Jay-Z lunch or cash debate

Photo Credit: CBS Mornings

Jay-Z gives his take on one of the internet’s favorite debates: Given the choice, would you take $500,000 in cash, or have an insightful lunch with the most successful rapper of all time, Jay-Z?

In a recent interview with Gayle King on “CBS Mornings,” rap icon and entrepreneur Jay-Z was asked to weigh in on one of social media’s favorite debates — the half-million dollar question. As an upcoming artist, is it smarter to take $500,000 in cash, or have an insightful lunch with Jay-Z? According to the man himself, the wisdom is already in the music.

“You’ve gotta take the money,” Jay-Z said simply, despite King’s positing the other side of the argument, that one could potentially value higher than half a million dollars the insight gained from a meal with the richest rapper of all time. “You’ve got all that in the music for $10.99,” he added.

“That’s a bad deal! I wouldn’t tell you to cut a bad deal,” he explained. “Like, take the $500,000, go buy some albums, and listen to the albums. It’s all there. If you piece it together and really listen to the music for the words, for what it is, it’s all there.”

“Everything that I said was gonna happen, happened. Everything I said I wanted to do, I’ve done. There’s the blueprint,” the rapper continued, referencing the title of his 2001 album. “The blueprint, literally, to me and my life and my journey is there already.”

The debate over a bag of cash or a meal with Jay-Z has circulated online for the past several years, originating in at least 2017 when an Instagram user posed the question, which spread to Twitter soon after. Like most things on Twitter, heated discussions and a bevy of memes ensued, lending to the question’s staying power over the years.