanted to be on a track with two drug dealers. Thanks.”
Referring to one of Jay Z’s best-known songs, she added in another tweet: “I’ve got 99 problems but trust me, being on your rap ain’t one.”
Jay Z, one of the top-selling rappers of all time who has built a business empire that includes the Tidal streaming service, is estimated with Beyonce to be worth $1 billion.
Tuesday’s song release was the second in as many weeks by Jay Z, who had been quiet on the musical front for the past two years.
In a remix last week of “All the Way Up” by New York rappers Remy Ma and Fat Joe, Jay Z boasted about the money earned by Beyonce’s latest album “Lemonade,” in which she hinted that he had been unfaithful to her.
