Salon.com > Jay-Z

Jay-Z’s daughter will be the worst

Mon, 07 May 2012 14:54:00 +0000

Jay-Z's daughter is going to be insufferable. Just ask Jay-Z. In an episode of "Oprah's Master Class" that aired on her OWN network Sunday, the Grammy winner, entrepreneur, ball and chain to Beyoncé and new dad to Blue Ivy Carter admitted, "I imagine I'll take things I learned from my mom and things I've learned from raising my nephews and apply that -- then at the end of the day, I just know I'll probably have the worst, spoiled little kid ever."

For a man who's built a career on his swagger, there's something very different – and adorably humble about Z's acknowledgment that "Everyone imagines they'll be a great dad -- until their teenager's saying, 'Get away from me, Dad. You're embarrassing me!'" And it's a refreshingly clear-eyed view of the complicated reality of parenting.

Blue Ivy will not have a hard-knock life. She was born in a hospital suite bigger and nicer than your apartment. She will know her way around red carpets before she can walk on them, and she will fall asleep to lullabies from Mary J. Blige.

Jay-Z’s Occupy Wall Street problem

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:30:00 +0000

Jay-Z's got 99 percent problems. And in the wake of scathing criticism, the rapper, producer and Beyonce impregnator is now allegedly backtracking on his attempts to make a buck off Occupy Wall Street.

Just last week, the former Shawn Carter was photographed strutting around in a T-shirt with the phrase "Occupy Wall Street" selectively scrawled over to read "Occupy All Streets." Stick it to the man! Rock and roll! That bold fashion statement was then followed by the inevitable business announcement that the shirts were a new creation from Jay-Z's own Rocawear line, available for $22 -- tax and shipping not included. And Z's minders further clarified that "'Occupy All Streets' is our way of reminding people that there is change to be made everywhere, not just on Wall Street. At this time we have not made an official commitment to monetarily support the movement." Whooooo, anarchy!

Jay-Z’s hip-hop of distraction

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000

You can't hustle a hustler, right? So Shawn Carter, aka hip-hop superstar Jay-Z, surely doesn't mind fronting for two other world-class hustlers: Bruce Ratner, Brooklyn, N.Y's most powerful developer, and New Jersey (to Brooklyn) Nets majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia's second-richest man. The three men are partners in promoting the new Barclays Center sports arena now under construction in Brooklyn, the first building in the massive, controversial Atlantic Yards project.

While Brooklyn-born Carter owns a tiny fraction of the team, he's become the face of the franchise, the Teflon-coated superstar employed by his partners to distract attention from the hardball politics, sweetheart deals and private profits behind the arena and the rest of the 16-tower project.