The Worst Jay-Z Article Ever Posted by Nathan S. on 03/17/10 | Filed under Top Stories, Features

"Jay-Z is a pretty good rapper. Jay-Z is not the best rapper ever. Get off Jay-Z's dick." So begins Hamilton Nolan's astounding simplistic article "Enough With the Jay-Z Fetish". First off, I'm not sure what Nolan, a regular Gawker contributor who, as far as I can tell, has never written another hip-hop related article in his life is doing breaking down Jay-Z, and on a technology site like Gizmodo nonetheless, but instead let's focus on the content of the article.

There are really only two options here. Either Nolan sat down, had writer's block and pulled the time-tested "I'll just write something that goes against a popularly held belief," move, a move I've used myself, or like a 15-year-old who just really got into The Sex Pistols, believes that popular music is for brainwashed idiots. Or as he wrote, "I never loved Jay-Z's last eight albums or so...Jay-Z's music is okay. Whatever." For the record, that sweeping statement relegates "The Blueprint", "The Life and Times of S. Carter" and "The Black Album" to the trash heap. I can only assume he wasn't particularly impressed with "BP3", and frankly I wasn't either, but that's like saying that every Tarantino movie sucks because you didn't like "Jackie Brown".

Although he doesn't give any evidence to support his claim that Jay's supremely overrated - or crucially offer his pick for the greatest rapper alive - Nolan does hinge his central argument, that
"Jay-Z is to hip hop what New York is to magazines: Flawless, efficient, gleaming; cool, soulless, endlessly self-absorbed," on a quote from M1, the revolutionary but gangster emcee from Dead Prez.

"That's why Jay-Z has found affluence, and Young Jeezy, the moneymaking aspect of it. To me, that's the poison," said M1. "That's the poison in it, is the indoctrination of capitalism. Not to say we don't need people to understand the business of making money; but the model wasn't Marcus Garvey—the model became people like Rockefeller."

Well, I apologize then. If Nolan's riding with Dead Prez like that, ready to take up arms against the government ay any moment, than I can totally see why he has a problem with Jay-Z as rap's most successful captialist. And what, may you ask, does this die hard Dead Prez supporter who, like M-1, is presumably ready to "run up on them crackers in they city hall" and "throw a molotov cocktail at the precinct", look like?

Jason Chupick, Editor, and Hamilton Nolan, Writer for Gawker

Now like Hamilton I'm also white, have also interviewed Dead Prez and have literally memorized every word of "Let's Get Free", so I don't want to get sidetracked on a discussion about race and revolutionary hip-hop, which is an epic discussion in its own right, so I'll stick to the topic at hand. M-1 is not talking about Jay-Z's skills as a rapper, but Jay-Z as belonging to a capitalist system that is inherently oppressive. When you put out tracks calling for the assassination of George Bush you can take shots at Jay as an icon of capitalism, but when you're a white journalist who (I presume) embraces capitalism in his everyday life, it just doesn't hold weight. If we're going to throw out Jay because he rhymes about the pursuit of money, than we'll also have to dismiss Biggie and Nas.

I'm afraid I have been sidetracked, so let me close by returning to Nolan's central thesis; that because Jay-Z is rich he's not that good of a rapper - or perhaps more accurately that his popularity stems from his wealth first, and his talent as an emcee at a distant second. I'll admit than in my younger days I subscribed to this kind of popular = bad mentality, but as I've gotten older I realized it was a completely false dichotomy (SAT word!). As Jeff Bebe in the classic movie "Almost Famous" said: “Most of the time, the best stuff is the popular stuff. It’s much safer to say popularity sucks, because that allows you to forgive yourself if you suck. And I don’t forgive myself. Do you?”

Ultimately, I agree with Hamilton that, like any famous person or any person period, it's dangerous to idolize Jay-Z, but nit's equally naive to simply discount more than a decade's worth of once-in-a-lifetime lyricism because Hova's got some zeroes in his bank account.

"Hov don't run, Hov stand and fight
Hov's a soldier, Hov been fightin all his life so
What could you do to me? It's not new to me
But you will respect me, simple as that."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Noal, if you're reading this, feel free to email me at nathan(@)refinedhype.com. I'd be more than happy to pot your rebuttal. Maybe we can even have one of the first journalist battles in hip-hop history. You be Nas, and I'll be Jay-Z.

RefinedHype has merged with The DJBooth. It's the same articles you loved on RefinedHype, new address. For more info, check out the official announcement.