Jay-Z’s Decoded Gets Decoded In Photos
Jun, 24 2011
Back in October we told you about Jay-Z’s book, Decoded, which through the lyrics of his songs, exposed the rap icon's lyrical art. Decoded tells the story of a culture that shaped one of the most provocative and successful artists in hip hop.
Pages of the book were placed in 15 locations around the world and fans were encouraged to locate the pages in exchange for unique prizes. Microsoft’s Bing sponsored the event.
As I wrote last year, the project was part “geo-caching [and] part treasure hunt, the pages will be displayed in unconventional ways: on pool tables, in swimming pools, on bronze plaques, across clothing racks, etc.” Now the locations of the pages have been revealed. You can view them here – it is really, really cool to see all the thought and effort that went into this promotion.
-Court
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Big Pimpin' violated moral rights?
May, 7 2011
Well, you learn something new every day. Today, I learned not only has it been over eleven (eleven!!) years since Jay-Z's The Life & Times of S. Carter Volume 3 including my teenage anthem "Big Pimpin'" came out, but also that in Egyptian copyright law, there is a provision for "moral rights" on top of "economic rights."
In the 2000 hit, "Big Pimpin'", Jay-Z sampled a piece of the score from the 1957 Egyptian movie, Fata Ahlami (or Dreams of Youth). Here is the video for "Big Pimpin'" to refresh your memory and here is the opening sequence to the movie featuring a song called "Khosara, Kohsara."
While Hova tried to do the right thing and license the sample for "economic rights," the children of composer Baligh Homody say that their "moral rights" were violated and have decided to sue the Business, man. Moral rights in Egypt must be secured if the original will be mutilated in any way or sampled. This week, a California judge has ruled that Homodys' have grounds to proceed.
Who knew Jay-Z was finding influence from Egyptian culture?
-Erin O.
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Jay's Magical Mystery Tour
Oct, 19 2010
Jay-Z (nee Shawn Carter) has teamed up with Microsoft's Bing search engine to promote his upcoming book, Decoded, which goes on sale November 16. Not a strict autobiography, the book through the lyrics of his songs, creatively shines light on the meanings behind the rap icon's lyrical art and tells the story of a culture that shaped one of the most provocative and successful artists in hip hop.
Over 300 pages of the book will be placed in various geographic locations related to the contents of each page. Some pages will be located in the Brooklyn neighborhood where Carter grew up, others in locales where he drew inspiration for his songs, and still others central to the building of his hip-hop empire.
Part geo-caching, part treasure hunt, the pages will be displayed in unconventional ways: on pool tables, in swimming pools, on bronze plaques, across clothing racks, etc. Starting this week, five to ten new pages from the book will be unveiled in new locations, in 15 cities around the world. The same pages are also placed in various virtual locations in an online gaming experience located at Bing.com/Jay-Z.
Fans who find each page -- either in the virtual environment or in real life -- may provide evidence by texting unique codes found on each page to enter a contest for various prizes. All entries will be eligible for a grand prize of two tickets to see Jay-Z perform on New Year's Eve in Las Vegas with Coldplay.
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Jay-Z Pens Lyrics-Based Autobiography
Sep, 26 2010
When Jay-Z announced he was retiring with The Black Album in 2003, he assured fans he would turn to writing an autobiography, The Black Book, in tandem with journalist Dream Hampton. It was written, and then discarded, as Jay-Z returned to music soon after. Now he's finally about to release his first book, Decoded, which will use some of his favorite lyrics to "tell a wider story about the world he grew up in and the transformative power of hip-hop," according to the publisher.
"When I first started working on this book, I told my editor that I wanted it to do three important things," Jay-Z said in a statement. "The first was to make the case that hip-hop lyrics — not just my lyrics, but those of every great MC — are poetry if you look at them closely enough. The second was I wanted the book to tell a little bit of the story of my generation, to show the context for the choices we made at a violent and chaotic crossroads in recent history. And the third piece was that I wanted the book to show how hip-hop created a way to take a very specific and powerful experience and turn it into a story that everyone in the world could feel and relate to."
Decoded, which uses Andy Warhol's 1984 painting Rorschach on its cover, will be published by Spiegel & Grau on November 16.
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A First First For Jay-Z
Nov, 19 2009
Jay-Z’s been to No.1 on the Hot 100 before, but never as a top-billed artist until this week. “Empire State Of Mind,” featuring Alicia Keys, is a fourth No.1 in total for both artists: Jay featured on Mariah Carey’s “Heartbreaker” (1999), now-wife Beyoncé’s “Crazy In Love” (2003) and Rihanna’s “Umbrella” (2007); Alicia hit the top with debut single “Fallin’” in 2001, “My Boo” with Usher in 2004, and “No One” in 2007. Meanwhile on the album chart, there’s a second consecutive No.1 for Bon Jovi, whose The Circle sold over 160,000 copies. That’s quite a drop from the 290,000 sold by last album Lost Highway (2007), which was their first Billboard 200 chart-topper for almost two full decades. Lots of people – roughly 130,000 last week – are preparing for the holiday season to the sounds of Andrea Bocelli’s My Christmas, which edged out last week’s No.1 Carrie Underwood to win second place. Carrie’s Play On sticks at No.3, while Michael Jackson’s latest compilation This Is It slips to No.4.
