By Laura Maxwell, Contributor and undergraduate at King’s College London
- Published as part of our ‘Deep Dive’ Section, promoting in-depth pieces which analyse underrepresented issues and challenge conventional narratives.
When Sean ‘JAY-Z’ Carter rapped ‘I’m not a business man, I’m a business, man,” little did he know he was speaking into existence the eventual reformation of his identity on the musical and cultural stage that would take place over the next ten years. For I doubt even JAY-Z himself could have imagined in 2008 that he was only in the infancy of what would become a hip-hop empire. In the first quarter of this year, it was announced that Carter had sold his 50 per cent stake in the champagne brand, Ace of Spades, to luxury goods company, LVMH, for a jaw-dropping $600 million. It was also during this time that Carter struck a deal to sell a majority stake in his premium music streaming service, Tidal, to twitter founder, Jack Dorsey, for almost $300 million. Combined, these deals added 40% to Carter’s already staggering net worth, which, according to Forbes magazine, currently sits at over $1.4 billion, earning the 99 problems rapper the title of hip hop’s first billionaire.
At this rate, JAY-Z’s commercial success is undeniable. He has crafted and built a dynasty centred on a number of entrepreneurial pursuits ranging from music, luxury goods, fashion and investment. Joyce Li has explained the mastery behind JAY-Z as business mogul; the rapper’s career and success “has shown that acquiring stakes across multiple industries will diversify income streams and reduce volatility since the investor is now more exposed to growth opportunities in different asset classes.” However, in my view, this is not what makes JAY-Z great or even unique. Ironically, despite being my personal favourite, JAY-Z’s poetic lyricism and two decades worth of discography is not what deciphers him from his hip hop peers, although it certainly helps. We had already seen rap stars entering into lucrative business transactions prior before Reasonable Doubt, Carter’s debut record, was even released. Dr Dre with Beats by Dre is a prime example. Once more, the hip hop aesthetic, such as the high-rise sneakers, the backward snap back or the chunky, over-the-top diamond chains, et cetera, had long since penetrated mainstream culture as centrepieces for Spike Lee films or photographed on up-and-coming basketball stars. JAY-Z’s majesty derives not from what he has made for himself, famous hip-hop artist JAY-Z, but what he has provided for others as his lesser-known self, Sean Carter. Throughout his career, he has defined and redefined what it means to ‘hustle’. From selling class A drugs on the streets of Brooklyn, to musical albums via his independently found record label, to staples of rap culture such as champagne and streetwear. JAY-Z has harnessed his influence and extended it to the locals of his old stomping ground, the Marcy housing projects, as well as to Black America and the wider world.
From the beginning of his career, when rap music was still considered a passing fad, JAY-Z injected blackness within white-owned or-dominated spaces. After being rejected by a number of music labels, Carter founded his own label, Roc-A-Fella Records, this name being intentionally reminiscent of one of the wealthiest families in history, the Rockefellers. This certainly set the tone for the lucrative pursuits Carter would undertake over the next fifteen years. In this time, Carter built his own space to create musically and developed a language of business which was inaccessible to the majority of his hip-hop and black contemporaries. As creative director, JAY-Z is not bound by preconceptions of blackness and hip-hop that permeated society in the early 90’s and which remain to this day. He was able to provide a platform to those like himself, affording opportunities previously unseen to black people en masse. Even after its increasing success, hip-hop and its emerging stars were not afforded the same respect or even legal protection as their white counterparts. Time and time again, artists were subjected to contract and artistic manipulation by white owned record labels and distributors. It was this way in which hip hop culture, and, therefore, black culture, was appropriated by the white mainstream; calling into question the ability of white society to love black culture but not its creators. But as an artist and man, JAY-Z rejected all of this. Producer Swizz Beats describes his long-term friend as something “…bigger than hip-hop…it’s the blueprint for our culture…”. For many at the time when his career was taking off, and still to this day, JAY-Z embodies an alternative path to the cyclical dilemma of street hustling and struggle. Once more, in rapping about racial injustice, discussing conflicts within his high-profile marriage to pop star, Beyonce, and, in recent years, growing out his natural hair, JAY-Z is promoting and affording currency to black culture and civility. In this sense, he is more than a rapper, producer or businessman. He is a brand; trail blazing a precedent for the future of hip-hop and black entrepreneurship. In many ways, he represents the epitome of black excellence; what is possible when one is provided with opportunity. Furthermore, Eric Michael Dyson argues in his book JAY-Z: Made in America, that the rapper represents both the struggle and glory of the American Dream, and how its symbolism intersects with both the everyday and macro-experience of blackness.
If all this weren’t enough, you can observe JAY-Z’s influence and legacy within the activities of his hip-hop peers. Nicki Minaj, who describes herself as somewhat of a prodigy of Carter, ventured into the business of perfume and beauty products, as well as women’s wear collections and even wine. Likewise, once Carter’s hip-hop rival turned friend, 90’s New York rap giant, Nasir Jones (known famously as Nas), invested in his own venture capital firm, Queensbridge Venture Partners. Founded in 2013, the company has since successfully invested in ventures surrounding financial technology and healthcare.
The cross-over between hip-hop and business speaks to the changing nature of what it means to be a musical star in our increasingly globalised world. Clearly, musical artists wield far wider influence beyond simply music. Since the 1990s, it is almost impossible to separate fashion trends from hip-hop and black culture, and this is largely in part due to the swagger and innovation of hip-hop stars. Business investment and ventures into atypical fields such as tech and energy companies also force us to grapple with typecasts about black people themselves. Long-standing black stereotypes such as stupidity, laziness or ignorance, which date as far back as the eighteenth century, are being eroded by the success of rap stars. Once more, as hip-hop garnered more popularity, with it came the attention and fascination of one unexpected group; middle-class whites. The 90s itself saw the rise of one of the most famous (and white) rappers of all time, Eminem, and out of the next decade emerged artists such as the late Mac Miller and, more recently, Jack Harlow. Such fixation by white society on black expression reshapes socio-racial dynamics.
However, it is also within this dialogue that a somewhat uncomfortable paradox lies. It has been argued that hip-hop culture, largely the individual activities of rap stars, feeds into these exact stereotypes. The promotion of drug-taking, promiscuity and violent crime is deeply intertwined with the origins of the genre, leading many outsiders to draw conclusions about the legitimacy of hip-hop itself. This is undoubtedly the result of the brutal reality of economic and social repression being relayed into the art of those on the receiving end, but it is impossible to disagree that rap culture does encapsulate particular imagery of moral decadence and criminality. Nonetheless, the successful entrepreneurial pursuits of rap stars counteract these criticisms, and the consequences are two-fold. On the one hand, it is forcing white society to see black culture as complex and multifaceted; it is more than the plaything of whites to appropriate when it is in vogue. On the other, it posits exemplary standards for younger generations. Being able to see across multi-media platforms black success in a variety of disciplines can only encourage an environment of excellence and opportunity.
So, where does JAY-Z fit into this? It is because of business savvy artists like himself that these two worlds can collide; creating a new, intersecting space for musical, economic and cultural innovation. The life and career of Sean Carter reads almost narratively to the unfolding and transformation of racial dynamics within American society whilst also reenforcing what we already understood about the way in which racism operates. JAY-Z continues to invest financially as well as emotionally back into his community and, simultaneously, is reshaping exactly who that community is. When I think of the accomplishments and successes to which the long-standing reign of Sean ‘JAY-Z’ Carter’s legacy is built upon, his music would almost definitely be at the bottom end of the list.
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