30 For 30: Volume XIX
“I’m like Che Guevara with bling on, I’m complex.” — Jay-Z: Public Service Announcement, 2003
Jay-Z’s eighth studio album is entitled, The Black Album. Double click on that and you’ll find that one of the best and most well known songs is actually an interlude, ‘Public Service Announcement’. Double click once more into the second verse and you get the above highlight. The lyric was in response to Elizabeth Berry who was a journalist and reporter for The Village Voice at the time. Berry criticized Hov for openly wearing a Che Guevara shirt while flaunting a Biggie Smalls like Jesus piece, noting the inconsistency of ideologies.
Couple things here:
1 — I think Berry made this a bigger deal than it was.
2 — I personally love the juxtaposition between the chain and what Che’s image represents. The marxist revolutionary regime of Guevara and the boastful bravado of Hov are both deeply rooted in their respective truths. So why shouldn’t we expect Hov of all people to continue to live in that truth while ruffling a few feathers?
What I really want to use this highlight to touch on though, is the intellect Jay-Z has always showcased throughout his career. While there are always bars that satisfy a traditional music lover’s palette, there’s also a degree of depth and uniqueness that I personally have always appreciated. From studying Che’s doctrine to Dujac wines to Basquiat paintings, Patek Philippe Grandmasters and beyond, I’ve always left with something worth Googling. As evidenced in some of my previous writings, I’m a firm believer in knowing enough to be dangerous in a broad variety of things. I can honestly say that a decent number of interests have come from simply listening to Hov year over year.
While there have been a host of things, a few of which I’ve outlined above, the most notable thing I’ve learned from Jay-Z is the importance of evolution. At every stage in his life, he’s never shied away from sharing his lessons learned, no matter how much they may contrast earlier beliefs. Perhaps the best example of this is his 2017 project, 4:44. Here, the importance of vulnerability in marriage, ownership of our assets, and killing our egos are common themes. If you compare this to an earlier project like one of the ‘In My Lifetime’ volumes, you’ll get a completely different flavor. But 4:44 was recorded by an evolved individual, so it’s only right that the subject matter reflect this.
This lesson is something I’ve been trying to adopt more and more recently. I have to realize that thoughts and opinions I possessed and subsequently expressed over the years may evolve; which is perfectly fine. What’s crucial however is the level of authenticity with which we stand behind these thoughts and opinions. It’s one thing to acknowledge a past stance on something because it’s what you believed. It’s another when you never even believed it in the first place.
People often ask why Jay-Z is my favorite rapper or why I reference him so regularly. This is one of probably 99 different reasons but arguably the most meaningful. But also, when I really think about it, who else was really going to teach us the difference between a 4.0 and a 4.6? 🧐
