Jay Z on Violence, Racism, and Censorship

Jay Z just did a new interview where he focusses on racism in the media and poverty in black communities. Jigga is an interesting character to me in that on the one hand he’s a poster boy for the bling crowd, but at the same time he seems far more willing to speak on serious issues like this then just about anyone else in the mainstream, this isn’t the first time he’s spoken on these issues and it probably won’t be the last. To me that speaks to a certain level of integrity in that – even though he’s obviously in a very different place from someone like me ideologically – he’s got enough respect for himself and the community he comes from that he’s not going to let the spotlight silence him when he wants to speak out on something.

here’s a chunk of the interview to get ya’ll started -

ON DEALING DRUGS

SS: It’s common knowledge that you dealt drugs when you were younger.

JZ: I’m not condoning it, but everyone chooses their path. I make no apologies for the path that I chose. People think that kids who become drug dealers are monsters. They’re not monsters, they’re just regular kids who are pushed up against the odds; and the odds keep putting the lights out on their hopes.

Look at the staggering number of Black and Latino youth who go to prison. That alone has to do something to your self-esteem, and that affects the entire community. Kids understand the dangers of dealing drugs or being a gangster, but often it’s better than what they already have in their lives. In their minds, even danger is better than that.

It’s very sad, and what’s sadder is there are some people in the hood who are very intelligent, but they have no outlets. It kind of makes you think that keeping poor people down was done by design; these areas haven’t gotten so out of hand by mistake.

SS: How were you able to choose a different path?

JZ: I guess because I was able to look towards the future. Most people wake-up and just deal with today. I realized that I couldn’t keep doing the same things and not have something bad happen to me. I knew I was going to go to jail or I was going to die. If you keep rolling the dice for ten years, it’s bound to catch-up to you.

I also realized that I had a remarkable talent and I was letting it go to waste. I didn’t have one foot in rap and the other in the drug game, I literally changed my life. You just can’t hold on to the branches like Donkey Kong.

ON RAP CENSORSHIP

SS: It doesn’t seem fair that Martin Scorsese or Denzel Washington are considered true artists when they portray gangsters, but if you or one of your contemporaries talks about street life then you’re dealing with Bill O’Reilly, Oparh Winfrey, Stanly Crouch and congressional hearings?

JZ: Of course, there is an imbalance, but I understand where it comes from. In hip-hop, the whole ‘keep it real’ has become more than a phrase. Scorsese and Denzel are not tied to the films they make, so people see the separation between art and life. Unfortunately, they don’t see that separation between Shawn Carter and Jay-Z. As far as they’re concerned, everything I talk about is happening for real. To them, at no point is it entertainment.

Rappers in general THEY ARE the guys telling their story. To me, real is just the basis for a great fantasy. Not everything I say in a song is true. I’ll take a small thing from life and build upon it, and usually it becomes a fantastic story.

SS: The song ‘Ignorant Shit’ touches on this subject. There are more curses and crime in a Tarantino movie, but nobody is dragging him off to a congressional hearing.

JZ: If rappers stop cursing tomorrow, is that going to fix the ghetto or the fact that our schools are fucked-up and the living-conditions are terrible. You can’t tell me not to say nigger or shit, that’s ridiculous to me. Is that really the problem? Are you serious?

Some people don’t understand the things people who live in these urban areas see in one day; and, that’s every single day.

Big ups to Davey D for sending this out, you can read the full interview at his blog.

Posted: December 10th, 2007 under hip hop.
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