Jay Z Worth $450 Million and Growing. New book "Decoded" Coming Soon

Wall Street Journal article by John Jurgensen

The State of Jay-Z's Empire

He's worth an estimated $450 million and hobnobs with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. How the Brooklyn-born performer has become the leading music impresario of his generation.

In the early days of his entrepreneurship, there were awkward exchanges with white-collar guys trying to relate. "In the beginning it was ' 'Sup, man!' " he says in his soft speaking voice. "But at this point, it's pretty much accepted that I walk both worlds naturally."

And yet, he chafes at the lack of respect for a genre that some people still dismiss wholesale because of ugly words and violent imagery. W hen he shares strawberry malts with Warren Buffett, confers with the president, or even vacations in St. Tropez, he does so on behalf of "the culture," he says, by which he means hip-hop.

Now, to state his case more clearly, the rapper born Shawn Carter has turned to prose. His first book, "Decoded," to be published Nov. 16, is a hybrid of music history, social commentary and memoir, with an emphasis on his transition from the crack trade to the music business. The 336-page book is structured around the lyrics to 36 Jay-Z songs, each footnoted to unpack his allusions, slang and double entendres. This couplet, "No lie, just know I chose my own fate/I drove by the fork in the road and went straight," is explained in footnote 16 to the song "Renegade": "I went straight—stopped selling drugs—but I also didn't accept the false choice between poverty and breaking the law." Microsoft put up about $1 million for the marketing of the book.

He had rejected proposals to write a conventional business-strategy book. "Our ambition was never to just fit into the corporate mold, it was to take it over and remake that world in our image," he writes in a footnote to "Operation Corporate Takeover," a song that rhymes "reverse merger" with "no need to converse further."

read the rest at onlinewsj.com

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Jay Z, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith Present Fela on Broadway

Urban Chameleon news

The fact that a show about the life of the Nigerian, activist, musician, Fela Anikulapo Kuti has been brought to Broadway with the help of Jay Z, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith- is pretty spectacular! In going to see the show Fela last Saturday I would encourage you to buy your tickets today and see for yourself how unbelievably powerful this musical is. It is not to be missed!

Jay-Z, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith Have Joined ‘Fela!’ as Producers

By PATRICK HEALY

Jay-Z, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have signed on as producers of the new Broadway musical “Fela!” and will attend the show’s opening night at the Eugene O’Neill Theater next Monday, Nov. 23, a publicist for the production said.

“Fela!” represents the first time that Jay-Z and the Smiths have joined a producing team of a Broadway show. Their artistic involvement in the musical is bound to be minimal, given that the show is already in previews and had a critically acclaimed run Off Broadway last year.

But the presence of three high-wattage celebrities at opening night, and the likelihood that they will promote the show through television appearances and media interviews, is bound to raise the public profile of “Fela!” at a time when theatergoers have plenty of choices for Broadway musicals.

Revivals of “Ragtime,” “Finian’s Rainbow,” and “Bye Bye Birdie” opened this fall, as did the new musical “Memphis,” and the much-anticipated revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” opens next month. Several musical entries from last season, like “Billy Elliot,” “Hair” and “Next to Normal,” are still going strong.

Conceived by the Tony Award-winning choreographer Bill T. Jones, “Fela!” centers on the life and work of the Afrobeat superstar Fela Anikulapo Kuti. There are no widely known stars in the cast, which makes the involvement of Jay-Z and the Smiths even more of a boon for marketing purposes. It was not known on Monday how much money the three had invested in the musical; the three were not immediately available for interviews, said the publicist, Billy Zavelson.

He also confirmed that the opening date would be Nov. 23, as originally scheduled. At first, Jay-Z had a scheduling conflict for Nov. 23, so the 24th became an option if the Smiths could rearrange their own calendar. But the alignment of the three stars has been worked out, and all of them will be making a relatively rare red-carpet appearance on Broadway.

source from artsbeat.blog

How do we feel about the use of the “N” word today?

By today’s Urban Chameleon contributor

Editor-in-chief of HOTUC

HaJ

What began as casual dinner conversation the other night soon turned into a round table debate on whether or whether not the “N” word should be apart of our vocabulary.

