Jay-Z turned 40 last December, but he isn’t letting his age slow down his music career. The emcee tells “Rolling Stone” that you have to stay true to who you are if you want to remain relevant in hip-hop. He explains, quote, “I think the problem with people, as they start to mature, they say, ‘Rap is a young man’s game,’ and they keep trying to make young songs. But you don’t know the slang – it changes every day. You can visit the topic, but these young kids live it every day, and you’re just visiting.” Jay-Z says he made his latest album, “Blueprint Three,” to challenge himself, pointing out that even successful rappers like LL Cool J aren’t competing “on the same level as Lil Wayne.” Jay adds, quote, “for me to still be able to compete at that level at my age, that’s rarefied air. It’s never been done.”
Jay-ZĀ also revealed his wife Beyonce Knowles controls his art tastes. She recently stopped him from purchasing a piece of artwork depicting “a pair of women’s legs emerging from the handle” of a gun.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone magazine, the hip-hop superstar said that he wanted to purchase a black and white photo taken by renowned American artist-and-photographer Laurie Simmons of a “a noirishly lit pistol with a pair of women’s legs emerging from the handle”.
However, Beyonce was less than impressed with her husband’s choice and told him she didn’t want it in their Tribeca penthouse in New York.
Instead, the Halo singer had it replaced with another Simmons piece which depicted a perfume bottle instead of a gun.
Jay-Z, who is usually tight-lipped about his marriage to Beyonce, said, “It was more of a masculine style, I guess.”
In the interview, the 40-year-old music star also spoke about his love of indie music and believes hip-hop could learn a lot from the “energy” of bands like Grizzly Bear.
“I love the energy coming out of indie rock right now. It has this rebellion thing that hip-hop is missing now, the thing that made hip-hop hip-hop,” Jay Z said.
Source: NDTV.com and Metro News
