Jay-Z : made in America

Title:

Author:

Dyson, Michael Eric, author.

Added Author:

Dyson, Everett,

Williams, Pharrell,

Personal Author:

Dyson, Michael Eric, author.

ISBN:

9781250230966

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

xii, 226 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm

Contents:

"Allow me to re-introduce myself" -- "I'm the definition of it": Hustling -- "I paint pictures with poems": Poetry -- "Somewhere in America": Politics -- "What's better than one billionaire?" -- Annotated discography.

Abstract:

JAY-Z: Made in America is the fruit of Michael Eric Dyson's decade of teaching the work of one of the greatest poets this nation has produced, as gifted a wordsmith as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Rita Dove. But as a rapper, he's sometimes not given the credit he deserves for just how great an artist he's been for so long. This book wrestles with the biggest themes of JAY-Z's career, including hustling, and it recognizes the way that he's always weaved politics into his music, making important statements about race, criminal justice, black wealth and social injustice. As he enters his fifties, and to mark his thirty years as a recording artist, this is the perfect time to take a look at JAY-Z's career and his role in making this nation what it is today. In many ways, this is JAY-Z's America as much as it's Pelosi's America, or Trump's America, or Martin Luther King's America. JAY-Z has given this country a language to think with and words to live by.

Personal Subject:

Jay-Z, 1969-

Subject Term:

Rap (Music) -- History and criticism.

Rap musicians -- Biography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Summary:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... East End	Book	782.42 J42 XD	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

NOW A NEW YORK TIMES , USA TODAY , AND PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY BESTSELLER

"Dyson writes with the affection of a fan but the rigor of an academic. ... Using extensive passages from Jay-Z's lyrics, 'Made in America' examines the rapper's role as a poet, an aesthete, an advocate for racial justice and a business, man, but devotes much of its energy to Hova the Hustler." -- Allison Stewart, The Washington Post

"Dyson's incisive analysis of JAY-Z's brilliance not only offers a brief history of hip-hop's critical place in American culture, but also hints at how we can best move forward." --Questlove

JAY-Z: Made in America is the fruit of Michael Eric Dyson's decade of teaching the work of one of the greatest poets this nation has produced, as gifted a wordsmith as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Rita Dove. But as a rapper, he's sometimes not given the credit he deserves for just how great an artist he's been for so long.

This book wrestles with the biggest themes of JAY-Z's career, including hustling, and it recognizes the way that he's always weaved politics into his music, making important statements about race, criminal justice, black wealth and social injustice. As he enters his fifties, and to mark his thirty years as a recording artist, this is the perfect time to take a look at JAY-Z's career and his role in making this nation what it is today.

In many ways, this is JAY-Z's America as much as it's Pelosi's America, or Trump's America, or Martin Luther King's America. JAY-Z has given this country a language to think with and words to live by.

Featuring a Foreword by Pharrell

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

The celebrated public intellectual offers a slim volume on an American musical icon.For readers who only know Jay-Z as Beyonc's husband, the latest by Dyson (What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America, 2018, etc.) is a serviceable primer. However, for readers familiar with Jay-Z's music or role in popular culture, this brief book has little to offer. The publication coincides with the rapper's 50th birthday, and it reads as if it was rushed to make the date. The chapters are disorganized and consist largely of riffs that have often tangential connections to his life or work. Dyson's interests are wide-ranging, and some of his digressions are worthwhile in their own right. Ultimately, though, there's too much filler in a book that needed more material. It's no surprise that many of the tangents rehash older writings for which the author is already well known, and he also engages in excessive name-dropping, cringeworthy poetic affectations, and an attitude that sometimes feels condescending to readers and to hip-hop culture. In a long section on the late Nipsey Hussle, Dyson describes a time he sat by the rapper on a flight. As the two men "had an epic conversation," Nipsey "brought up the psychologist Abraham Maslow." This is a typical non sequitur meant to suggest to readers that Nipsey is worthy of our consideration because he is intelligent. The author frequently uses the same approach with Jay-Z, noting, for example, that the rapper uses many of the poetic devices employed by Robert Frost, Rita Dove, and other poets; of course, countless rappers use the same tactics. Dyson is usually far more insightful that this, and readers should turn to Julius Bailey's Jay-Z: Essays on Hip Hop's Philosopher King or Jay-Z's own book, Decoded, a masterpiece of music memoir. Pharrell contributes the foreword.Jay-Z deserves an in-depth study. This is not it. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.