Jay-Z seeks maturity in hip hop genre
Still passionate rapper wants to be role model
Last Updated: Monday, November 2, 2009 | 5:16 PM ET
CBC News
Jay-Z has returned to touring for his latest album, The Blueprint 3. (Larry French/Getty Images)Seeking to push rap music to evolve and set an example for younger artists, all the while continuing to pursue his own maturing creative desires, are a few of the many things chart-topping rapper and hip hop mogul Jay-Z has got on the brain.
Age figures prominently in the Brooklyn-raised rap star's most recent musical development and what inspires him.
"The challenge with rap music is, you know, the place where it's white hot is with 16- and 15-year-olds. You have a lot of people who are 30-something, 30-plus, still recording music like they were 15 because that's where the most urgent buyer is," the rapper told CBC Radio's Q in an interview broadcast Monday.
"There's been this reluctance to mature in hip hop and when you do that, you leave the audience very narrow. My whole thing is to expand the audience and the genre of music in any way, because music is music," said Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter.
"If I'm 35 years old and I'm talking like I'm 15 — the kids at 15, they change slang every week. They know that's not being authentic. I live in Teaneck, New Jersey, somewhere, I'm not on the streets."
After rising to fame in the mid-1990s with a slew of Grammy Award-winning hits and sales surpassing 30 million albums, Carter began feeling burned out as a recording artist around 2004. Presented with the opportunity to head influential record label Def Jam, Carter leapt at the post — believing it to be another way he could serve as a positive role model.
'If I'm 35 years old and I'm talking like I'm 15 — the kids at 15, they change slang every week. They know that's not being authentic. I live in Teaneck, New Jersey, somewhere, I'm not on the streets.'
—Jay-Z
"I felt like that was my calling and that was my direction in life, to show artists in a different light, that we could ascend to executive positions of record companies," he said.
After just a few years, however, the itch to return to making music brought the veteran rapper back into the game. Most recently, he released his 11th studio album — The Blueprint 3 — and has also returned to touring.
With the new album, Jay-Z has broken Elvis Presley's record as the solo artist with the most number one records.
Carter admits, however, that the relatively young genre of hip hop faces its first important challenge: how to progress to the next level.
"In the beginning, it was at its purest form because everyone was struggling. All great music and all great art, I believe, comes from pain. As hip hop started to get successful, and really successful — you had these guys coming from these neighbourhoods that were now millionaires — it's tough to draw back to that place [of creativity]," he said.
Jay-Z performed with singer Alicia Keys at Yankee Stadium before Game 2 of the World Series on Thursday, before proceeding to London, Ont., for another gig the same night. (Eric Gay/Associated Press)"Now people are having those types of feelings: 'You're sounding lazy, you're sounding formulaic, you're sounding like the same subject matter. So what are you going to do?' Now we're facing that challenge to make great music like every other genre."
For Carter, who celebrates his 40th birthday in December, the passion to explore more mature topics and expand the rap genre continues to invigorate and drive him.
"I still love it," he said, amid a tight schedule of gigs that included a double bill last Thursday that saw him perform at New York's Yankee Stadium prior to Game 2 of the World Series and then hop on a plane for a show in London, Ont.
"I walked in Yankee Stadium like a kid. I didn't realize how far it was from the fence to second base…. I was actually playing around in centre field like I was catching fly balls, imaginary ones," Carter said, chuckling.
"Then I did a gig that night in London, Ontario, which was one of the top 10 shows I've had on this run here. I enjoyed both events immensely, almost like a new artist.... If I didn't love it, there's no way I could do it."
