Its difficult to know what to ask a rapper. Its not unlike the difficulty (I imagine) of being a rapper. Whatever you say must be considered from at least three angles, and its an awkward triangulation. In one corner you have your hard-core hip-hop heads; the type for whom the true Jay-Z will forever be that gifted 25-year-old with rapid-fire flow, trading verses with the visionary teenager Big L Im so ahead of my time, my parents havent met yet! on a rare (easily dug up on YouTube) seven-minute freestyle from 1995. Meanwhile, over here stands the pop-rap fan. She loves the Jiggaman with his passion for the Empire State Building and bold claims to Run This Town. Finally, in the crowded third corner, stand the many people who feel rap is not music at all but rather a form of social problem. They have only one question to ask a rapper, and it concerns his choice of vocabulary. (Years pass. The question never changes.) How to speak to these audiences simultaneously? Anyway: Im at a little table in a homey Italian restaurant on Mulberry Street waiting for Mr. Shawn Carter, who has perfected the art of triangulation. Its where he likes to eat his chicken parms.
Borough Pride
Jay-Z has a piece of the Nets, a glamorous wife and a baby girl who melts his heart. Brooklyn, meet your once and future king.
Hes not late. Hes dressed like a kid, in cap and jeans, if he said he was 30 you wouldnt doubt him. (Hes 42.) Hes overwhelmingly familiar, which is of course a function of his fame * rap superstar, husband of Beyoncé, minority owner of the Nets, whose new home, the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, will open this month but also of the fact hes been speaking into our ears for so long. No one stares. The self-proclaimed greatest rapper alive is treated like a piece of the furniture. Ah, but theres always one: a preppy white guy discreetly operating his iPhones reverse-camera function. Its an old hustle; it makes Jay chuckle: They think theyre the first one whos ever come up with that concept.
He likes to order for people. Apparently I look like the fish-sandwich type. Asked if he thinks this is a good time for hip-hop, he enthuses about how inclusive hip-hop is: It provided a gateway to conversations that normally would not be had. And now that raps reached this unprecedented level of cultural acceptance, maybe were finally free to celebrate the form without needing to continually defend it. Say that Im foolish I only talk about jewels/Do you fools listen to music or do you just skim through it? Hes not so sure: Its funny how you can say things like that in plain English and then people still do it. He is mildly disappointed that after publishing Decoded, his 2010 memoir, people still ask the same old questions. The flippancy annoys him, the ease with which some still dismiss rap as something thats just this bad language, or guys who degrade women, and they dont realize the poetry and the art. This is perhaps one downside to having the flow of the century.
With Tupac, you can hear the effort, the artistry. And Biggies words first had to struggle free of the sheer bulk of the man himself. When Jay raps, it pours right into your ear like water from a tap.
99% of his ownership don't exist.
it was meh.
Hov
