JAY-Z celebrated Memorial Day by strengthening his case as a “top-tier playlist creator.”
On Monday (May 30), Hov served up a fresh selection of songs on his preferred streaming platform TIDAL, which he sold to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s Block (f.k.a. Square Inc.) for a reported $302 million last May. Named after Montecito, the celebrity enclave in Santa Barbara County, California, the 22-song playlist highlights some of JAY-Z’s favorite songs of 2022 so far.
There are multiple tracks from Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, Future’s I NEVER LIKED YOU and Lil Durk’s 7220, as well as recent offerings from Pusha T, Kanye West and Kodak Black. Detroit up-and-comers 42 Dugg, Babyface Ray and Boldy James also get Hov’s stamp of approval, along with Vince Staples, Yo Gotti and EST Gee.
The playlist’s cover is a recent photo of JAY-Z rocking a cowboy hat while controlling the turntables alongside DJ Jae Murphy at his close friend Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith’s 50th birthday party.
“YEA THIS PICTURE OF ME & HOV DEF GETTING FRAMED & PUT IN MY MAMA HOUSE ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!” Murphy tweeted on Monday while reacting to the playlist cover. “I’M HONESTLY STILL PROCESSING THIS NIGHT MAN!!!!!!”
In an earlier tweet following Ty Ty’s birthday bash, he wrote, “I thought I was nice, but JAY-Z’s song selection is out of this world. Any genre. Any BPM. Jigga Man really can curate vibes in any room.”
“Montecito” is JAY-Z’s first TIDAL playlist of the year. Last December, he curated an eclectic, 13-song playlist called “Block Vibes” to commemorate Square Inc.’s name change, blending underground heavyweights such as MF DOOM, Mach-Hommy and Madlib with WizKid, Hiatus Kaiyote, Sault and others.
