This decade, as I already discussed, marks the beginning of a new era in pop. From the beginning of the twenties to the end of the fifties, the pop world was ruled by jazz. From the end of the fifties to the end of the nineties, by rock. And from the end of the nineties, by hip-hop. What do these three styles have in common? That's right, they were all originally black styles, which became ascendant when they were adopted by white musicians. But while in previous times the blacks were cast aside once whites took control, now we live at a time when superstardom is open to African-Americans, and even a decade after Eminem's breakout, hip-hop is still dominated by blacks. Out of the black superstars who steered hip-hop in this decade, Jay-Z was the most prominent.
One of hip-hop's main characteristics is of course the vocal style, namely rapping, and one of the revolutions caused by rap is in the attitude towards language. In rock'n'roll, the vocals are a primal scream, an expression of urges and feelings that are predominant to language, and this scream welds and distorts the words to the point of losing shape - a good rock'n'roll singer is almost unintelligible. The words are an instrument to dig deep into yourself and draw out these primary emotions, and therefore must be very expressive. Rap, on the other hand, started out as a form of singing that turns the rapper into a vocal percussive instrument. The words were initially selected for their onomatopoeic quality, and even later, when rap started to pay more attention to lyrics, this quality remained. The result was that all words in language became of the same importance: in rap, there is no such thing as "a deep expression" and "a trivial expression" - all expression are of the same rank, and measured by their ability to resonate percussively in that place in the record. This leveling enabled rap to attack everyday speech, dismantle it, instill new conceptual combinations in it, turn its biases on their head, and then deconstruct and reconstruct it all over again. And since the consciousness behind everyday language was determined by white culture, it gave blacks the power to undermine its preconditions and create new ones.
Jay-Z is in a position that rappers of previous decades never reached. He is all at once a pop star, and also a representative of hardcore rap; an entertainer, and also a gangsta-rapper; speaks highbrow language, and also the language of the streets; rubbing shoulders with world leaders, and also with convicts. That compels him to change positions all the time, but his liquid rap flows smoothly through the different perspectives, deconstructing and reconstructing in techniques that were developed in decades of hip-hop. His conceptual world is also richer as a result, and he weaves the concepts together masterfully to create a new kind of poetry, and further extend the boundaries. His music also displays the eclectic variety of latter-day hip-hop, and samples from everywhere, manifesting its universal outlook. Jay-Z is a pop superpower, a delegate of a musical style in full bloom.
Out of all the many good records he put out this decade, this is my favorite. Manifesting Jay-Z's abilities as a poet, musician and rapper, meandering through his different worlds, and providing the motto: we must remain fresh all the time, so let's change clothes, and go.
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