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It’s the season of blockbusters, and the music hype machine is going ham right along with Hollywood. Last week, the hive mind of the interwebs lit up like the cherries of rooftop blunts—it seemed like everyone had a think piece worthy of the think tank on Yeezus. There was even a “critical roundtable.”
Never to be outdone, the Holy Hova offers a response, with smartphone money footing the bill.
After a three-minute short film about Hov’s new Samsung backed project aired during game six of the NBA finals last week, it was clear Jay had a horse in the race. Pharrell, Swizz Beatz, Timbaland and Rick Rubin make appearances, doing a lot of nothing.
Magna Carta Holy Grail drops July 4th, and the tracklist is out. So is the fact that Jay worked with Courtney Love for a Nirvana lyrical sample. He’s pulling a Kanye on Kanye, treating Yeezus mania like Taylor Swift’s mic.
The ego battle goes beyond quasi-biblical album names. Jay isn’t content with just calling his shit “Holy Grail.” He had to sample Nevermind, and get an exclusive deal with a Japanese juggernaut to upstage his former prodigy.
Jay was always a publicity whore, but now he’s making deals with Courtney Love, the woman who revived her career by turning her trainweck life into tabloid headlines? And he’s putting out an album as an app, tied to Samsung smartphone? The head spins. The world of hype knows no limits.
“We don’t have any rules, everyone’s trying to figure it out. That’s why the internet is the Wild Wild West,” Jay says during the video. “We need to write the new rules.”
When I first saw it during halftime, I was intrigued. As I learned that the whole project was ensnared in Samsung’s talons, I pumped the brakes a bit.
This from the WSJ:
For Jay-Z, the deal is a precious advertising opportunity and gives him $5 million in sales before the album is even released. The agreement signals the increasing importance of corporate sponsors to the music industry, which has seen sales tank over the past decade.
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Jay was never shy about selling out (see Budweiser commercial), but this is a new low. It also sets a scary precedent. Music sales may be plummeting, but church can’t be sleeping with state. There has to be separation. When you mix the two together, wrapping up art in the coat of a corporation, it gets to be a slippery slope.
But that’s just how Jay rolls. It will probably be somewhat dope, but it also makes me highly dubious.
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And to further show Kanye that he has the bigger dick, he signed Kevin Durant today to Roc Nation Sports.
The hashtag on Instagram? #Newrules
Oy.
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