Jay Z Research Paper

Shawn Carter, more commonly known to the public as Jay Z, is the 10th most awarded artist of all time. After taking a four-year hiatus from the music industry he has reappeared to release his thirteenth solo studio album “4:44”. Jay- Z was born in 1968 and raised by a single mom in Brooklyn's Marcy housing projects. Growing up during a time when coloreds sat away from the whites, the possibility of making it out of the projects was a slim to none chance. Jay in turn embraced street life, making a living for himself and his family by selling crack. During his crack selling occupation and spending his childhood during segregation times, Hov experienced many things that would later influence the narrative

In a matter of 4 minutes, 44 seconds or less he manages to deliver sound Marxist intellectual thought on wealth, class and status, which is especially highlighted in the second track of the album,
“The Story of OJ”.
Marxism is the idea that all throughout the history of human society there has always been a struggle of class, and that the bourgeois who in this case would be white people and the proletarian which are blacks/minority are always in opposition of one another (Mack, Ott 22).
Jay’s song is in accordance to the Marxist ideal of cultural imperialism. “The Story of OJ” opens

Ajilore 2 with the sound of a chopped and screwed remix of Nina Simone’s soulful crooning “Skin is, skin, is/Skin black, my skin is black/My, black”. The sample is a snippet from Simone’s “Four
Women”, a lyrical narrative which tells the story of four women with different tones of brown skin in differing social classes and how they all still face struggles. Jay Z’s chorus echoes Nina’s message, “Light nigga, dark nigga, faux nigga, real nigga/Rich nigga, poor nigga, house nigga, field nigga /Still nigga, still nigga”, repeated twice for emphasis. The allusion to Simone’s