These days, Jay-Z doesn't charge for features.
If he decides to do one, he does it for free.
That wasn't always the case. According to Joe Buden, Jay-Z wanted 250K to jump on the remix of "Pump It Up", Joe's first and biggest hit. There has always been speculation Hov quoted such a big number. because Joe rubbed him the wrong.
“I don’t think that was a big number. I think that was his number. ‘That’s my number to rap on this new artist’s remix.’ It was just big in my world, but it wasn’t a big number," Budden said on Flip Da Script Podcast, explaining the 250K was half of Def Jam's budget for the song. "Listen, again, I’m super young in that moment. I wasn’t in the studio when [Jay and Budden’s A&R Skane] had the conversation. I knew that they had some type of relationship. It was a Just Blaze beat and I was green behind the ears. I just thought that it would get done. I didn’t know anything about the business and how things like that are supposed to go. That was par the course. It was big to me because it was unobtainable."
At the time Joe felt a way about Hov charging so much and made his feelings known. JAY-Z still ended up doing an unofficial remix, in which he targeted Joe. Budden was nothing but happy about that.
"Loved it. It went crazy," Joe said of Jay hoping on his beat.