Jay-Z: Man of Contradictions

Before I start, I have to give homage to Nelson George. I lifted the title of his 1992 book, Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos: Notes on Post-Soul Black Culture for this blog.

I thought that the title summed up my thoughts about the complexity of the "Black America" that I have experienced. So as I embark on this blogging journey, I will be sharing my observations about the various faces of Black Americans that I see regularly. Some of us are poor; some of us are rich; some of us are urbane; some of us are provincial; some of us a well educated; some of us are illiterate. My point is that while public dialogue seems to center on only one sector of "Black America," the other parts are also alive and well and contributing--whether for the good or the bad to our overall society. For my part I want to give every sector equal light.

To start it all off, I am going to talk about Jay-Z:

I saw Jay-Z on Charlie Rose the other night. He was articulate, poised, insightful and funny---everything that a rap artist is not supposed to be. He was talking about his CD "American Gangster" which is inspired by the film of the same name starring Denzel Washington.

This is not a music review, so I am not getting into the merits of the CD, or his body of work. I will say however that in my opinion Reasonable Doubt is a masterpiece.

One of the things that struck me about the interview (his second with Rose-- the first was in 2004) was that here was a guy from Marcy housing projects in Brooklyn who could now hold his own with a world class interviewer on an array of topics. What was apparent to me was that Jay-Z is ambitious and learned early on that learning how to maneuver in a world beyond Brooklyn did not put his"Blackness" in question. Moreover his willingness to learn new things, talk to different people and travel did not make him a sell-out. Even in the face of critics (which included a few White bloggers who felt he had no business on the show), Jay-Z is clear about where he came from and where he wants to go. With that confidence he did not need to shout about "keepin' it real."

Jay-Z obliquely talked about his drug-dealing past but did not dwell on it or glorify it. In the interview his background as a hustler served as the departure point to where he is now, president of Def Jam and multi-millionaire rap artist. Jay-Z, like many other people came to one of the many folks in the road---keep hustling or make music. He chose to get on the entertainment route. To his credit, he continues to work on develop himself, not feeling compelled to maintain the same ideas or lifestyle that he had when he lived in Marcy.

Jay-Z will forever rep Marcy projects, it's his roots, it is his foundation. I think that the Jay-Z can provide an important lesson to people young and old--- you don't have to turn your back on your roots in order to grow and thrive. Recently I was a panelist at the Executive Leadership Committee's Mid-Managers Symposium and got to hear Don Thompson, the youngish president of McDonald's USA. One the most relevant points of his speech was about the importance of being comfortable with your Blackness before you can be comfortable dealing with other folks.

Jay-Z realized that his being Black and from the projects were parts of his biography that were never going to change---the only question for him was whether those were going to be the only entries. Frankly I think that what Jay-Z, Don Thompson and countless other people can teach us is that there is no reason to run away from being Black (poor, minority, woman, old, etc), but don't use it as a crutch either for why you are not looking for and taking advantage of opportunities to get ahead and improve your life, economically, socially and spiritually.