“So, I reached out to [independent presidential candidate Jade Simmons] to possibly be my vice-president, my running mate,” Kanye West said to Z93 JAMZ radio personality Kris Kaylin ahead of his July 19 campaign rally in South Carolina. “Now, we have Michelle Tidball, who is a Christian pastor out of Wyoming, who is my running-mate, but she would be open to taking another position [in his cabinet] if we found another running mate.” From there, Kanye revealed how the initials of South Carolina – “S.C.” – presented an alternative. “You know who should be my running mate? Shawn Carter,” said Kanye, referencing Jay-Z’s birth name.
When asked if Kanye approached Jay, 50, about a Kanye-Hova 2020 ticket, Ye laughed. “Man, you know that I ain’t talk to my brother in about nine years or something like that,” he said. “But the fact that we haven’t talked so long, that’s how you know we’re real brothers. … cause fake ones be mad but still pull up because they’re getting a check.”
While Kanye said it’s been more than a decade since he and Jay-Z talked, the two were actually in the same room at the same time in December 2019. The two reunited for Diddy’s 50th birthday. The two posed alongside Diddy, Pharrell, 46, and others during the bash. At one time, both Jay and Ye shook hands. While it wasn’t a huge embrace that resulted in a public reconciliation, this reunion was big. Before this party, Jay and Ye hadn’t been seen each other in public since 2016.
In July 2019, Kanye and Charlie Wilson released the song “Brothers” as part of the soundtrack to BET’s Tales series. “So I’m sorry for all the miscues, how about I admit that I miss you, I miss the fam and our brotherhood,” rapped Ye, along with lines like, “Flying out to Paris for a hug or picking up the phone just to call up” and “Nothing so atomic that we can’t agree to drop it, peace it up and get it poppin’, and bury the hatchet so we can lock in.” Fans interpreted that this was a message to Jay, who Kanye rapped about on his 2007 song, “Big Brother.”
For a while, it looked as if Hova and Ye were joined at the hip. Kanye first got industry recognition for his production work on Jay-Z’s comeback album, The Blueprint. In 2011, the two released their collaborative, Watch the Throne. However, around 2014, cracks between these “brothers” started to form. Kanye would tell Charlamange tha God in 2018 that Jay and Beyoncé’s absence at his and Kim Kardashian’s 2014 wedding wounded him deeply. During a series of concerts in 2016, Kanye would also go on a rant after rant after rant about Jay-Z, seemingly transforming these cracks into chasms. However, two years later, Ye said he and Jay were cool.
However, despite them being “cool,” it’s probably safe to say that there won’t be any “Kanye Hova 2020” merch hitting the stores in time for the November election. Maybe they can work on Watch the Throne 2 for 2021?