GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - Jay-Z Article From Rolling Stone [Nice REALLY Long Read]

Maxy · 12-02-2005, 02:32 PM

Jay strolls around the corner to check out Kanye?s then-unreleased video for ?Gold Digger,? on someone?s laptop. He?s impressed by Kanye?s performance in the video, but toward the end there?s a shot of an angry woman holding a dagger. That?s a problem. When Jay talks to the video department about it they know MTV won?t play a video that prominently features a knife, but they?ve had no luck convincing Kanye to edit out the knife because, he argues, Shakira has a knife in her video for ?La Tortura,? so why can?t he. But her knife is in a kitchen scene while she?s cutting onions. The shot must be changed and delivered to MTV by 8am Monday or they?ll miss the chance to get onto MTV?s rotation for a whole week. So Jay has to figure out the proper way to get one of his most stubborn and most successful artists to acquiesce. (Kanye later agreed to obscure the knife with sparks of light.) The video promotions woman, who worked with Jay when he was an artist, laughs at his predicament. ?You used to do this to me,? she sneers, enjoying the turnabout. ?And I used to say I can?t wait till you?re on the other side.?

Next summer Jay will unveil an entirely new way of marketing himself: a color called Jay-Z Blue. ?Jay-Z Blue is a license for corporations to get Jay-Z in the building,? said Steve Stoute, the head of Translation Consultation and Brand Imaging, who?s working with Jay on the project. ?Cars, laptops, lots of different things. I got deals lined up like you don?t understand. But the bottom line is would a company pay to get Jay-Z involved in their product line? Yes, because of who he is and what he?s become as an icon. Consumers know that bullsh!t don?t leave his mouth. So when Jay-Z says x is cool he can singlehandedly change things. When Jay-Z says you shouldn?t have a [Range Rover] 4.0 but a 4.6, that changes Range Rover?s numbers. On ?What More Can I Say,? there?s a line: ?I don?t wear jerseys, I'm thirty-plus/ Give me a crisp pair of jeans, nigga, button-up.? That put Reebok?s NFL jersey business back to fans, removed it from fashion. He can move the cultural needle because they believe his honesty.?

He?s been building the brand called Jay-Z since the beginning of his hiphop career. Jay stepped into the hiphop limelight in 1996 with the perfect backstory: he grew up in Brooklyn, a drug dealer who was never jailed, but was able to walk into the hiphop game with big money. There was no need to exaggerate. But more than that, he came into the game with big talent. ?He?s a figure hiphop purists can respect,? said Ahmir of the Roots. ?If you bring his name up with KRS-One, Rakim, Nas, and Biggie, most people would agree with you.? The same way that KRS, Rakim, Nas, and Big introduced themselves with classic albums, Jay?s Reasonable Doubt was overlooked by many when it came out, but is now considered a classic by the vast majority of hiphop fans. From that first album he understood what flow was really about. ?I try to become an instrument within the track,? he says. Part of why Jay can flow so well is because he?s learned to write without writing. When he was out in the streets hustling he found himself coming up with great rhymes and no easy way to write them down so he learned to memorize his songs, then developed the capacity to store six or more songs in his head. When he became a recording artist he?d listen to a track ten or twenty times, then start mumbling to himself?on Fade To Black, the film detailing his 2003 retirement concert, he called it ?my rainman,??and in his mind the song comes into shape. Within as little as twenty minutes he?ll get in the booth and spit an intricately-written rhyme. He says the penless writing allowed him to have a truer relationship to the music. He isn?t setting words to music, he?s adding his voice as a layer of sound within the song while becoming one with the song.

His street stories told us he was tough and courageous, his sarcasm, witticisms and double-entendres told us he was smart and funny, his conversation-chill flows told you he was cool, and his massive, unwavering self-confidence, his swagger, his ?I will not lose ever? stance resonated with fans everywhere. Also, despite years of superfame, Jay?s been able to keep much of his life private?sure, we?ve seen pictures of he and Beyonce but he never talks about the relationship, he?ll never do ?Cribs? or let the general public see his home, and he says he?ll never do a movie detailing his life. His autobiography, The Black Book, co-written by dream hampton, is written but after years of work, Jay says he probably won?t let it be published. ?I know that people really want to know about me,? he says, ?and I thought I was ok with it but as it got closer and closer I said, what am I doing? What am I doing? And then when I really got [hampton?s manuscript] I was like, [pantomimes fainting]. Just someone just having your life in their hands made me like, I ain?t doin this sh!t.? He paused. ?I can?t read it, by the way. She was sending me chapters but I haven?t read it all together like one thing because I can?t.

