And now Jay-Z carries a literary badge, continuing to deftly legitimize his art to the unsuspecting.
Now, hundreds, maybe thousands of housewives, know what "the work" is to a drug dealer. But they were necessary trips through yet another turnstile for Jay-Z, into the homes of more people who only vaguely understood his craft. Jay was savvy and wry as ever, but these were mostly facile conversations- though hearing "Fresh Air"'s Terry Gross press him on whether or not he stabbed alleged bootlegger and former friend Lance "Un" Rivera, a topic long danced around by music journalists, was genuinely thrilling. Just last week, I listened to him explain the punning kicker on the second verse of "99 Problems" at least five times. During these interviews, he was repeatedly asked about things the book explains that longtime followers already know: his youth in the Marcy projects, the art of hustling, his complicated relationship to misogyny, President Obama. The recent release of his memoir/lyric anthology, Decoded, prompted several high-profile interviews, including trips to NPR's "Fresh Air", "The Daily Show", "Oprah", "Charlie Rose", and a formal conversation with Cornel West at the New York Public Library. It's fitting, because these days Jay-Z is expanding, more than usual, by opening his world to the casual fan. Last year, when Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" became his first #1 single, he finally qualified for a hits package like this- one that skews toward casual fans more than completists. But "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" went all the way to #4, so that couldn't go. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde", by most reasonable metrics, is a worse song than "Girls, Girls, Girls". (Death of Auto-Tune)", also included- are absent. "Change Clothes", "Girls, Girls, Girls", "Excuse Me Miss", and the recent "Young Forever"- all of which charted higher than the above and 2009's "D.O.A.