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Jay-Z Still Banging On About Auto-Tune
Nov, 2 2009
At a time when many artists are fearful for the evaporating opportunities to make money out of their creativity, Jay-Z preaches a more positive message. In a recent interview with New York Magazine, he maintained “It’s a very exciting time in the music business. It’s almost like cowboys and Indians. We [are] pioneers at this time, discovering new ways to get music out there. We’ve always been entrepreneurs, so we’re going to embrace any type of vehicle.” However, there’s one direction he doesn’t want to follow, and he re-iterated the sentiments of his single D.O.A. which slammed the over-use of auto-tune. “Are we just going to sound like each other? Everyone’s going to sound the same? That’s what we’re gonna do? Don’t ya’ll know this is dangerous? And this is just how rock and roll got pushed from the forefront? We did this to rock and roll. Everyone was doing the hair-band thing on MTV with the tight pants. They all had the big hair, just different colored tights. It just became about more of a look and a sound than the emotion of the music. And that’s what hip-hop’s becoming. It’s losing the emotion — you can’t have emotion in the robotic voice. I can’t feel anything!" Whatever plans Jay-Z has to forge a new path in the record business, you can be sure it won’t involve auto-tune, and it won’t involve multi-colored pantyhose either.
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Jay-Z
Aug, 27 2009
Conservative commentators Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh have both spoken about being targeted by Jay-Z in the latest song to leak from his upcoming new album The Blueprint 3. In "Off That" Jay raps “This ain’t black versus white, my n****, we off that. Please tell Bill O’Reilly to fall back. Tell Rush Limbaugh to get off my balls. It’s 2010 not 1864." O'Reilly rose to the bait by playing a snippet of the song on his top-rated O'Reilly Factor show, before sarcastically deriding Jay as "a regular Otis Redding, isn't he?" Then Rush Limbaugh brought it up on his eponymous radio show, the most listened-to in America. "As far as I know I have never been mentioned in a rap song by anybody. I guess it means I’ve made it. I’m now in a rap tune by the famous rapper Jay-Z," he said. "I did not know I was on anybody’s balls, either. I’m happy to know that they think I am, though!" Jay-Z didn't become the successful businessman he is today without knowing how to earn himself some free publicity. The Blueprint 3 drops on September 11.
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Jay-Z
Jul, 23 2009
Jay-Z has announced more details about his highly anticipated forthcoming eleventh album, The Blueprint 3, which is due to hit stores on September 11. It's going to be a predictably star-studded affair, because Jay can pretty much pick and choose whoever he likes to collaborate with: Rihanna, Drake, Kid Cudi and Mr. Hudson will all make guest appearances, as will synth-pop duo MGMT. Production will be handled by Kanye West, Timbaland and No I.D. "If you grow up listening to hip-hop, you love hip-hop and that's the end of it," Jay explained. "But if you're a 30-year-old rapper still trying to make music like you're 15, then you're making it narrow. At my age, I can't relate to a 15-year-old. I deal with mature and relevant topics for my age group -- it has to all be based on true emotions." On his guests, he said "Kanye is really the father to the next generation -- he's from the school of Q-Tip, and now Drake and Kid Cudi are from the school of 'Ye." Meanwhile, Jay-Z has also stepped in to replace the Beastie Boys as the Friday night headliner of the All Points West festival in New Jersey next weekend. The Beasties pulled out after Adam Yauch (aka MCA) was diagnosed with a tumor.
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Jay-Z
Jun, 12 2009
Jay-Z's premiered a new track, D.O.A., and like any battle cry would hope to do, it's provoked a lot of support. The title stands for Death Of Auto-Tune, because Jay's decided it's time for rappers to stop using studio effects to modify their voices to sound like robots. He told Chicago radio station WGCI: "I just think in hip-hop, when a trend becomes a gimmick, it’s time to move on... I saw a Wendy’s commercial and they’re using Auto-Tune. They’re joking on it. It’s like, OK, enough of that." It means some of Jay's friends, like Kanye West and Lil Wayne, will have to come up with new ideas if they're to escape the wrath of Jay and his supporters. That includes the newly formed PAAT - People Against Auto-Tune - who have felt sufficiently empowered by Jay's words to start a blog about "Why auto-tune must die." So far among their reasons, which are best described as "imaginative," are "it will create 600,000 jobs" and "we can't let the robots take control." But their first reason, because "Jay-Z told us so," is surely going to be the most persuasive.
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Jay-Z
Feb, 5 2009
The news that the Langerado festival in Miami, Florida has been canceled due to poor ticket sales isn’t so surprising in this depressing financial climate. With wallets and purses feeling lighter than ever before, spending money on a weekend festival ticket seems like an unnecessary luxury to many. The gloom continues with the organizers of the Pemberton Festival in British Columbia announcing their intention to take a hiatus for 2009, and across the pond in Scotland the Hydro Connect Festival has also announced a break while the recession tightens its grip. However, some well-loved festivals prevail against the wind of financial disaster; the Glastonbury festival in rural England has bucked the trend with confirmation that tickets for this June's event have already sold out. Last year ticket sales were notably slow, according to some because of the choice of Jay-Z as a headliner for the traditionally rock-based event. This year the rumored headliners include Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and the reformed Blur, and although the official lineup won't be announced until April, it looks like last year's good weather and Jay-Z's triumphant set have combined to remind British festival-goers about Glasto's enduring appeal - whatever the economic climate.
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Jay-Z
Jun, 30 2008
Noel Gallagher didn't think Jay-Z was an appropriate headliner for the Glastonbury Festival because it was "built on a tradition of guitar music", so how did Jay-Z respond on the night? By walking on stage with a guitar and covering Oasis' Wonderwall, of course. Having won over the crowd with that gesture, the New York rapper put on a rip-roaring show that made all those earlier doubts seem silly. But will Noel Gallagher respond? We think Oasis fans should keep an eye out for Noel and Liam's upcoming take on Izzo (H.O.V.A.).
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