Jay-Z calls himself the best rapper alive, and he’s made a cool half billion dollars off his talent — but when it comes to giving money to the charity he founded, he’s recently been more of a nickel-and-dime kind of guy.
The Daily reports, the hip-hop artist gave just $6,431 to his own charity in 2010, a year in which he earned an estimated $63 million, according to tax records for the Shawn Carter Scholarship Fund.
His superstar wife, Beyoncé, made in the neighborhood of $87 million, according to a Forbes estimate — yet she didn’t give her husband’s foundation a dime. Read More
Shawn Carter, better known as Jay-Z who welcomed daughter Blue Ivy with wife Beyonce earlier this month, stepped out solo for the big launch of Manhattan’s 40/40 Club, unveiling the hotspot’s new renovations.
The hip-hop superstar was joined by his celebrity friends, among them singer Ashanti, Russell Simmons, director Spike Lee, record producer Irv Gotti, rapper Wale, The Roots star QuestLove and billionaire Warren Buffett.
More pics after the jump. Read More
According to Billboard, Jay-Z’s recent song “Glory,” which featured a recordIng of his daughter Blue Ivy’s first moments after birth, entered the Billboard Hip Hop/R&B charts at No. 74 this weekend. As a result, the daughter of the Roc Nation impresario, who is credited as B.I.C. on the song, became the youngest person to ever be featured on the Billboard charts only 48 hours after her birth.
Having already grossed $48 million on their “Watch The Throne” tour, Jay-Z and Kanye West recently added to their GWOP bank accounts with another significant payday for a private show in Dubai before Christmas.
NME reports The Throne earned $6 million dollars to perform at the Sweet 16 birthday party of multi billionaire Manchester Football Club owner, Sheikh Mansour’s niece. Hov and Yeezy received $2.9 million each, pocket change for Mansour, whose wealthy family rules oil-rich Abu Dhabi. Read More
Kanye West and Jay Z‘s Watch the Throne album has produced its first top 10 single with “N***a in Paris.”
A couple of weeks ago the song reached #9 on Billboard’s Radio Songs chart. And this week, “Paris” sits at #8 on the Hot 100 chart after climbing up from #15.
The single’s chart position now gives Jay Z 18 Top 10 singles, which is the most earned by a rapper. Jay passes Lil’ Wayne and Ludacris, who both have 17 of their own. In case you’re wondering, Kanye has 14 chart topping singles so far.
In related news, Jay Z announced today that he will be performing at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City on February 6 and 7. On the honor, he said:
“It’s every artists dream to play a venue as legendary as Carnegie Hall. The fact that I can use the arts and my talent to benefit the education of the next generation of artists, entrepreneurs, and great thinkers makes for a legendary night. I’m proud to be a part of the continuing work of United Way of New York City and expanding the Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation.”
Fred Hampton Jr. (the son of the late Illinois Black Panther Party chairman, Fred Hampton, Sr)
The son of late African American activist Fred Hampton, Fred Hampton, Jr., has lashed back at rap mogul Jay-Z for making a reference to his slain father on the new Watch the Throne album.
“I arrived the same day Fred Hampton died.”
The above line is said by Jay-Z on the song “Murder To Excellence” off Watch The Throne. The line pays homage to the fallen leader of the Black Panther Party who was killed on December 4, 1969 when Chicago police and FBI agents stormed into his apartment and opened fire on a sleeping Fred Hampton. Jay-Z was born on the same day, leading Jay to make the statement above on Watch The Throne, alluding to how he was given life on the same day it was taken from Hampton, as the line ends “real n***as just multiply.”
During a film screening of “The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975” and panel at University of Chicago on Saturday, Fred Hampton Jr. shared his feelings on the song lyric and Jay-Z. Speaking to a crowd at the University’s International House, Hampton voiced his displeasure with the lyric, saying that Jay-Z has twisted that truth. “Fred Hampton didn’t die,” Hampton Jr. said. “He was assassinated. Saying Fred Hampton died is like the school teacher telling students that Christopher Columbus discovered America.” He later went on to refer to Jay-Z as Slave-Z, questioning his motives on the record.
Checkout the record yourself. Is Jay Z paying homage or is Fred Hampton Jr. overreacting? Whatever the case may be Jay & Kanye raised awareness about the topic of Fred Hampton Sr.
A sociology course about Jay -Z is being taught at Georgetown University by author and professor Michael Eric Dyson. The course textbook is Hova’s “Decoded.”
New York rapper Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter is selling Occupy Wall Street themed t-shirts with the words “Occupy All Streets” labeled on them through his Rocawear clothing line. The problem protesters have with Jigga Man is his unwillingness to donate any of the profits from the $22 t-shirts to their cause.
Artist Daniel Edwards has sculpted a piece that depicts Hov wearing chains and a dollar sign around his neck, with Richie Rich on top of his head along with notorious cheapskates, Mr Burns of The Simpsons and Scrooge McDuck.
“I think Jay-Z has made himself a face of [the] Wall Street that Occupiers are protesting against,” said Edwards. “Maybe Jay-Z is striving to be in the one percent? Which is why I chose the composition of a totem pole because I thought it would resemble the number one. Rap stars who turn ‘Scrooge’ have to suffer some damage to their street credibility.”
Just one year after Jay-Z’s Decoded hit bookshelves, the New York Times bestselling book will be re-released on November 1. Featured in a new expanded paperback edition, the re-release will contain a new chapter, seven additional illustrations, three decoded songs: “I Know”, “Young Gz”, “Lost Ones” and a new afterword.
What still excites me about rap is that it’s an open thread, a cipher that listeners find their own meanings in. The point of this book is not to settle arguments or transform rap songs into neat stories with a beginning, middle, and end. Rather, I’m trying to point readers to some ideas and information, get them to see deeper into the music than they saw before and learn more about worlds different from their own (or find new ways of looking at the worlds they already know)—to find their own meanings and connect them back to their own lives. I want readers to see the craft and learn the context—and I want them to still be able to feel the magic, and enjoy the show. —JAY-Z, from the new Afterword
GWOP MAGAZINE 