Shawn Carter

The Graying of Hip-Hop

What happens to the youth-obsessed genre when its greats reach retirement?

The Most Absurd Beyonce Headlines We've Seen Recently

Being Beyonce is apparently a tough gig to pull off. Not only is she a pop icon, she's also a faux-baby-bump-sporting member of the Illuminati who is buying Neverland Ranch. And that's just the Bey of the past year or so. Look back a bit further and you'll figure out that she's been pregnant once ... More >>

A Father's Day Mix Of Songs With Mixed Feelings About Fathers

Every May, there's no shortage of mawkishly sentimental songs to play on Mother's Day, but a month later, there are comparatively few Father's Day equivalents. Sure, there are some treacly tracks like Bob Carlisle's 1997 adult-contempo hit "Butterfly Kisses," but fatherhood is more often than not in ... More >>

Live: Jay-Z Takes Over Carnegie Hall

Jay-Z Carnegie Hall Monday, February 6 Better than: Slacking off. The age-old question about how one might get to Carnegie Hall rattled in my brain as I headed uptown last night, en route to Jay-Z's first of two performances at the hallowed Midtown space. "Practice" is the cheeky answer that peo ... More >>

Decoding Jay-Z's Decoded

Why the rapper's memoir is definitely not Shawn Carter's

Live: Jay-Z Talks Decoded and Ol' Dirty Bastard at the New York Public Library With Cornel West and Paul Holdengräber

Cornel West, Jay-Z, Paul Holdengräber. Photo by Jori Klein.​Jay-Z In Conversation With Cornel West and Paul Holdengräber New York Public Library Monday, November 15 Usually, says tonight's distinguished moderator, NYPL director Paul Holdengräber, "my goal at the library is to make the li ... More >>

See Jay-Z and Cornel West Talk About Rap Music at the New York Public Library on November 15

​Yesterday, we brought you a brief but compelling excerpt from Decoded, the autobiography-slash-annotated-lyric-sheet of a book Jay-Z will be releasing through Spiegel & Grau on November 16th. Now comes word that one day prior, on Monday, November 15th, Shawn Carter will be at the New York Pub ... More >>

The Top Seven Most Surprising Revelations From Jay-Z's Roundtable Conversation With Warren Buffett and Steve Forbes

​Recently Forbes staged an event a long time coming, bringing Jay-Z and the billionaire Warren Buffett to the same table as part of something they're calling the Forbes 400 Summit. People have been speculating about this meeting for years now--some quite prophetically--and as interlocutor, the ... More >>

Why Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday Will Probably Be a Disappointment

Can this superhero save herself?​Nicki Minaj has had quite the weekend. First came "Check It Out," a Buggles-sampling, will.i.am-featuring slice of zaniness that seems destined for Pink Friday, her long-gestating debut LP, currently due on November 23. Then came a marriage announcement via fro ... More >>

At 16, Jay-Z Would've Robbed Coldplay's Chris Martin: "Who Are You? Give Me Your Money."

​A quick sequel to yesterday's investigation into Jay-Z's chronic misadventures in the rock and roll world. Some wag in England had the bright idea of asking Jay how he would've reacted to meeting current best pal Chris Martin 24 years ago, back when Shawn Carter was 16. His answer probably wi ... More >>

Jay-Z's Ten Most Shameful Rock and Roll Moments

​Yesterday, it was announced that Jay-Z would be joining U2 on the band's five-date tour of Australia come November. It makes sense: in addition to commingling at the top of the Forbes 2010 Music Earners List, Jay-Z and U2 have performed together before--more than once, in fact. (Never forget ... More >>

Watch Jay-Z Perform at Nike's World Basketball Party at Radio City Music Hall Last Night

Here we have the third leg of the big-tent rap tripod that set up over an unwitting New York City last night, joining Rihanna's sold-out MSG stand and Kanye West's secret Rosewood performance in the annals of shows you really wanted to get into but couldn't. Preceding Shawn Carter was the 2010 USA ... More >>

Oh Look, Somebody Wrote Something Skeptical About Jay-Z On the Internet

​Now this is going to get embarrassing fast, riding out to the defense of a multi-millionaire every time somebody writes something terrifically ill-informed and misguided about him. That said. There are some provocations that are just too much--are surely intended to be too much--and starting ... More >>

Jay-Z Gave Press Conference, Helped Break Ground at Brooklyn's Barclays Center Today

At the press conference. Photo by Elliott Wilson.​Bowing out of one big municipal project one day, and breaking ground on another the next: can't knock Jay-Z's political hustle. Brooklyn's most famous son was on hand to both shovel dirt for the future Nets arena in Atlantic Yards and to join M ... More >>

David Paterson's Newest Political Scandal Is Jay-Z Related

​Probably a lot of this face going around this morning. And for good reason: embattled governor David Paterson is facing questions about the legitimacy of a late January billion dollar-plus contract Paterson awarded shady development corporation AEG to run the slot concession at Aqueduct Racet ... More >>

Please Welcome the Return of the Famous Jay-Z Gas Face

Let no one say Shawn Carter is not reliable. For two decades now, through rap thick and rap thin, hip-hop's most prickly superstar has had the looking-disgusted game on lock. Oh, you're Benny the Bull, the Chicago Bulls mascot, and you're seized with the desire to do the "Single Ladies" dance mere ... More >>

Jay-Z Will Get To Keep the "Z"

​What a relief. Proposed MTA "Doomsday" cuts in subway service that would've left Shawn Carter a letter short on his "nom de rap," as the New York Times so charmingly put it, have been revised, and the Z train saved. Too bad: Young Livery Cab will have to wait a bit longer to get pulled off th ... More >>

Pazz & Jop Bonus #2: The Voice Jay-Z Interview, Uncut

"I just love the Grizzly Bear. That project was great. It sounds like these church cathedral chords--it's just sick what they're doing." ​In 2009, Jay-Z rolled, grabbing his first number one record and--to the rapper's own surprise--a victory in our 37th Annual Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll. "When ... More >>

Jay-Z's 'Empire' Strikes Back at Last

His first #1 song is his first Pazz & Jop chart-topper as well. Go Yankees.

Jay-Z, Also a Rapper! For Snoop Dogg, Anyway: "I Wanna Rock (The Kings Remix)"

Jay-Z may or may not be old-school double-dark-chocolate-chunk black, or a sell out, or seventy-three inches of all-black everything, but he's definitely still a rapper, at least when he bothers to come down from the mountain and grace somebody like Snoop Dogg with a guest verse. The "The Kings G- ... More >>

On the Esquire Profile of Jay-Z That Is Making the Rounds Right Now

​First, like Sean said, no matter who you are--but perhaps especially if you look like this--even in 2010, do not write the following paragraph: But there is a deeper significance -- a racial philanthropy -- that perhaps neither man intended. Jay-Z is black black. He is old-school double-dar ... More >>

Jay-Z Now So Old His "Nom De Rap" Will Refer to A Defunct Subway Line

​Somewhere Big Third Avenue El is shaking his head in commiseration. Proposed total cuts in service to both the W and Z lines have New Yorkers understandably appalled, but leave it the New York Times to write the whimsical, "what will happen to Shawn Carter's rap name now?" article. They even ... More >>

Today in Way Too Much News About Jay-Z

​Jay-Z has a priority list, which lists his priorities, according to the NYDN. One of those priorities is putting a baby inside Beyonce: Her song "Single Ladies" is an Internet hit among dancing babies and now, Beyonce's working on a tot of her own. That's according to--get this--Jay-Z, B's ... More >>

The Yankees Swap Out Jay-Z For Mary J. Blige

After the Shawn Carter hex on the Phillies flagged badly on Monday--three does not make four, Jay!--the Yankees have apparently gone to their bullpen: Mary J. Blige will sing the National Anthem at the Stadium tonight. We'd say something undermining here, but when it comes to Mary, we've got nothi ... More >>

Jay-Z's Midlife Crisis Is Over

Which doesn't make The Blueprint 3 a classic. But we'll take it. For now.

In Praise of Assholes

Kanye can't rap. 50 is retrograde. Both are absolutely necessary.

The End of Eminem

Can Marshall come out and play? On his new album, Em just wants to be unremarkable.

Rapper-Mogul Fulfills Prophecies, Enjoys Early Retirement

Missy E for President

The Augustus Pablo of the mainstream underground takes her private pleasures public

What the Geezer Saw

Kings of New York

The Passing of the Mic

The New Bootleggers

Jay-Z's Hard-Knock Week

Jay-Z’s Hard Knock Week