Identifying With God: Jay-Z's Power to Profit
by Ebony Utley
Rappers often credit God in their liner notes, acceptance speeches, and raps. They brag about being God’s sons and daughters. Some Five Percenter rappers have even claimed to be God, but few mainstream rappers have done so with the gusto of Jay-Z, also known by the nickname Jay-Hova, after the Judeo-Christian God. Versions of that include Hov the God, King Hov, Hov, or Hovito—and three of his albums (In My Lifetime, Hard Knock Life, and …Life and Times of S. Carter) are often referred to by the scriptural-sounding "Books of Hov."
Jay-Z is hip hop’s mogul. According to Zack O'Malley Greenburg’s newly released Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office, the $450 million dollar man’s 11 albums have sold over 50 million copies worldwide. Following the footsteps of Russell Simmons but doing it bigger and deffer, Jay-Z is the consummate businessman. In fact, he’s a business, man. Jay-Z credits his success to his hustler mentality, but he doesn't stop there...
His Blueprint albums reference his power of creation—the divine ability to manifest something out of nothing as God did when he spoke the world into existence. He describes himself as hip hop’s savior on his return-from-retirement album Kingdom Come, which samples the Lord’s Prayer “thy will be done, thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”
Read the Full Essay @ Religion Dispatches
***
Ebony A. Utley, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of communication studies at California State University Long Beach and the author of the forthcoming book Rap and Religion: Understanding the Gangsta's God (Praeger). She resides on the web at theutleyexperience.com.
by Ebony Utley
Rappers often credit God in their liner notes, acceptance speeches, and raps. They brag about being God’s sons and daughters. Some Five Percenter rappers have even claimed to be God, but few mainstream rappers have done so with the gusto of Jay-Z, also known by the nickname Jay-Hova, after the Judeo-Christian God. Versions of that include Hov the God, King Hov, Hov, or Hovito—and three of his albums (In My Lifetime, Hard Knock Life, and …Life and Times of S. Carter) are often referred to by the scriptural-sounding "Books of Hov."
Jay-Z is hip hop’s mogul. According to Zack O'Malley Greenburg’s newly released Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office, the $450 million dollar man’s 11 albums have sold over 50 million copies worldwide. Following the footsteps of Russell Simmons but doing it bigger and deffer, Jay-Z is the consummate businessman. In fact, he’s a business, man. Jay-Z credits his success to his hustler mentality, but he doesn't stop there...
His Blueprint albums reference his power of creation—the divine ability to manifest something out of nothing as God did when he spoke the world into existence. He describes himself as hip hop’s savior on his return-from-retirement album Kingdom Come, which samples the Lord’s Prayer “thy will be done, thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”
Read the Full Essay @ Religion Dispatches
***
Ebony A. Utley, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of communication studies at California State University Long Beach and the author of the forthcoming book Rap and Religion: Understanding the Gangsta's God (Praeger). She resides on the web at theutleyexperience.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment