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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, November 13, 2007

To Jay-Z, creativity knows no limits

By Richard Cromelin
Los Angeles Times

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Jay-Z

PRNewsFoto/VH1

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BROOKLYN, N.Y. — "See, that's Fort Greene right there, the projects, and I went to school right here — this is George Westinghouse," says Jay-Z, looking through the window of his gray Rolls-Royce as it chauffeurs him into his past.

As the car inches through afternoon traffic, past the courts where he used to play basketball and the corners where he once sold drugs, he finds that his emotions are stirred.

"Yeah, man, it's the place that made me," he says softly.

As it happens, Jay-Z's physical homecoming parallels the artistic journey he made on his new album, "American Gangster," which was released last week.

"Marcy Projects is about five minutes straight down," he says, pointing east toward the housing development where he lived as a youth. "See that? That's one thing I liked about going to school here," he adds with a smile, indicating a road sign that reads "Jay St."

Jay-Z, 37, doesn't return often to this Brooklyn neighborhood, where he grew up as Shawn Corey Carter. Stardom and wealth have taken him away to a Manhattan home and the globe-trotting life of a hip-hop star and major-label record executive.

It's his role as a recording artist that has brought him back on a warm fall day, to rehearse for a taping of "VH1 Storytellers" on a soundstage at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Until recently, he had no plans to make a record, but when he got an early look at the movie "American Gangster," starring Denzel Washington as 1970s Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas, he was inspired to create an album based on the film.

Sort of.

"The album is not about the film," explains the rapper, who completed the collection in a typically fast three weeks. "It connected with me on an emotional level. It was so similar to the neighborhoods that I came up in, and things that happened there. And Denzel's character as well ... you know, his laid-back persona, that's pretty much how I am.

"It's really about the emotions of that life. I would take an emotion that I felt was important, or things that resonated with me ... and make a song.

"But none of the emotions are current emotions. I mean, success is, because that's the thing that I've dealt with, but none of the songs are currently how I feel now. ... It's like writing a book, going back to all these things, these emotions that I thought were buried. Because as a person, you grow, and you add layers on who you become. So I never thought that I would get back to that place.

"I didn't just want to go back to that place because it's the cool, popular thing to do. That seemed reckless to me. I think when you achieve a certain level of success, your job as a person who's reached the top of your field is to push it further — try new, different things so people won't be afraid to. Not to play down."

The car parks, and Jay-Z strolls toward the soundstage. He has a hug or a friendly fist-tap for crew members and other workers inside the building as his band warms up, but along with the easygoing approachability is an unmistakable air of stardom.

He wears that quality easily, too. He's accustomed to it after a decade of popularity, an unusually long run in the hip-hop world. He's sold about 25 million albums in the U.S., and such collections as "Reasonable Doubt" (from 1996), "The Blueprint" (2001) and "The Black Album" (2003) are among the consensus classics in the hip-hop canon.

As an artist, Jay-Z's taste for the unpredictable led to a 2004 collaboration with rock band Linkin Park. A writing collaboration with Coldplay's Chris Martin on last year's "Kingdom Come" was less notable, and the album, which ended a three-year retirement, was the lowest-selling and worst-reviewed of his career, with much criticism directed toward his lyrics about luxury products and exclusive resorts.

Jay-Z dismisses the concerns. But as he prepares to run through the songs he performs on "Storytellers," you get the feeling he wouldn't mind making a point.

Jay-Z puts on a pair of sunglasses and joins the band. Sliding his rap easily into the soul-music groove of "Pray," he sounds commanding as he delivers the album's first full song, spoken by a young man preparing to enter the game.

"Everywhere there's oppression, the drug profession flourishes like beverages," he raps with his distinctive force and fluidity. "Refreshing sweet taste of sin/ Everything I seen made me everything I am."

The three-act saga of "American Gangster" is built on samples from the 1970s, the movie's time frame. Devised largely by Sean "Diddy" Combs' production team the Hitmen, it goes beyond obvious sources — Marvin Gaye, the Isley Brothers and Curtis Mayfield — to include the work of potent artists such as the Wichita group Rudy Love & the Love Family, Florida soul guitarist Little Beaver and upstate New York funk brigade Larry Ellis & the Black Hammer.

"The music is '70s soul samples, but the emotions are forever," Jay-Z said. "The truth goes across all boundaries and all time, I believe."

On the New York streets, he sees a vibrant culture that's been moving to the rhythms of hip-hop for nearly three decades. That reign is now being questioned, as the genre's CD sales have fallen, and the bold artistry that made it a significant social and aesthetic force seems in short supply.

As a label head, he's faced with the challenge of dealing with that reality, and solutions remain elusive. He's more confident about hip-hop's creative potential, even at a time when radio is dominated by disposable party jams with ambitions the size of ringtones.

"Yeah, that's affecting society as well, just in general," he says. "Everybody wants a quick fix. But everything is not microwaveable. You have to invest into an entire work. That's one of the reasons I'm proud of the album that I made, that it's a complete piece of work. ... Going about it like that in these times may not be the smartest thing to do, but I think it's necessary.

"We have to mine it creatively and get back to being that voice, that social voice, a voice for oppressed people everywhere. I think as we grew we got away from some of those things, but that's natural. ... It's growing pains. We'll get there."