While the Queen B Beyoncé, is the second most followed person on Instagram, with over 44.4 million followers and often features her husband, Jay Z actually did not have an account at all. However, on Saturday that changed as Jay Z allegedly joined Instagram in honor of what would have been Michael Jackson’s 57th birthday. Jay Z took the time to pay his respects, posting a photo tribute with a caption that gave a prophetic declaration about his time on Instagram.
“Happy Birthday to the King! This may be my first and last post.”
Posting under the name @HovSince96 a spliced photo of Jay Z and Michael Jackson at the 2001 Hot 97 Summer Jam, shaking hands and hugging was uploaded. Jackson had been a surprise guest of Jay Z’s during that performance.
The Instagram account made a rapid climb to over 100,000 followers and the picture itself garnered well over 35,000 likes. Many fans have questioned whether or not it was indeed Jay Z who had the account but many others have all the proof they need. Prior to the creation of the account, Jay Z’s close friend, music executive Michael Kyser, had posted a photo of the 45-year-old rap mogul as he was about to make his debut. Kyser attached the comment for his followers to “Follow my brother @Hovsince96 ASAP.”
https://instagram.com/p/6_N6dYJdgK/
Beyoncé also paid tribute to Michael Jackson on her Instagram page. The Queen B was deposed from her number 1 Instagram status after Kim Kardashian West overtook her early August as the most followed on Instagram. There was much hope that Jay Z would finally begin posting pictures regularly but those hopes soon died a quick death.
Less than 12 hours after the account was created, it ceased to exist. Going beyond simply leaving the account inactive, Jay Z seemingly deactivated the account altogether, in what is typical social media behavior for him. Jay Z is notorious for his lack of presence when it comes to social media and even his verified Twitter account rarely sees activity. Rolling Stone stated that the rapper only saw a spike in use of his Twitter account after the launch of Tidal, the all-star music streaming service which Jay Z co-owns. Jay Z had an unprecedented 14 tweets defending the service following the repackaging and relaunching.
Jay Z was spotted on Saturday morning as he boarded a private jet heading to Los Angeles where the MTV VMAs will be held. Beyoncé, 33, has been nominated for five awards. The rapper also made headlines recently as a surprise guest at J Cole’s concert. The Mirror also relayed that Jay Z was making news after he ended any affiliation with the champagne label Cristal after “racist remarks.”
Michael Jackson would surely have appreciated the time taken to honor his special day.
[Photo Courtesy of Mike Coppolla/ Getty Images ]
