Jaguar Wright is not playing nice. Her latest interview is a lot.
The outspoken singer and YouTuber blasted off on Jay-Z, The Roots, Questlove, industry politics, alleged broken promises, spiritual warfare, and even a few people who seemed to catch strays. Why Mary J. Blige? Sigh.
Jaguar’s comments floated between personal experiences, her grievances, and some other stuff that may require fact checking.
One point that I felt was legit was the Jay-Z and Questlove bar comment. Most remember Jaguar Wright’s connection to Jay-Z with the famous MTV Unplugged performance. Questlove definitely played a role in bringing them together for that. According to Jaguar, that is not EXACTLY how it happened. She said she was already moving within those circles and had met Jay before any of that unfolded. I mean, that makes sense. She was moving and shaking.
Interestingly enough, she also addressed why she’s speaking now. Jaguar suggested she had never discussed certain aspects of the early days surrounding The Roots Picnic. But after Jay-Z recently referenced her by name during his freestyle, the gloves came off. Jaguar pointed out that Jay-Z said her name directly, unlike the others we know he was talking about.
Jaguar says is started with relationships with tourism officials and government entities helped elevate the festival’s profile. I am not sure if that’s true. We know the person that gave The Roots that concept. She also expressed disappointment with what she viewed as The Roots moving away from their original independent-minded mission. I guess they got to the money, but I am not mad at that.
To be fair, I only watched about 15 minutes and 13 seconds of the interview. That’s enough to know Jaguar covered a lot of ground, and the whole thing is an hour-long discussion. At this point, Jaguar Wright is a VOICE, like it or not. Jay mentioned her name. I’m just saying.