Table Of Content

JAY-Z Michael Eric Dyson "Dyson's incisive analysis of JAY-Z's brilliance not only offers a brief history of hip-hop's critical place in American culture, but also hints at how we can best move forward." —Questlove JAY-Z: Made in America is the fruit of Michael Eric Dyson's decade of teaching the work of one of the greatest poets this nation has produced, as gifted a wordsmith as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Rita Dove. But as a rapper, he's sometimes not given the credit he deserves for just how great an artist he's been for so long. This book wrestles with the biggest themes of JAY-Z's career, including hustling, and it recognizes the way that he's always weaved politics into his music, making important statements about race, criminal justice, black wealth and social injustice. As he enters his fifties, and to mark his thirty years as a recording artist, this is the perfect time to take a look at JAY-Z's career and his role in making this nation what it is today.... Begin Reading Table of Contents About the Author Copyright Page Thank you for buying this St. Martin’s Press ebook. To receive special offers, bonus content, and info on new releases and other great reads, sign up for our newsletters. Or visit us online at us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup For email updates on the author, click here. The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy. To Robert Frederick Smith BUSINESSMAN, INVESTOR, AND PHILANTHROPIST A righteous black man who embodies the best of our people and a noble tradition of using wealth to preserve black culture and to help the next generation by paying off the student loan debt of nearly 400 Morehouse College graduates and Michael G. Rubin BUSINESSMAN AND PARTNER OF THE PHILADELPHIA 76ERS An upright man who embodies the spirit of true democracy in the quest to reform a criminal justice system that is fundamentally unfair to millions of black folk across the land It is an American cultural phenomenon, and as such, it’s more than any of the definitions or connotations that I have mentioned. It’s really a concept. And it’s interesting to me as a writer because it’s so full of contradictions. It’s American, indisputably American, and ethnically marginal. It’s black and free. It’s intricate and wild. It’s spontaneous and practiced. It’s exaggerated and simple. It’s constantly invented, always brand-new, but somehow familiar and known. TONI MORRISON JAY-Z portrays himself as an entrepreneur whose beginnings as a street corner crack dealer are the stuff of Horatio Alger, no less part of the mythical American Dream than corporate robber barons or big city crime bosses. MILES WHITE FOREWORD By Pharrell I was honored when Michael Eric Dyson asked me to pen this foreword to his reflections on the incredible impact my dear friend and longtime collaborator JAY-Z has had on the world. Over the last quarter century, Jay has established himself as one of the most gifted artists of any genre to ever speak into a microphone. I use the idea of synesthesia to describe my approach to producing, and it’s especially true when I’m working with Jay. It’s the process of creating one form of sensory impression by cultivating another form of sensory impression. Art is at its best when you hear a lyric and it brings an image to mind, or when you view a painting and it makes you hear a sound. As an artist, JAY-Z really gets this simple aesthetic fact. He really does “paint pictures with poems.” I am always challenged as a producer to think with my eyes, ears, and emotions when I work with Jay. I sincerely believe that JAY-Z is a philosopher and a poet. I have likened him to the Oracle at Delphi because of his unique ability to be a prophet, seer, and mystic at the same time. These artistic attributes translate into a godlike mythology, and that vibe is captured in one of the names Jay’s been given, Hova, short for JAYHOVA, a play on Jehovah. For me, it doesn’t really matter who is the greatest of all MCs. That debate is arbitrary and ultimately depends on the point of view of the person arguing about the G.O.A.T. But, besides his artistic genius, there are things about Jay’s career that nobody can debate. How many albums he’s released, how many records he’s sold, the number of hit singles he’s had, the number of seats he’s sold in a venue, and the number of zeroes attached to his massive material wealth. These are facts. Indeed, as Jay likes to say, they’re super facts. But Jay’s greatness lies beyond even the metrics of rhyme skills and material success. The numbers I’ve cited only matter because they represent the countless masses that greatly love and appreciate Jay’s gifts. Working with him up close, I can say there is truly no one like him, and that he takes his art and craftsmanship with the utmost seriousness. In fact, I don’t mind mumble rap as much as many of its critics, mostly because I’ve been a witness to Jay’s enigmatic and utterly astonishing writing and recording process. In studio, Jay often mumbles his way through tracks as a preparation tactic for the actual recording of his lyrics. During the mumble-rap phase of Jay’s recording sessions, the lyrics to the song are indecipherable. It’s a code to which only he has the key. Those of us who admire his craft can only gain access to their meaning after he blesses the microphone with the lyrical magic hidden in those well-rehearsed, yet incomprehensible, mumbles. It’s a mysterious process. Even though he mumbles, Jay knows what those verses will be. It is, in effect, a lyrical exercise—a process through which he familiarizes himself with the production so that his flow will seamlessly interact with each aspect of the beat. His unmistakable flow is born in these moments, and I consider it a privilege as a producer to have been able to see quite a bit of it. JAY-Z’s unparalleled writing and recording processes shed tremendous light on contemporary popular styles of an art form that he revolutionized. That is just one more example of his huge impact and his culture-defining significance. In 2019, Jay joined me onstage for a surprise performance of several of our most popular collaborations at the “Something in the Water” music festival. I am grateful for his friendship and for every opportunity to work with him. But this performance will always have a special place in my heart and mind. “Something in the Water” is just one way that I am trying to give back to my community; it is one of the ways that I honor where I’m from, and for Jay to endorse that and support me means the world to me. But this particular performance happened in the midst of one of my home state’s most