One minute a group of about six of us were laughing, choppin’ it up when someone coolly used the “N” word and the next thing you know another person reacted, “GOD I HATE THAT WORD!”

The person who used the word told him to get over it and stop with the “Black consciousness” as if to say that that fad got played out in the late 90’s.

The “Black Conscious” brotha was then put in the spotlight to defend his position, a position most of us are well to familiar with and even still agree with, which is that the word stems from hate, a derogatory term used to keep Black people down.

A counter argument was made by another, a Latino guy at the table, “Why not change the meaning of the word and take the power out of it?” which is the same point I heard Jay Z make on Oprah just a few days later. Oprah said that she and J would have to agree to disagree, as she could not change her hurtful past relationship with the word.

In thinking more about the suggested solution I can’t help but to wonder if changing the meaning of the word just disguises the negative effect of its origin, which is that we were called the “N” word so much that we eventually began to call ourselves the name in some situations to even assume approval from the slave master and to put down our own kind. I call this slave residue- more on that another time. By changing the meaning of the word will there be rules that apply? For instance does everyone now get to use the word? Because if not that means power still exists in the word…and are we ready for that trade off?

A friend of mine who despises the word in a different conversation brought up the point, “Would Jay Z refer to Barack as his Nigga?” She didn’t think so. Therefore what does that say about how Jay Z looks at his fellow brethrens? Another friend countered this point by mentioning that 1) the term is usually used in the setting of familiarity and 2) more importantly, Barack does not come from that culture. This I thought was a great point as we often assume a person is suppose to behave a certain way based on skin color rather than perspective/ culture as I have Asian and Latino friends (from the culture) who use the word and my reaction is the same as listening to a Jay Z album, immune.

Although I personally choose not to use the word despite growing up in the same culture for my two very proud Black conscious parents who share Oprah’s generation would have had my head. I do however recognize that some of my fellow Urban Chameleon brethrens and sistrens—chameleon back and forth with their use of the word from corporate to ‘hood and do I mind? Honestly no. Because these are Urban Chameleons who like Jay Z know that they are not niggas. What I do mind is that not enough people in the ‘hood who use the word know this.

The problem with trying to redefine the word as something else is that this only works for people informed in the first place and then you have the problem of this being an open invitation for other cultures to eventually use the word (if not already)… and let’s be real the “N” word is too complex for rules. If everyone is not operating with the same level of understanding it leaves too much room for misinterpretation and may just perpetuate a problem that was never fixed.

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Jay Z on Oprah

Urban Chameleon news

It's moments like this where you kick yourself for moving out the 'hood! I cannot believe I was not there when Jay Z brought Oprah back to Marcy projects just blocks away from where I grew up. "From Brooklyn to the Boardroom" as Oprah put it (an Urban Chameleon line I might add) I'm just mad that I was in the boardroom when my ass shoulda been in Brooklyn!

Well if you missed, experience it here





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Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly try to understand Jay Z

by today’s Urban Chameleon contributor Black&Complicated










It is always interesting to me how there are some people who only see the world black or white, good or bad and take for granted the gray areas. Do these people ever really experience life instead of playing a bystander because life my friend is very, very, very, gray...

In this short segment Bill O’ Reilly and Glenn Beck try to understand if Jay Z is a “good guy” or “bad guy” as if they have the credentials to make this determination. Confused that one minute he’s performing a “racial rap” about president Obama and the next minute he is doing a charity for the families of the police and fire fighters lost during 9/11. Sorry guys…this stuff is just too complicated for your colorless no spin zone but not for the Urban Chameleon.



On the flip side the ‘hood is reported to be upset that Jay Z did the charity in the first place knowing the blood filled history between the ‘hood and cops in addition to the racism that’s taken place with in the Fire Department; not hiring more people of color. Damn Jay more money, more problems. I’m telling you yall..being Black... it's complicated.

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Jay Z on Bill Maher

Urban Chameleon news

Who isn't a fan of Jay Z? Bill Maher certainly is and chops it up with the ROC in one of his very few television appearances.



