Jay-Z divides fans after calling Beyoncé an ‘evolution’ of Michael Jackson

“Bey’s gonna be mad at me for saying this but Michael Jackson ain’t never had Coachella,” the 52-year-old rapper recently said

Michael Jackson, Beyonce and Jay-Z (Getty)

Jay-Z has divided fans on social media after the singer recently said Beyoncé was an “evolution” of Michael Jackson.

During a recent Twitter Spaces conversation with singer Alicia Keys, the singers were discussing what it felt like to collaborate with their children.

In 2019, Keys released a video performing with her son Egypt (who began playing the piano when he was four) at the iHeart Music Awards that year.

Meanwhile, Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s daughter Blue Ivy’s song “Blue’s Freestyle / We Family” was released as a bonus track on Jay-Z’s 2017 album 4:44. She was five years old at the time.

Weighing in on the conversation, Jay-Z said: “It goes back to evolution. If we don’t think that people gonna be better than what we created, then we don’t believe in evolution.”

The rapper illustrated his point by drawing a comparison between Michael Jackson and Beyoncé, or highlighting the “Michael Jackson-Bey conversation”.

He continued: “I can give you a million reasons... and Bey’s gonna be mad at me for saying this but Michael Jackson ain’t never had Coachella.”

Jay-Z said while Michael Jackson has done “amazing things”, the “Single Ladies” singer was “an evolution of him” because Beyoncé “watched him when she was nine”.

“She watched what he did and she improved upon the concept,” Jay-Z said, before adding that his own kids will watch what their parents did and “take it to the next level”.

On creating moments of cultural significance during a particular time period, the Oscar-winning rapper said: “He [Jackson] had Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever where he did the moonwalk and that was an amazing moment, but find me a concert that’s as culturally relevant and technically thrilling as Coachella.”

Twitter users were divided over Jay-Z’s comments.

One user tweeted: ”Jay Z is comparing Beyonce to Michael Jackson when it comes to Coachella, but Michael left before various avenues of digital streaming were created.”

Another added: “Jay Z got more Michael Jackson references in his songs than he does Beyoncé references so what’s the truth.”

Meanwhile, other people pointed out that Jay-Z had simply called his wife an “evolution” of the “Thriller” singer, without making a direct comparison.

One person celebrated Beyonce’s achievements with a tweet that read: “Nobody is operating at the same level as her creatively, as a vocalist visual artist and live performer. Not her peers, not her predecessors and not anyone working right now.”

In 2014, Charlamagne Tha God also compared the two singers, saying Beyoncé will be “looked upon in the same regards, if not more, as Michael Jackson was.”