Key Takeaways Jay-Z has built a decades-long reputation as rap’s king of subliminal disses, using sly, often deniable lines to rattle rivals without naming them outright. From the ‘90s to the 2010s, Jay has targeted everyone from Mase, Nas, Cam’ron, and Dame Dash to Lil Wayne, The Game, Joe Budden, and Future. At Roots Picnic 2026, Jay-Z took a number of shots at figures like Drake, Nicki Minaj, Dame Dash, Kanye West, and more. Roughly 93.7% of rap beefs are the result of underhanded slights that go unnoticed by all but the “victim." To be honest, usually these perceived shots fired are, in fact, not shots at all, and just taken that way due to a confluence of weed-induced paranoia and artist-sized ego. But sometimes they are. In an effort to psyche out their competitors, MCs occasionally fire stealthy lyrical bullets of ether at each other. If they’re successful, they knock their peers off their pivot, and then make them look like crazed paranoids when they respond. It’s ingenious, really.…