Thursday, October 24, 2013

Business is Business.

Jay-Hova. King of Rap. Cashmere Jones. Mr Carter. Lucky Lefty. Jigga. Iceberg Slim.

If you haven't fallen asleep yet, let me tell you who the heck i'm actually talking about. He's arguably the biggest business man in all of the music industry. He's one of the best MC's of the decade. He's one of the few geniuses of rap (sorry kanye). Despite all his monikers, you may know him as Jay Z.
Jay Z is the man. He's the type of guy who will mercilessly commit lyrical murder on any rapper who challenges his crown. He'll ever so subtly call out any and all users of autotune. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EWruiIjBmo
Ever so subtle.
Even the most die hard of his fans forget that Jay Z is actually a smart guy. And then there's the idiots who actually think that Jay Z is part of some secret organization called the illuminati.

Jay Z didn't start out rich. He embodies the rags to riches dream. He started out in a poor single family home. He had to hustle and sell drugs to make a living. The drug dealers on the street corner were his role models. Although it sounds bad, it's actually really sad. He didn't even have the oppurtunities or father figures that we have. The poor kid taught himself how to ride a bike! His mom was so busy trying to make ends meet that she bought a boom box for Jay Z to keep him sane. He studied at a 12th grade level in 6th grade. This ridiculous amount of raw intelligence proved he would amount to something. He had to turn to the illegal way out just to survive. In his hustling days, he was shot 3 times and miraculously survived. One day, he realized that he has a talent that could seriously make him some money. He saw the Sugarhill Gang on Soul Train, and he knew right there that he could become a star. His first album was a hit and is widely considered as the greatest album of all time.

Jay Z is a different kind of rapper. He can appreciate other types of music, such as indie, rock, jazz (which is where he got his name from) etc. He reads books and lists
 The Seat of the Soul, The Celestine Prophecy, and The Odyssey as his favorites. He doesn't keep his talents to himself, as he has basically made the careers of Kanye, Memphis Bleek, and J Cole. He's different, yeah he's different. Nice try, 2 Chainz.

Everybody knows he's a phenomenal rapper with fast flows, witty wordplay, and daring disses. But you can't sleep on his actual intelligence.
Until next time, adios amigos.

4 comments:

  1. "I'm not a businessman/I'm a business, man."
    Despite still believing Kanye is the best, this is a great post. I especially love the line about his "raw intelligence" and how his difficulties kind of led him to resilience. If you haven't already, you should read the book Jay-z wrote, Decoded.

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    1. Thanks Trinity, and don't worry Kanye is still a boss. And I will take a look at the book.

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  2. Fallen asleep? Hov has been my favorite since I was in high school. Nice choice. However, I needed to see you incorporate terms from Outliers and Dr. Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence. ♢

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    1. Really? I didn't know you liked Jay Z! But yeah I will try to incorporate my knowledge of the Outliers book next time.

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