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Jay-Z Performs Benefit Concert Series at Carnegie Hall

People's Connection — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:14:40 +0000

Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter became one of the few Hip-Hop artists in history Monday and Tuesday nights to perform in New York’s illustrious Carnegie Hall, reports the New York Times.

Proceeds from both concerts benefit the United Way of New York City and the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation of which his mother, Gloria Carter, is president and CEO. Ticket prices ranged from approximately $300 – $1000. Jay-Z first announced the concert series in December of last year.

Beginning the evening in a white Tom Ford dinner jacket and diamond Cartier pin sparkling on his lapel, he changed the line of one of his most recited rhymes, “Public Service Announcement,” in honor of the occasion, replacing “hat” with “tux”:

“Check out my tux, yo/Peep the way I wear it,” he rhymed as the well-heeled crowd adorned in tuxedos and strapless gowns nodded along to the music of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra — conducted by Jeri Lynne Johnson — which served as Jay-Z’s house band, along with the Illadelphonics, an ensemble featuring Questlove of the Roots and soul singer Bilal, reports the Times.

Hova went through his greatest commercial hits, such as “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” and “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” to the Rick Rubin produced “99 Problems,” laying to rest the speculation that he had given up the “b-word” in honor of his daughter with wife and former Destiny Child front-woman, Beyonce Knowles.

Jay-Z gave his daughter a shout-out during the evening’s festivities, “Put one hand in the air for Blue! If there are any proud parents in the house tonight, make some noise for me,” while performing “Glory,” his emotional tribute to baby girl Blue Ivy Carter:

“I didn’t think I was gonna make it through that one,” he said at the song’s conclusion.

Alicia Keys joined Jay-Z to perform their NYC anthem, “Empire State of Mind,” which came after an interlude during which the orchestra and band played Gil Scott-Heron’s “New York Is Killing Me.”

Former arch-nemesis, Nas, joined him on stage to perform “N.Y. State of Mind.” Jay-Z let his guest shine alone on “If I Ruled the World,” accompanied by Keys.

Even with all of the pomp and circumstance, Hova kept it so BK. After changing into a black T-shirt and gold chain, he paid homage to his fallen friend, Brooklyn rapper Notorious B.I.G. by performing the ’90′s hit, “Gettin’ Money .” He then segued into a medley of classics from his 1996 debut album, Reasonable Doubt, making good on the promise he made the crowd early in the evening:

“All those lines that divide us,” he said with confidence, “we gonna step on them.”

Hip-Hop pioneers, Afrika Bambaataa and MC Melly Mel were the first Hip-Hop duo to play Carnegie Hall in 1985. Wyclef Jean performed there in 2004, Mos Def in 2008.

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Gayle King: Oprah Is Not Blue Ivy’s Godmother

People's Connection — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:25:09 +0000

Despite all of the rumors swirling around Beyonce and Jay-Z‘s godparents pick, the couple actually have not made any announcements regarding their selections. Oprah Winfrey‘s best bud, Gayle King, went on CBS to drive the point home that the media maven is not Blue Ivy Carter‘s godmother.

The Oprah-godmother rumor began as soon as Blue Ivy entered the world. Whispers about who the godmother would be for the royal baby of hip-hop were nonstop and fingers kept pointing at Oprah. King dispelled the untruths when she appeared on the CBS Morning Show on Friday to finally quell the media circus about how Oprah had been deemed godmother by the regal pair of performers.

Tongues also wagged about all of the lavish gifts that Oprah supposedly showered upon baby Carter, such as a treasure trove of books galore that were reported to be just the first in a series of countless other presents.

It’s absolutely not true that she’s the godmother, King said. She’s friends with them, of course, and likes them both very much. She’s working on sending them a baby gift. She hasn’t even had time to send a baby gift because she’s been away.

There was also talk that Jay-Z’s best friend, Tyran “Ty Ty” Sith, had actually been selected as the baby’s godfather, which is also not true.

Meanwhile, Blue Ivy just happens to be the envy of all newborns. Despite the reported decadence with regards to clothing and infant gear, Blue Ivy became the youngest person ever credited with gracing a Billboard chart. Jay-Z’s newly-recorded studio cut “Glory,” which has been officially billed as “featuring B.I.C.,” an abbreviation of “Blue Ivy Carter,” began on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at No. 74 with 1.7-million audience impressions on 54 radio stations, according to Nielsen BDS.

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Is Rocawear Dying? Jay-Z’s Brand Fires Half Of Staff

People's Connection — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:51:13 +0000

Rocawear may be dying. The clothing company founded by rapper Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter and Damon Dash in 1999 — and sold to Iconix for a whopping $200-plus million in 2007, has just laid off 28 of its 56 staffers. According to the New York Post:

Jay-Z, formerly a “big presence” in the office, rarely shows up anymore, an insider told The Post. “It’s kind of like he’s given up on the brand,” the source added.

