In a fawning magazine spread released Wednesday, New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet breathlessly hails Jay-Z as the multitalented moral beacon for a generation.
Just as a reminder, Jay-Z once wrote a whole song that could easily come off as praising OJ Simpson.
Baquet starts the spread out strong, making it abundantly clear that the rapper is exactly as flashy and bloated as he seems. He lays it all on the table from the start:
Besides O.J. and racial identity, we talked about his mother’s sexuality, and how he could possibly raise socially aware children who shuttled between mansions.
Not sure why Jay-Z should be concerned about his mother’s sexuality whatsoever, but that’s besides the point. How could Jay -Z, the 47-year-old man child with an alleged adultery habit and some questionable views on Jews, raise his child to be socially conscious? Between the fur coats and the fancy cars, how was he going to bend his 5 year old’s ear about gender wars and color divides?
But this newfound fondness for activism shouldn’t come as a surprise for somebody who’s been hailed by President Obama personally, for being a true “friend” and an “American original.”
Obama inducts JAY Z into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. pic.twitter.com/cgW0yzenDW
— Karen Civil (@KarenCivil) June 16, 2017
What’s really striking about Jay-Z’s feature is his discussion of his wife. When questioned about his infidelity, he kind of brushes it off.
“You have to survive. So you go into survival mode…You shut down all emotions. So, even with women, you gonna shut down emotionally, so you can’t connect…And then all the things happen from there: infidelity.”
Yeah, classic survival mode stuff. A multi-millionaire gets so freaked out by crowds and allegations sometimes that he’s just gotta shut down and allegedly cheat. Happens to the best of us.
He also underhandedly takes a dig at Beyonce’s work, or at least puts his in a league of its own.
“[I was] really proud of the music she made, and she was really proud of the art I released,” he tells Baquet.
Hysterical, since most critics argue that Beyonce is more powerful than her husband. But yeah, just keep saying you make art and your wife just makes songs.
His final discussion of Kanye West shows just how egotistical he really is. Jay-Z criticizes West, saying he’s “highly evolved” but overly “compassionate.” He brilliantly justifies the character flaw by pivoting back to himself, saying he can “identify with it,” but he essentially wouldn’t do the same things.
It must be hard to be such a good person like Jay-Z. Between hailing OJ, cheating on Beyonce, stabbing a producer in the neck, and making barely legal trips to Cuba, it’s gotta get exhausting.