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Jay-Z says many times in his book that the “story of a hustler” is the most important theme in all hip-hop. Hustlers are the young Black boys and girls trying to make a living in the streets usually by selling crack. The story of a hustler is a story of the struggle to make a living. It is a story of many different people. Some of them are trying to help their families. Some are trying to make it big and achieve the dream which artist often rap about. It is a dream of money, girls, and beautiful life. Jay-Z thinks that it was important to rap about that story because it shows how the Blacks are sometimes forced to chase their dreams. In the 80s, it was nearly impossible to get rich without selling drugs or doing something else illegal. Jay-Z says that it is important to make people understand what that life was. It is essential to show that it was like a war in the streets, trying to stay alive as much as to make money.
He says that other artists used to focus too much on the street life or the rich gangsta life. That is also mentioned in our previous class reading “Race Rebels.” That book says that early rappers focused on tough life in the street and nothing else (Kelley 185). For Jay-Z, it was important to show how street boys became rich and what horrors they had to experience. I think the “story of a hustler” is like the stories of the Wild West outlaws. It has the same charm as the stories about robbing banks and fighting off sheriffs and rangers. The background is also similar. The Wild West was a violent and brutal place where people were killing each other to make some cash and defend their families (Hine and Faragher 10). The neighborhoods Jay-Z describes are very similar. Just like in the Wild West everybody was carrying a gun and was ready to kill. I think that is one of the reasons those stories became popular.
I read the enhanced ebook. It was fascinating to see all the photos and newspapers from the time of those stories. It really creates the atmosphere. You can see what people saw back then, and it makes you imagine the stories clearly. Sometimes the pictures just demonstrate the background events, like the death of 2pac. Those photos really show how important those events were and how big the hip-hop music was at that time. The only plus of the enhanced edition was the ability to quickly go between lyrics and comments. That was convenient, but the book was the same as the printed version with all of the pictures. Listening to the music by Jay-Z with lyrics explained was interesting. It was different to just listening to the tracks. The comments by the author make the context of the songs clear. That allows you to view them differently and really appreciate them. The book also tells about the inspirations Jay-Z had. He mentions people like Bono and Michael Jackson. He even writes that Thriller is the best album ever (Jay-Z 87). It is curious since you do not expect a former hustler to be into such music. That explains why the lyrics of Jay-Z are so varied and complicated. He uses his own experience to write lyrics but also adds material inspired by the other famous musicians.
Works Cited
Hine, Robert V and John Mack Faragher. The American West. New Haven, CN: Yale University Press, 2000. Print.
Jay-Z. Decoded. New York, NY: Spiegel & Grau, 2010. Ebook.
Kelley, Robin. “Kickin’ Reality, Kickin’ Ballistics.” Race Rebels. New York, NY: The Free Press, 1994. 183-227.
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