In 2007, as the market for urban-style clothing was peaking, the rap tycoon sold the Rocawear brand for $204 million in cash to Iconix Group, a licensing company that also owns brands such as Candie’s, Ed Hardy and Peanuts.

While Jay-Z retained an interest in Rocawear as part of the deal, his contractual obligations to the brand have expired and the rapper has since refused to promote it amid steady, double-digit sales drops, sources said.

“Jay-Z doesn’t do anything without getting paid a lot of money — a lot more than Rocawear is generating,” according to one insider.

Jay-Z Not Dropping B-Word From Lyrics Despite Reports

People's Connection — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:25:36 +0000

After Renee Gardner posted a poem on the site RollingOut, which was supposed to be from Jay-Z, in which he claimed he would not use the b-word in his lyrics after the birth of his daughter, Blue Ivy, reports spread across the Internet that Jay-Z had dropped the b-word from his vocabulary. Here are the lyrics that Gardner claimed Jay-Z wrote.

Before I got in the game, made a change, and got rich,, I didn’t think hard about using the word B—-., I rapped, I flipped it, I sold it, I lived it, now with my daughter in this world I curse those that give it. I never realized while on the fast track that I’d give riddance to the word bitch, to leave her innocence in tact No man will degrade her, or call her out her name the women won’t despise her and call her the same. I know it’s gonna miss me cuz we been together like Nike Airs and crisp tees when we all used to hang out front, singing 99 problems but a lady ain’t one. Excuse me miss, can I be your mister cuz I can tell the difference from a little girl and a sister, She never grew up, her father left her alone I promise not to talk like we used to until Kingdom Come.

E! News claims that a source close to Jay-Z claims that he did not write that poem and has no idea on how they wound up on RollingOut. The blogger Renee Gardner has not addressed who actually wrote the poem but she is an artist herself.

The U.K. Guardian reports:

Soon the story was picked up by the Daily Mail, NME and New York magazine. The Guardian covered it, too. But when E! News asked Jay-Z’s representatives for comment, the answer was unequivocal. “A source close to the rapper’s camp [said] the poem in question is not by Jay-Z,” it reported. “No word how the lyrics made it online, but it wasn’t from the rap mogul.” Another denial came via a tweet from the Roots’ leader, ?uestlove: “This just in: [Jay-Z] to me: ‘B*aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatch!!!!!!!! and tweet that.’”

N.Y. Designer Seeks To Trademark Name Of Beyonce’s Baby Blue Ivy

People's Connection — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:25:24 +0000

After recent reports surfaced that a new strain of marijuana has been named for Jay-Z and Beyonce‘s daughter Blue Ivy, there’s another blatant attempt to capitalize on the name of the famous couple’s baby.

New York designer Joseph Mbeh is attempting to trademark “Blue Ivy Carter NYC” so it can be placed on a line of children’s clothing. Mbeh filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Jan. 11, four days after the birth of the urban music stars’ newborn girl. Read the application here.

According to a report in the Smoking Gun, the USPTO application was filed without consent or knowledge of either of the celebrity parents.

The application by Mbeh, 35, covers “infant, toddler and junior clothing” including dresses, skirts, sleepwear, and undergarments…

In his USPTO filing, Mbeh contends that he has been using the “Blue Ivy Carter NYC” name since “at least as early as 01/09/2012,” two days after the child’s birth at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan…

To apparently bolster this claim, Mbeh’s application includes a “Blue Ivy Carter NYC” logo and a mocked-up photo of girls clothing with hang tags bearing the child’s name.

Mbeh, a former Phat Farm intern, is a co-owner and designer of FourFront clothing, which he describes on his Linkedin profile as “a street-contemporary couture brand” that has been worn by T-Pain, Musiq Soulchild, Ray J and other musicians.

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“Blue Ivy” Weed Named After Beyonce And Jay-Z’s Baby

People's Connection — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:06:34 +0000

The bizarreness surrounding Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z‘s newborn daughter, Blue Ivy, has officially reached an all time high — pun intended. TMZ reports that multiple marijuana dispensaries in Hollywood are making a quick buck off of the new celebrity “it” baby by selling a new strain of the drug called “OG Blue Ivy.”

There has been no approval from the hip-hop power couple, but none of the dispensaries have received legal notice as of yet.

A day after the Jay-Z and Beyonce’s baby was born, Jay-Z released a song, titled “Glory,” for free download. The Brooklyn rapper touches on his love for his wife and newborn, and the baby girl’s cries can be heard in the background.

