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Do We Care About These Jay-Z Interviews? · Hip-Hop Now Podcast

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  Speaker 1: One of the perks of being a member, and that's
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  Speaker 1: sometimes I'll tap in. to the members, tapping to the
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  Speaker 1: people who support the podcast to see what they think.
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  Speaker 1: And what we think is today begins a new style show.
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  Speaker 1: You heard the intro, right? So it's a different, but
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  Speaker 1: the same show. We're going to start to focus on
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  Speaker 1: the story of the week. Previously, we used to do
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  Speaker 1: multiple stories and then I shrunk it down to three stories.
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  Speaker 1: But what I find is Sometimes people really only care
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  Speaker 1: about one or two stories. And sometimes with social media,
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  Speaker 1: y'all know like I know, there's always like a hot
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  Speaker 1: topic that people have been arguing about or debating for
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  Speaker 1: the week. And this week, even though this has been
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: going on for a little while, does anybody care about
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  Speaker 1: this Jay-Z interview series on HBO? I haven't watched it yet.
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  Speaker 1: And let me tell you why I say that. So
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  Speaker 1: Jay-Z has an original series on HBO Max called Jay-Z
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: in Eight. Eight episodes. But the eight is like an
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  Speaker 1: affinity sign. It's right here on, you know, if you
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: watch a video. Affinity sign, you know, Jay-Z in affinity,
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  Speaker 1: you know, infinite. Um, and I guess it's supposed to
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  Speaker 1: be eight episodes. Looks like there are six right now,
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  Speaker 1: but it says season one also, which is interesting, but
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  Speaker 1: he's being interviewed about his career, uh, with Rick Rubin.
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  Speaker 1: And at the time that it was announced, this was,
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  Speaker 1: I believe this was not too long after he did
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  Speaker 1: the Yankee stadium. Um, concert, somewhere in between that and
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  Speaker 1: the other concert he did, I think, overseas. It was
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  Speaker 1: supposed to really give you a deep dive and insight
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  Speaker 1: into Jay-Z's music, his lyrics, his inspirations, his career moments.
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  Speaker 1: What does he think about certain subjects or certain moments,
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  Speaker 1: I should say, in hip hop history, specifically around his time, um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, motivations be behind moves and things he did.
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  Speaker 1: And at first I'm not going to lie to y'all.
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  Speaker 1: Like when the blueprint and, um, reasonable doubt anniversary came
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  Speaker 1: up and a lot of things were being announced, I
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  Speaker 1: was kind of into it, but then I found myself like,
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  Speaker 1: I didn't go to the show, but I was on vacation.
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  Speaker 1: So vacation took first place. Okay. Um, And then I
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: was like, I'm going to buy some vinyl, which I
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: still plan to do. But I didn't. Right. Because I
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  Speaker 1: was like, I need to get Reza Boudin. I probably
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  Speaker 1: need to get the blueprint. But I didn't. And then
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  Speaker 1: when this show was announced, I'm like, well, I'm definitely
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  Speaker 1: watching that because I know it's going to be well produced.
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  Speaker 1: I don't follow Rick Rubin's podcast, but the episode he
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: when he interviewed Reza. I thought it was excellent because
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  Speaker 1: I felt like I was learning new things about RZA
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  Speaker 1: and his motivation, especially production wise today, you know, because
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: I had questions like, man, why RZA can't get back
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  Speaker 1: in pocket? I know you can't duplicate the past, but
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  Speaker 1: you know, sometimes you stay so far away from the past,
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  Speaker 1: you got enough energy to be able to conjure up,
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  Speaker 1: you know, that who you were back then, that motivation
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: back then. And, um, You know, it was just interesting
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  Speaker 1: to hear RZA talk about those things and talk about
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: the later Wu albums that aren't really even talked about
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  Speaker 1: at all. So I figured, oh, well, Rick Rubin knows
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: how to ask the right questions. We're probably going to
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: get stories from Jay-Z that we've never heard of or
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: perspectives from Jay-Z that we never heard from him in
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: any interview. And it started And I hadn't watched, and
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: at first I was telling myself, you know what, maybe
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: I'll just binge. Well, hold up, how long is the episode? Well,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: that ain't happening. Some of these joints are like 40.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I could binge an interview. But
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: I was like, maybe I'll just binge them. So let
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: me wait. And then I started to see clips online,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: you know, and some of the things that were clipped
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: were things– I either knew because it was said back then,
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  Speaker 1: either by Jay-Z or someone close to him, or things
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  Speaker 1: that I figured would be his opinion, you know, and
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: being right, which is kind of disappointing because you want
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: to learn something new about his perspective, especially when it
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: comes to Biggie and Pac. And then the lyrics, like, Him, sometimes,
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  Speaker 1: you know, they talk about a song and he would
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: say the lyrics and break down the lyrics. And I
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: feel like, yeah, I knew all of that. I kind
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: of knew that. But more importantly, it's not my reaction
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  Speaker 1: because I'm still in a place where I might just
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: watch anyway. But I don't feel like it. And what
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: made me feel that way was nobody's talking about this. Nobody.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: You know how when a show, okay, obviously not nobody.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: When I say nobody, I mean, I expected every time
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  Speaker 1: there was an episode, hip hop, social media would dissect
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: and talk about it. Content creators would be creating content
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: based off of each episode, reviewing each episode. But I
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: don't see none of that at all. Even Jay-Z fans
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  Speaker 1: aren't posting like, yo, when Jay said this, man, I
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: went and bought some stock. I'm not seeing any of it.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: And I had to say to myself, maybe as a
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: person who hasn't watched yet, maybe I'm right and I
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: haven't even seen it. Maybe it's nothing there. Now, I
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: did see one person who said, Rick Rubin didn't do
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: a great job because he wasn't digging deep enough with
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the questions. Now, one or two things can be true. One, sure,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: maybe they just had a plan of what they wanted
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  Speaker 1: to ask. And they both found that more intriguing than
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: anything else, especially gossip. And that's the road they went down.
