Jay Z addresses Barneys controversy on new Rick Ross collab 'The Devil Is a Lie'

You can press pause on Beyoncé now—and be grateful Bey hasn’t convinced everyone to quit releasing teaser tracks off upcoming albums.

This one’s from Rick Ross, whose Mastermind will arrive early next year, and Jay Z, and it is so wonderfully good: Equal parts Rozay roll and blaring Blueprint soul—a jubilant celebration of two rappers who at this point can only really have fun with tales of crack dealing.

Although Jay Z also addresses the recent, quite real issue of his continued partnership with Barneys after “shop-and-frisk” lawsuits were brought against the department store: “See what I did to the stop and frisk?/Brooklyn on the Barneys like we own the bitch/Give the money to the hood, now we all win/Got that Barneys floor lookin’ like a V.I.M.”

For such an assured track, this sure is a lame response to the Barneys controversy. (V.I.M. is a Brooklyn-based store that sells a lot of sneakers and sweats.) But hardly anything could sink this beat.

https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/125605561