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Beyonce Gives Birth To Satan, Vandalized Church Sign Reads

People's Connection — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:17:34 +0000

Beyonce and Jay-Z’s newborn, Blue Ivy, isn’t even a week old, but she’s already raising hell, TMZ reports.

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Someone vandalized a North Carolina church sign yesterday with writing that read, “Beyonce had her baby. Satan is on Earth.”

Beyonce‘s new baby Blue Ivy Carter is the devil incarnate — this according to some heartless vandal who defaced the sign in front of a North Carolina church yesterday … writing, “Beyonce had her baby. Satan is on Earth.”

The pastor at Beulah Hill Baptist Church in West End, NC tells TMZ, he discovered the vandalism yesterday after receiving numerous complaints from locals — and removed it immediately.

Check out TMZ for more on this disturbing story.

Jay-Z And Beyonce: First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage

People's Connection — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 02:07:22 +0000

There is an incredible buzz around the birth Jay Z and Beyonce’s baby that I don’t think I have ever seen before.

People keep asking: What does Blue Ivy mean? What kind of father will Jay Z be? Will Beyonce be able to stop dancing and acting long enough to be a good mother? How long will it take her to get the baby weight off and hit the mic again? The internet is virtually aflame with talk about Blue Ivy Carter. Only a new baby by President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle could top this hype. None of that is what interests me though.

Call me old fashioned but, I’m just happy to see a Black couple that took the traditional route to family for a change. I’m not passing judgement on any lifestyle choices that anyone makes. I believe folks need to live their life the way they see fit. Still it has been a long time since I have seen a Black man love and marry a Black woman, and get such a massive response when they have a child. In fact, I have never seen such excitement about the birth of a Black child in America.

When I speak to kids today, they enjoy talking about many things in their future. However, they almost never talk about love. They talk even less about marriage. Few aspire to a life where monogamous Black love is a reality. Hopefully Jay Z and Beyonce’s marriage, and the arrival of Blue Ivy can instill more faith in our young Black boys and girls about the power of the Black family. I feel like the Black family is in a deep state of crisis (American families are as a whole). So anything that any celebrity might do to confirm the value of the Black family, is something I will champion.

For this reason alone, I’m very happy for Jay Z and Beyonce. I am lucky enough to have been married to a wonderful Black woman for 16 years now. We have three kids together, and I would not want my life any other way. There is no cheating, or violence in our household. We don’t curse one another, or call one another names when things get intense. I’m not bragging. I’m blessed and I know it. It is nothing to be arrogant about. As time has gone on most of the Black marriages I’ve seen come together have fallen horribly apart. Its unfortunate and sad to watch. Watching any love fall apart is hard though. The number of Black married couples I personally know today (not counting my parents generation), can be counted on one hand. Its pretty wild. But I live in California. I can imagine that in New York or Atlanta the number of married Black families are much more abundant.

Love is not easy on its own. Black love in America, is purely a trial by fire. It must be very hard for them to cultivate the love they have. The pressure of whatever good and bad is in their relationship is enough stress on its own. To have everything you do magnified and scrutinzed by the media is something I can’t even begin to comprehend. Yet they have done it. Not only that they have done it with a class, and grace possibly unmatched in recent years. Rather than get too excited about what these two do, or do not do as parents, I’m reminded to focus on the love in my life. My wife, and my kids.

So, while everybody else charts astrological graphs and rants about the potential career of Blue Ivy, I will celebrate something else. I will toast to the beauty of their love, and the power of the Black family they represent. May they be showered with all the joy and protection The Creator can provide. Congratulations to Jay Z, Beyonce and Blue Ivy. Stay blessed y’all.

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Beyonce Gives Birth: Jay-Z And Bey Welcome Baby Girl!

People's Connection — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:23:40 +0000

UPDATE: SEE LABOR DETAILS HERE.

E! Online is reporting that Jay Z and Beyonce had their baby. She scheduled a C-Section and rented out the 4th floor of the hospital for 1.3 million dollars. The name…?

Blue Ivy Carter! (At least that’s what Jay-Z is telling pals at this point—the couple’s reps have not immediately responded to calls seeking comment.)

Friend and music mogul Russell Simmons was among the first to celebrate the arrival, tweeting the new parents: “congrats to my good friends Beyonce and Jay-Z.”

Rihanna gave baby Blue a warm welcome, tweeting: “Welcome to the world princess Carter! Love Aunty Rih.”

Hey, we’re happy to find out this much, considering Blue’s parents didn’t even confirm to the world that they were married until…Wait? Did they ever really confirm it? (Public records ultimately told the tale.)