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  Speaker 1: Or maybe he did ask him some more interesting things.
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  Speaker 1: And maybe when Jay-Z watched it back, he was like, nah,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: take that out. I don't want people to think that's that.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Take that out. Blah, blah, blah. But the crazy part
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  Speaker 1: about it all is the fact that this is Jay-Z
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  Speaker 1: with the locks. So this is Jay-Z before the concert.
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  Speaker 1: This is Jay-Z before the freestyles. This is Jay-Z before
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: he basically attacked some of his fans that were upset
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: that he made a deal with Target. Remember, he was like,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: y'all be ordering Amazon and blah, blah, blah. And I
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: thought that was kind of whack. Like, man, don't say nothing.
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  Speaker 1: I get you, it's your business deal, it's your conscience, whatever,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: do whatever you want to do. But I think he
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  Speaker 1: deflated the momentum with that before this interview came out.
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  Speaker 1: Because y'all know, like I know, if you watch this channel,
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  Speaker 1: I've been anticipating a new album. But can he do that?
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Because nobody's watching this. The quality is shot perfectly. The
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  Speaker 1: quality is great. It's like black and white, but it's
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  Speaker 1: this really crisp looking black and white interview style. Rick
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  Speaker 1: Rubin hair all over the place. Jay-Z hair all over
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: the place. And it just kind of feels, you know
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  Speaker 1: what it feels like? It feels like something that should
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: have dropped right after the Yankee Stadium concert or right before.
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  Speaker 1: But you could tell there's a form of rollout happening.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't think it's working. I think the momentum
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  Speaker 1: is down. Now, there is a rumor, and not about
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: a new album, which I wish he would have addressed
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: some of the things about himself on a new album
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: as opposed to just freestyle. But there's a rumor that
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Jay-Z and Beyonce are going to be the halftime show. Now,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: right after that Yankee Stadium joint, the concert, Announcement like
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: that would have went crazy. But now, nobody's really giving
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: a shit about this interview. Then every time I turn around,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: somebody's sending me a video of Beyonce and something going
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: on with her lower parts of her body. Like she
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: got implants or took something out. I don't know. I'm like, what?
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know. So it kind of feels like, not
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: that everybody hates them both now, but that Jay-Z and
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Beyonce doing the Super Bowl would have been a bigger
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: draw a few months back before the concert, right? Before
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the Yankee Stadium concert. Now, that doesn't mean if they
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: announce or they drop albums and people like it that
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: things couldn't change. But what I feel with this interview,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: it's almost like missing the mark. It's almost as if
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: when Jay-Z had the Reasonable Doubt and Blueprint concert at
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Yankee Stadium, that felt like the peak of this situation.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Because this is the last thing I'm going to say
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: before we bounce. The lead up to the concert was
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: kind of lightweight, right? He was releasing singles on, you know, social,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: not social media, but music streaming platforms that didn't previously
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: have these singles, you know, from back in the day.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: And I thought that was cool, but it didn't feel
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: like there was momentum behind that. Right. And then the
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: 30th anniversary of Reasonable Doubt dropped and I felt like
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: there was some decent momentum there, but the concert felt
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: like it was, the way people reacted, posted, like it
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: was huge. And then it got a little quiet and
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: I kind of felt like, again, this series of interviews
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: should have started like that next weekend or whatever it
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: was or just, and all the episodes should have been
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: available at once because week to week, nobody's watching because
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: there doesn't seem to be much there that you didn't
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: already know, or you have interest in, or, you know,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: you don't mess with them anymore because of the target stuff.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: It just felt like the momentum is gone. So do
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: we even care whether Jay Z drops a new album?
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Does the Superbowl with Beyonce? I don't know. I'm somewhere, honestly,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: I'm somewhere in the middle. I still want to hear
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: a new album. Um, I don't want to hear no
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: more about, you know, what happened throughout his career. And
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: that's only because, you know, I was there from the beginning.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Whereas this may be more interesting to others, but it's
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: not really doing anything for something that looked like it
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: was expensive and cost a lot of man hours to
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: put together. It looks great. Now, will I watch it?
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Probably eventually, you know, I'll, I'll, tap into one episode
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: and see if, you know, that episode grabs me. And then,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe I'll just watch them all because I
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: am a Jay-Z fan. So what do you think? Are
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: you watching Jay-Z's interview series with Rick Rubin on HBO Max,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Jay-Z in eight or in affinity or whatever it's called?
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Leave your comments and your review of it in the
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: comment section. And also, during this video and at the
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: end of this video will be a link to uh
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: me and my homie jay celebrating 30 years of jay-z's
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: debut album reasonable doubt which dropped in 96 and what's
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: great about that re-review of that album is things that
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: happened then me and him attending a black school morgan
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: state university if you're watching the video happy homecoming uh
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: And just listening to that album, Living It, Jay-Z did
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: a few concerts down there, and we got some exclusive moments, including,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: and y'all know this, I've done it more than once,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: including me showing off the original Reasonable Doubt CD, not
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the Def Jam one. You'll see. The case is broken
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: and everything. You'll see. The one that I bought back
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: in 1996. So check that out. You can follow me
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  Speaker 1: this kind of content. Until next time, y'all. I'm not
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: a critic. I'm a fan. Peace.