Word: hip-hop
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...final album is a typically magniloquent send-off, with production by the Neptunes and Eminem, among others. The hooks on tracks like What More Can I Say blare like processionals for a hip-hop king, and Jay-Z raps over them with effortless self-aggrandizing. He has kept listeners engaged all these years not with his humility but with a relaxed Brooklyn baritone that makes him sound a bit like a ghetto Sinatra (callous but with enviable style). His upbringing has also made fans a little more sympathetic about his avarice. Born Shawn Carter, Jay-Z grew up in Brooklyn...
...sign him, has expanded into a diversified corporation, selling everything from clothes to vodka. Under the day-to-day management of his friend Damon Dash, Roc-A-Fella posts estimated annual revenues of $1 billion. "Why should he make records?" asks Russell Simmons, architect of Def Jam, the original hip-hop conglomerate. "Records are a distraction. He could be missing an opportunity to get really rich. I haven't produced a record for 15 years." Simmons, who once oversaw classic albums by Run D.M.C. and LL Cool J, adds, "Making records is over...
This is a remarkable statement, no less so because it's true. Hip-hop has oozed into so many areas of culture that rapping is now like a mail-room job at CAA, the first rung on a potentially prodigious financial ladder. In this light, Jay-Z's retirement is the ultimate act of conspicuous consumption. He has climbed high enough that he can afford to stop...
...problem is that Jay-Z may not be able to outrun his legacy. He begins any criticism of the state of rap with "You know, I love hip-hop ..." but he believes that the numerous rappers behind him on the ladder lack his style and have turned rap into a much crasser art form. Jay-Z has always had fairly catholic tastes, but he now finds himself listening more to John Mayer and Coldplay than to rap. "There's not a bunch of hip-hop artists that you can relate to once you hit 30," he says. "I think, unfortunately...
...been called the thug Elvis and Malcolm X reborn as a rapper. Since he predicted his own demise and since the movie of his life and death is called Tupac: Resurrection, we may as well surrender to hip-hop hype and say Tupac Shakur was the gangsta Jesus. True to his cult status, Shakur's myth blossomed after his death. So did his estate. It earned a lively $12 million last year. As with the deaths of so many celebs, his was a pity, an irony, a great career move...