The privacy allows Jay to maintain a certain mystique. ?You wanna know more about him,? Ahmir said. ?There?s still areas of his life that you don?t know about. He?s a black Fonzie figure. Those mythical rebellious cool characters are the ones that everyone?s interested in the most because everyone wants to peel the layers off them to see what makes them tick. Is there a small Wizard of Oz behind the curtain or is this person the almighty powerful Oz you?ve read about? That curiosity factor is always there.?

Even novelist Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth and On Beauty, is a Jay-Z fan. ?Jay-Z is a rap all-rounder,? she wrote in an email. ?Like Biggie he can produce ecstatic hiphop, the kind of urban lifestyle fantasies that are so joyful they feel like gospel. ?Mo Money, Mo Problems? was that kind of tune, and Jay-Z does it on ?Change Clothes? or ?Girls, Girls, Girls,? or ?Izzo.? But the greater part of him, for me, is his strong streak of Tupac-like truth telling, raps that aren?t about the dream life of urban African-Americans but concern their real lived experiences. He?s the manufacturer of black dreams but with all the real-world consequences attached. He?s performed the essential trick you need to be a first class rapper: he?s on top of the globe but he retains his authenticity, he?s still, somehow, of the streets. He?s a survivor like Dre, a joker like Snoop, an angry young man like 50, and a CEO like Diddy. And he has a lovely, instantly recognisable flow?brash, boastful, but also humane, witty and wonderful at telling tales, one of rap?s best narrators.?

