Most people are familiar with the meme: “Would you take $500,000 or a dinner with JAY-Z?” Some people see immense value in sitting down with Hip-Hop’s first billionaire, while others find it crazy to pass up a half a million dollars for 60 minutes with the Roc Nation founder.
But comedian Haha Davis decided to roll the dice and break bread with Hov—just not literally. During a recent sit-down with The Shop, Davis talked about his meeting with JAY-Z.
“I enjoyed the lunch with Jay,” he said. “When I met Jay, I ain’t never seen a man that sat down his shirt didn’t wrinkle. Like, what type of money is that? What type of money Jay got to where his shirt didn’t wrinkle. When we was sitting down, Jay, they asked him was he hungry and Jay was like, ‘No, I’m straight.’ But we was starving, but we couldn’t be the only ones eating and Jay’s not eating, so we left starving. We had the conversation and we didn’t even get the lunch.”
Comedian HaHa Davis says he took the dinner with Jay Z and he was starving because Jay Z declined to eat because he wasn’t hungry. The meeting was exactly 60 minutes and he saw several business opportunities afterwards. pic.twitter.com/vapJScms9U
— Black Millionaires ® (@Blackmillions_) May 28, 2023
The topic has led to numerous Twitter debates in the past. Several people were adamant dinner with JAY-Z was the better choice. As one person argued: “Dinner with Jay-Z is the better option over $500K because of the knowledge & expertise he has. He’ll give you the blueprint on being wealthy and successful. His knowledge will be worth more long term than the short term $500K.”
But even JAY-Z himself seemed to find the idea of not accepting $500,000 ludicrous. After all, there’s no guarantee JAY-Z will even like you enough to give you good financial advice. At the height of the debate in 2021, JAY-Z’s TIDAL company tweeted, “Take the $500K,” seemingly putting an end to the entire thing.
Watch The Shop‘s full interview with HaHa Davis, lightweight champion boxer Devin Haney, Tee Grizzley and actor Amin Joseph below. The JAY-Z conversation starts around the 43-minute mark.