Jay-Z
Where: Verizon Center, 601 F St. NW
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Info: $42 to $122; ticketmaster.com
The secret is out.
For all the testosterone-fueled bravado Jay-Z projects, he really is a lot nicer, deeper and funnier than you might expect.
At least so says Elvis Mitchell, a writer for Interview magazine who recently wrote a multipage article about the man originally known as Shawn Corey Carter.
“In rap years I’m like the Rolling Stones or U2,” Carter said when asked about his longevity in hip-hop, where new icons continually replace veterans. “… I never wanted to just make the same album that I made before. I am who I am as a person — I can’t change who I am.”
Of course fans know that’s true because of his music. Raised in the notorious Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., Jay-Z sings about his life as a gangster selling crack cocaine before he broke into rap. Today he’s known as an elder statesman of hip-hop with the financial holdings of a titan making him worth in excess of $150 million, according to Forbes.
The outspoken rapper brings his show to D.C. on Wednesday with a show at the Verizon Center.
It’s difficult to tell whether Jay-Z has always had the same tastes and sensitivities, but in the interview he speaks with intensity and an obvious knowledge of history about various parts of pop culture and modern life. Drinking Snapple, speaking with disgust about rape and the scene in the movie “Once Upon a Time in America,” and chatting openly about how actions have consequences, the Jay-Z profiled in Interview is likely a very different man from the tough guy many of his fans expect.
For all his success commercially and financially, Jay-Z still sings with the words of the streets. Yet his music resonates with many. While agreeing with the well-known statement by Public Enemy’s Chuck D that rap is “the CNN of black America,” Jay-Z said it is more.
“You don’t have to be from Marcy projects [where Jay-Z was raised] to relate to the idea of ‘I’m not gonna lose. I’m gonna fight and I’m gonna make something out of nothing,’ ” he has said.
Perhaps that’s one reason Jay-Z was such a vocal supporter during President Obama’s campaign.
Although he’s no longer in Brooklyn, Jay-Z is still a fighter. That’s one secret that was never well-kept.