12-02-2005, 02:32 PM
Maxy Confirmed User Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 1,858	Jay strolls around the corner to check out Kanye?s then-unreleased video for ?Gold Digger,? on someone?s laptop. He?s impressed by Kanye?s performance in the video, but toward the end there?s a shot of an angry woman holding a dagger. That?s a problem. When Jay talks to the video department about it they know MTV won?t play a video that prominently features a knife, but they?ve had no luck convincing Kanye to edit out the knife because, he argues, Shakira has a knife in her video for ?La Tortura,? so why can?t he. But her knife is in a kitchen scene while she?s cutting onions. The shot must be changed and delivered to MTV by 8am Monday or they?ll miss the chance to get onto MTV?s rotation for a whole week. So Jay has to figure out the proper way to get one of his most stubborn and most successful artists to acquiesce. (Kanye later agreed to obscure the knife with sparks of light.) The video promotions woman, who worked with Jay when he was an artist, laughs at his predicament. ?You used to do this to me,? she sneers, enjoying the turnabout. ?And I used to say I can?t wait till you?re on the other side.? Next summer Jay will unveil an entirely new way of marketing himself: a color called Jay-Z Blue. ?Jay-Z Blue is a license for corporations to get Jay-Z in the building,? said Steve Stoute, the head of Translation Consultation and Brand Imaging, who?s working with Jay on the project. ?Cars, laptops, lots of different things. I got deals lined up like you don?t understand. But the bottom line is would a company pay to get Jay-Z involved in their product line? Yes, because of who he is and what he?s become as an icon. Consumers know that bullsh!t don?t leave his mouth. So when Jay-Z says x is cool he can singlehandedly change things. When Jay-Z says you shouldn?t have a [Range Rover] 4.0 but a 4.6, that changes Range Rover?s numbers. On ?What More Can I Say,? there?s a line: ?I don?t wear jerseys, I'm thirty-plus/ Give me a crisp pair of jeans, nigga, button-up.? That put Reebok?s NFL jersey business back to fans, removed it from fashion. He can move the cultural needle because they believe his honesty.? He?s been building the brand called Jay-Z since the beginning of his hiphop career. Jay stepped into the hiphop limelight in 1996 with the perfect backstory: he grew up in Brooklyn, a drug dealer who was never jailed, but was able to walk into the hiphop game with big money. There was no need to exaggerate. But more than that, he came into the game with big talent. ?He?s a figure hiphop purists can respect,? said Ahmir of the Roots. ?If you bring his name up with KRS-One, Rakim, Nas, and Biggie, most people would agree with you.? The same way that KRS, Rakim, Nas, and Big introduced themselves with classic albums, Jay?s Reasonable Doubt was overlooked by many when it came out, but is now considered a classic by the vast majority of hiphop fans. From that first album he understood what flow was really about. ?I try to become an instrument within the track,? he says. Part of why Jay can flow so well is because he?s learned to write without writing. When he was out in the streets hustling he found himself coming up with great rhymes and no easy way to write them down so he learned to memorize his songs, then developed the capacity to store six or more songs in his head. When he became a recording artist he?d listen to a track ten or twenty times, then start mumbling to himself?on Fade To Black, the film detailing his 2003 retirement concert, he called it ?my rainman,??and in his mind the song comes into shape. Within as little as twenty minutes he?ll get in the booth and spit an intricately-written rhyme. He says the penless writing allowed him to have a truer relationship to the music. He isn?t setting words to music, he?s adding his voice as a layer of sound within the song while becoming one with the song. His street stories told us he was tough and courageous, his sarcasm, witticisms and double-entendres told us he was smart and funny, his conversation-chill flows told you he was cool, and his massive, unwavering self-confidence, his swagger, his ?I will not lose ever? stance resonated with fans everywhere. Also, despite years of superfame, Jay?s been able to keep much of his life private?sure, we?ve seen pictures of he and Beyonce but he never talks about the relationship, he?ll never do ?Cribs? or let the general public see his home, and he says he?ll never do a movie detailing his life. His autobiography, The Black Book, co-written by dream hampton, is written but after years of work, Jay says he probably won?t let it be published. ?I know that people really want to know about me,? he says, ?and I thought I was ok with it but as it got closer and closer I said, what am I doing? What am I doing? And then when I really got [hampton?s manuscript] I was like, [pantomimes fainting]. Just someone just having your life in their hands made me like, I ain?t doin this sh!t.? He paused. ?I can?t read it, by the way. She was sending me chapters but I haven?t read it all together like one thing because I can?t. The privacy allows Jay to maintain a certain mystique. ?You wanna know more about him,? Ahmir said. ?There?s still areas of his life that you don?t know about. He?s a black Fonzie figure. Those mythical rebellious cool characters are the ones that everyone?s interested in the most because everyone wants to peel the layers off them to see what makes them tick. Is there a small Wizard of Oz behind the curtain or is this person the almighty powerful Oz you?ve read about? That curiosity factor is always there.? Even novelist Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth and On Beauty, is a Jay-Z fan. ?Jay-Z is a rap all-rounder,? she wrote in an email. ?Like Biggie he can produce ecstatic hiphop, the kind of urban lifestyle fantasies that are so joyful they feel like gospel. ?Mo Money, Mo Problems? was that kind of tune, and Jay-Z does it on ?Change Clothes? or ?Girls, Girls, Girls,? or ?Izzo.? But the greater part of him, for me, is his strong streak of Tupac-like truth telling, raps that aren?t about the dream life of urban African-Americans but concern their real lived experiences. He?s the manufacturer of black dreams but with all the real-world consequences attached. He?s performed the essential trick you need to be a first class rapper: he?s on top of the globe but he retains his authenticity, he?s still, somehow, of the streets. He?s a survivor like Dre, a joker like Snoop, an angry young man like 50, and a CEO like Diddy. And he has a lovely, instantly recognisable flow?brash, boastful, but also humane, witty and wonderful at telling tales, one of rap?s best narrators.? __________________ SIG TOO BIG! Maximum 120x60 button and no more than 3 text lines of DEFAULT SIZE and COLOR. Unless your sig is for a GFY top banner sponsor, you may use a 624x80 instead of a 120x60. Let me repeat... A 120 x 60 button and no more that 3 lines of DEFAULT SIZE AND COLOR text.