Word: jayed
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...when hip-hop cliche holds that most rappers are irrelevant, bankrupt or dead, Jay-Z is idolized, loaded and routinely spotted within kissing distance of Beyonce Knowles (which is its own special way of being alive). JayZ is also profoundly bored. "I've had it with the rap game," he says. "Time to focus on other things. That's why I'm retiring...
...They want giant fighting robots. They want talking French fries. They want, that is, Cartoon Network's Adult Swim (Sunday to Thursday, 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. E.T.), a block of bizarre animated comedy and action shows that regularly draw more men under 35 than do David Letterman and Jay Leno--despite airing on a basic-cable channel best known for Powerpuff Girls...
...Jay-Z has announced his retirement before, but the bulk of his fans still don't believe he's serious. Some think Jay-Z is trying to pull off an elaborate marketing ploy; others can't understand why he would retire from the hip-hop fantasy life. The truth is, it's his fantasy to pull off marketing coups. To coincide with his retirement, Jay-Z is taking a commercial victory lap that includes a final record, The Black Album; a Reebok shoe; a concert tour; and an autobiography to be published by MTV Books (which just might help...
...that's exactly how he likes it. In many ways, Jay-Z is a pioneer: the first rapper to acknowledge that he cares as much about making money as he does about making records, and the first to use acquisitiveness as the major theme of his music. He has written a few great songs about other subjects--D'Evils, an allegory about the dangers of rap life, is his personal favorite--but he says, "I've talked about wanting to have enough to get out since my first album. I was always more interested in the business side of things...
...Jay-Z's 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...