Since HBO has had the video removed off line I've had to search for pieces over the internet.

click here for more of the "piece"

How the Urban Chameleon Came to Be...

by creator and editor-in-chief HaJ

One day, a group of friends and I were sitting around trying to think of a term that best describes people like us who approach the world from parallel perspectives, having mastered the skill of seamlessly transitioning into corporate America—from its private grade school classrooms, ivy league universities, corporate board rooms and social climbing ladders—back out into our bilingual/patois/urban slang speaking, hip winding, kinky hair handling and curry spice eating America.

We are the approaching 30ty sumptin', urban professionals of color born into the hip hop generation and raised by parents who were in search of a better life having migrated from the Caribbean, South America and Africa or those born here who lived to see Jim Crow Laws become the Civil Rights Movement— They shared an ambition of carving out their road towards the Great American Dream. Our families made homes for us in the largely immigrant communities nestled in the metro-city 'hoods of Brooklyn, Queens, Harlem and the Bronx where a walk down our street could still served up bangin’ plates of rice and peas, curry goat, plantanos, and collard greens and the rhythm of the streets were a flavorful mix of Afro-Caribbean-Latino-Hip Hop that would easily seduce us into gyrating our hips. We reveled in the pulse and comfort of our urban/Latino/Caribbean ‘hood, but when it came to our education our world stopped. It was as if the batteries in the boom box died and the sensuous aromas of all that good food was locked in the freezer. Having to wake up an extra two hours earlier every day to get ready for our commute, we witnessed, through sleepy eyes, regentrification at its finest as we were sent across town where we were only one of two kids of color in the best private schools. Our parents would drop us off, tell us just how much they loved us and off we were to learn another kind of world. A world that we would have to know if we were going to one day run a company or maybe even...a country.

We did what kids do and tried to fit in, realizing that rules in school were different, simply defined by someone else’s culture. Even the way they played “red light green light” was different from how we played it around the way. But after a while, having learned the new rules, we no longer fit in around-the-way. Soon, names like "Oreo" were whispered in our direction condemning us for the verbs we were now conjugating. Our families set aside our tears and feelings of isolation that came along with struggling to define ourselves in opposing worlds and instead took comfort in knowing that we were being prepared for a fiercely competitive world.

We continued to thug our way between the two worlds keeping up with Yo MTV Raps and -refining our best versions of the whop, Kid ‘n Play and the boggle for those around-the-way dance offs and our families continued to endure laborious work and financial strain as they often handed over their last dollar for our classical music lessons and summer travels around the world.

So, who did we end up becoming?

Today we are the cross-sector, world traveling, social switching consumers that can be found pumping down Fifth Ave in our Louboutin’s with a Bergdorf shopping bag trying to catch transportation back to the ‘hood for those two dollar codfish fritters before going to see the Dominicans to get our hair done.

We are the over achiever who works through the night prepping PowerPoint presentations to an iPod shuffle playlist of Lil’ Weezy, Jay Z and Buju Banton – and then maybe flip it to Jamiroquai and then brings it down with some Yo-Yo Ma

We’re the ones who identify the Caribbean/Latino/African customer representative, switch into the dialect of their homeland and score ourselves a free bump to first class then sit back with a glass of Kir Royal and chuckle at the person next to us who tries to figure us out peeping our selected reading material of The New Yorker, Financial Times and Vibe Magazine (with T-Pain in platinum and diamond fronts on the cover)

But that’s okay, we’re accustomed to the confused looks, inquisitive stares and the ignorant questions from those who can’t seem to figure us out— Not quite Cosby kids and not quite Bebe’s kids. We inherited our family’s hustle mentality with a cosmopolitan twist where we go from skiing in the Alps of Switzerland to being upside down gyrating on a float at a West Indian Day Parade.

We are Urban Chameleons.

One thing is for sure: no matter what your cultural background, the ticket to the American Dream is still embedded in White America. So, we know there must be all kinds of chameleons here hustlin' towards their American dream as they juggle more than one kind of world. These are just our tales as we know them and we find humor and comfort in sharing them…this is the journey of the Urban Chameleon.

Please enjoy and contribute to the journey.