Joey Bada$$ Clears Up Malia Obama Confusion and Talks Meeting JAY Z

The leak of the infamous photo of President Barack Obama’s 16-year-old daughter Malia donning a Pro Era t-shirt caused a bit of a commotion for the group’s frontman. After the incident, Joey Bada$$ became concerned about government surveillance, and a few media outlets even reported that he was unaware of who Malia was at first. In an interview with Complex, Joey clears up the misunderstanding and claims that he was in fact familiar with her, blaming the media for twisting his words. He also speaks on meeting JAY Z for the first time and showing Hov one of his breakout tracks — the Freddie Joachim-produced “Waves.” Watch the interview here and check out a few segments from the conversation below.

On Malia Obama:

“Let me clear that up right now. The things that [the media] does is that you guy twist up words. If you go back to the Bloomberg interview you will clearly see that I said, ‘I didn’t know who it was at first.’ Are you really gonna look me in my eye and really think I don’t know who Malia Obama was? Are you serious? C’mon son, don’t even try to play me out here.”

On meeting JAY Z:

“[Waves] is the one joint that [JAY Z] liked. He was like, ‘Yo this is music right here,’ and that moment forever replays in my head.”

Stream his debut album B4.DA.$$ if you haven’t already and check out our review of the album here.