Critics Of Georgetown Course On Jay-Z Miss The Point

People's Connection — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:47:20 +0000

The recent media attention focused on Professor Michael Eric Dyson’s course on rapper Jay-Z, which he teaches at Georgetown University, has been both gift and curse. On the one hand, the media spotlight from The Today Show to the Washington Post provides those of us scholars who teach hip-hop a continuing platform for public engagement. On the other hand, the attacks on the Jay-Z course are part of an anti-Hip Hop Studies backlash that must be defended.

Criticism lands within one or both of the following camps. First, it has rattled the cages of ghosts of history’s past where black culture is undermined and undervalued, a literal “Murder To Excellence” which Jay-Z and Kanye West depict on their 2011 album Watch The Throne. Second, detractors are wedded to an intellectual cannon to which, they insist, Jay-Z has no place.

Professor Dyson, as a sociologist, sees the value of Jay-Z as a towering figure of arts and letters, apropos for academic inquiry. Dyson and the scores of other professors around the country teaching and writing about hip-hop in the academy for well over a decade, take their cue from literary forebears who have come to represent the Western intellectual canon.

Scholars like Dyson recognize educational value of the canon like Homer, who writes in The Odyssey: “Among all men on the earth bards have a share of honor and reverence, because the muse has taught them songs and loves the race of bards.”

Dyson’s critics have no beef with Homer. But rather than widen the net, they criticize Jay-Z instead.

“This trendy juvenile nonsense happening at Georgetown is a very bad sign… They are manifestations of a deadly malignancy,” writes a commenter on an article entitled, “NBC Cheers College Course on Rapper Jay-Z By Left-Wing Professor Michael Eric Dyson,” written by Kyle Drennen on Lucianne.com.

In an op-ed within the Georgetown University paper, “The Hoya,” Stephen Wu concurs: “It speaks volumes that we engage in the beat of Carter’s pseudo-music while we scrounge to find serious academic offerings on Beethoven and Liszt. We dissect the lyrics of “Big Pimpin’,” but we don’t read Spenser or Sophocles closely. Our pedagogical commitments are disordered.”

It was with critics like these in mind that led to my anthology “Jay-Z: Essays on Hip-Hop’s Philosopher King” published earlier this year. One of the contributors, Nicole Hodges-Persley, sees Jay-Z through a Homeric lens in her essay “The Freestyle Remixing of an Afro-Homeric Oral Tradition.”

“I pay specific attention to three phases of Jay-Z’s artistic development which find synergy with the practices of oral epic singers as outlined by Albert Lord in A Singer of Tales, says Dr. Hodges-Persley who teaches a hip-hop course at Kansas University called “Hip-Hop in Popular Culture.”

“Jay-Z’s development as a rapper parallels that of oral epic singers as many facets of Greek oral narrative composition are recast in his Hip-hop freestyle practices,” she writes.

Opponents of Hip-Hop Studies should take a look at Jay-Z’s “Meet the Parents” while reading Sophocles’s “Oedipus Rex,” as is being done by A.D. Carson at Benedictine University in Springfield, Illinois. Or take a trip to the University of Illinois-Chicago and check in with Dr. David Stoval a Policy Studies professor who teaches hip-hop there. Or meet me at Wittenberg University where we engage in Emerson, Plato, Nietzsche and Voltaire while discussing Jay-Z along with the time-rich tradition of canonized excellence.

Homer states, in “The Odyssey”: “By their own follies they perished, the fools.” Taking his lead, I could have chosen to leave the carcasses of provincialism spewed by hip hop studies’ critics to rot unburied, exposed to its obscenity so that all can see what the face of the enemy of Liberal Education and Radical Pedagogy looks like. But I couldn’t. And my response is as consistent to my academic role, as it is my human duty to bury the dead.

It is a moral duty, one in which Sophocles’ “Antigone” spoke of quite well. So does Jay-Z in his rap song “Meet the Parents”:

Let’s take a trip down memory, lane at the cemetery
Rain, grey skies, seems at the end of every
young (Critics) life is this line, “Damn – him already?
Such a good kid,” got us pourin Henn’ already
‘Til the next time I see you, on the other side
He was just some thug (of a critic) that, caught some slugs
And we loved him cause, in him we, saw some of us
He walked like us, talked like us
His (academic) back against the wall, he even fought like us – damn.

Dyson, Hodges, and Carson are building on a tradition that includes the work of Mark Anthony Neal (Duke University), Tricia Rose (Brown University), Murray Foreman (Northeastern University), Marcyliena Morgan (Harvard University) and many others who recognize that the lyrical cries and visceral tales of those who operate within Hip Hop culture are tragically and triumphantly American. More so, they are deeply human.

Julius Bailey is Professor of Philosophy at Wittenberg University and Editor of “Jay-Z: Essays on Hip Hop’s Philosopher King” (McFarland Publishing Inc, 2011). www.juliusbailey.com

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