Table Of ContentJAY-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....
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Table of Contents
About the Author
Copyright Page
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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
