9 Clutch Takeaways From Jay-Z’s New York Times Magazine Interview - Page 3
Jay-Z is the A1 MC in the game, laying his life out for thirsty fans and listeners bar after bar, but his actual interviews are becoming a rarity. The New York Time‘s T Mag recently roped in Hova for a revealing sit down.
NYT‘s editor Dean Baquet conducted the interview and threw out candid questions that the Jigga Man answered thoughtfully and thoroughly.
One thing any Hip-Hop journalist with some stripes on his sleeve will lament is the lack of time to really kick it with a subject. Baquet spoke with Jay-Z for TWO hours. Unless your Elliott Wilson, most journos will get enough time for a few questions, a smile and a “Thank you for your time, bye now.”
The entire interview is a gem, but here are some clutch moments that will have the Internets talking, for at least 24 hours.
Jay-Z knows he’s on borrowed time in this fickle rap game.
BAQUET But will you have the same adventures in your life? Will you have the same stuff to write about? Or maybe you don’t know.
JAY-Z I think that rap in particular is a young man’s sport, that I’ll move out of that white-hot space. Rap is about the gift of discovery. The white-hot space is when it’s fresh and new, and it’s like, this is the hottest song ever. I mean I pushed the window, like —
BAQUET You still — you think you’re still in that space?
JAY-Z I stretched it. Oh, I stood in that window a really long time. But still, no, I don’t think people are looking to me as like, The Thing.
On the low, this may be the best question asked to Jay-Z ever…
BAQUET First off, how does Jay-Z find a therapist? Not in the Phone book, right?
JAY-Z No, through great friends of mine. You know. Friends of mine who’ve been through a lot and, you know, come out on the other side as, like, whole individuals.
BAQUET What was that like, being in therapy? What did you talk about that you had never acknowledged to yourself or talked about?
JAY-Z I grew so much from the experience. But I think the most important thing I got is that everything is connected. Every emotion is connected and it comes from somewhere. And just being aware of it. Being aware of it in everyday life puts you at such a … you’re at such an advantage. You know, you realize that if someone’s racist toward you, it ain’t about you. It’s about their upbringing and what happened to them, and how that led them to this point. You know, most bullies bully. It just happen. Oh, you got bullied as a kid so you trying to bully me. I understand.
Jay-Z is planning to formally link up with Colin Kaepernick.
BAQUET If you were an owner, you would sign Colin Kaepernick, right?
JAY-Z Yeah. I dedicated “The Story of O.J.” to him at the Meadows concert.4
BAQUET Have you met him?
JAY-Z No. We just had dialogue over the phone, but we supposed to get together.
BAQUET Do you have any doubt that if this had not happened, he would be signed by a team?
JAY-Z Yeah, yeah. Of course.
CONTINUED
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Photo: screen cap
Photo: Cover Painting by Henry Taylor courtesy of T Magazine
While speaking on “The Story of OJ” (not so coincidentally, the song itself is up for a Grammy), Jigga says it’s a testament to life goals, but never forgetting who you are.
The goal is not to be successful and famous. That’s not the goal. The goal is, if you have a specific God-given ability, is to live your life out through that. One. And two, we have a responsibility to push the conversation forward until we’re all equal. Till we’re all equal in this place. Because until everyone’s free, no one’s free, and that’s just a fact.
Jay-Z swears he wasn’t being anti-Semitic on said song, if you think so, you missed the context.
BAQUET How did you react when that one line in that song where you referred to Jews and wealth2 [“You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This how they did it”] — some people got upset. How did you feel about that?
JAY-Z I felt it was really hypocritical. Only because it’s obvious the song is, like, “Do you want to be rich? Do what people got rich done.” Of course, it’s a general statement, right? It’s obviously a general statement, like the video attached to it was a general statement. And if you didn’t have a problem with the general statement I made about black people, and people eating watermelon and things like that [the animated music video for the song, which references racist cartoons, includes a caricature of a black man eating watermelon] — if that was fine, [but] that line about wealth bothered you, then that’s very hypocritical, and, you know, that’s something within yourself.
BAQUET What do you think of the state of — I’m not gonna say just black leadership, but leadership, period, on the things you care about in the country? Who do you, like, look at and say, “This man or woman speaks for the things I care about?”
JAY-Z [laughs] I find it funny, but … I like Dave Chappelle’s [laughs].
BAQUET [laughs] Go ahead.
JAY-Z You know what I’m saying?
BAQUET You gonna vote for Dave Chappelle for president?
JAY-Z Yeah. ‘Cause he tells it in humor so you can deal with it, but it’s always a nice chunk of truth in there.
Hova was hurting for a long time, but you may have missed it.
BAQUET When I heard this latest album, and then I thought about the earlier albums, one theme was sort of reaching the promised land. You know, you’ve acquired influence, and not just money, but your life is good. And then when you listen to the newest album, you’re thinking: He must have been in a lot of pain when life was good.
JAY-Z Absolutely.
BAQUET Is that true?
JAY-Z Yeah. I did this song called “Song Cry.”10
BAQUET Mm-hmm.
JAY-Z And the idea of the hook — “never seen it comin’ down my eyes, but I gotta make the song cry.” It tells you right there what I was, I was hiding.
The strongest thing a man can do is cry. To expose your feelings, to be vulnerable in front of the world. That’s real strength. You know, you feel like you gotta be this guarded person. That’s not real. It’s fake.
Obligatory Kanye West question…
JAY-Z I [talked to] Kanye the other day, just to tell him, like, he’s my brother. I love Kanye. I do. It’s a complicated relationship with us.
BAQUET Why is it complicated?
JAY-Z ‘Cause, you know — Kanye came into this business on my label. So I’ve always been like his big brother. And we’re both entertainers. It’s always been like a little underlying competition with your big brother. And we both love and respect each other’s art, too. So it’s like, we both — everyone wants to be the greatest in the world. You know what I’m saying? And then there’s like a lot of other factors that play in it. But it’s gonna, we gonna always be good.
Remember that joint Jay-Z and Beyoncé album? It morphed into 4:44 and Lemonade, respectively.
BAQUET I’m trying to picture the scene when you and your wife both talked about making these very confessional, open albums. Was it difficult to say: “I’m gonna talk about the problems in our marriage. I’m gonna talk about how we almost lost things.” And for her to say: “I’m gonna talk about my pain and anger at you.” What were those conversations like?
JAY-Z Again, it didn’t — it didn’t happen in that way. It happened — we were using our art almost like a therapy session. And we started making music together.
And then the music she was making at that time was further along. So her album came out as opposed to the joint album that we were working on. Um, we still have a lot of that music. And this is what it became. There was never a point where it was like, “I’m making this album.” I was right there the entire time.
Check out the full interview right here.
The issue is out Dec. 3, the day before Jay-Z’s 48th birthday.
