Damn, it feels good to be a Gangster!

By: Chris Norris (Blender, December 2007)

Now that you're so successful, do you still experience racism?

Jay - Z: Not openly. Money insulates you from things like that. You know, if people's kids love you, it's hard for them to say anything bad about you. But I'm aware of it, certainly.


On your new song "Ignorant Shit," you rap about Don Imus, who referred to the Rutgers female basketball team as "nappy-headed ho's." When that happened a lot of black leaders-Russell Simmons, Al Sharpton, Oprah-squared off against hip-hop in general, trying to hold it accountable for such language. What did you think about that?

Jay - Z: I don't have a problem talking about censorship. If we're gonna talk about it with movies, if we're gonna talk aobut it with video games, if we're gonna talk about it with all the pornography sites that are bigger than hip-hop, then I'm cool with people talking about it with hip-hop. But to single out hip-hop and pull us into the ring with Don Imus, that's wrong. It wasn't dealing with the real issue. What Don Imus said was racist. It wasn't about censorship, and it wasn't about free speech. And it wasn't about rap's influence, because Don Imus is not influenced by rappers. He's not a fan of rap. I mean, he couldn't name Wu-Tang's first album.


As a label president, do you feel responsible for the lyrical content of your artists' music?

You have to look at the people who are making the music, and the areas that they come from. On the whole, you're talking about kids who are 17, 18 years old coming out of bad neighborhoods. They're angry, they have issues and they're not mature yet. You gotta let them grow. You can't control anybody's art.


What role did you play in engineering the sales battle between your artist Kanye West and 50 Cent?

I just championed it. Kanye had the idea, and I was like, "You sure? You know what this gonna entail. I mean, 50's a fierce competitor. You never know what could happen-you could get, like, eight diss records."


Why is hip-hop so full of one-hit wonders right now?

It's how people are conditioned to listen to music. Singles are 99 cents, and you break albums up on itunes-what do you expect?


Would you ever release a record the way Radiohead just did-put it on the internet on a pay-what-you-want basis?

I thought that was genius. That's a fantastic idea. You have to be in a position to do that, but I think it was a great idea.


What would you say your biggest strength is as a person?

I'd say I'm fearless about trying new things, putting myself out there.


And what do you consider your biggest weakness?

I expect people to know certain things. If you're my friend, you should know certain things, and I won't tell you, even though I should. Sometimes relationships deteriorate around me because I only address things when I'm upset. I shouldn't assume people know what I'm thinking.


At the end of a song on American Gangster you yell out, "It's just entertainment!" What do you mean by that?

It's my way of saying, "People, stop taking it so seriously-not everything rappers say is true to life." It's entertainment, too. If you can watch a movie and see Denzel as a character, you should be able to do the same when you're listening to rappers. I know we're always saying, "Keep it real." But for the most part [he laughs}-it's not true!