Here are some new photos of Jay-Z at the 10th anniversary party of the 40/40 Club in NYC. Jay-Z is a co-owner of the 40/40 and it’s been a decent investment for him (I think). Beyonce was there too, but she didn’t walk the carpet – you can see some photos of her here.
Jay-Z has been all over the place recently, and for good reason. On Sunday, he announced that he would be putting out a new album called Magna Carta Holy Grail, because of course that’s what it’s called. I actually think the “Carta” is a play on “Carter” right? Like, Jay is saying he’s the Magna Carta (Carter). What’s interesting about this album release is that Jay has teamed with Samsung in a HUGE way. Samsung produced the commercial announcement for the album, and Samsung is buying and “giving away” one million copies of the album three days before the album officially drops (on July 7). Apparently, this deal has lead a lot of people to complain about Jay “selling out”. RLY? Are those people not aware of how Jay and Beyonce roll these days? Even their farts have corporate sponsors. Here’s the Jay-Z/Samsung commercial (bonus Pharrell, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz and Rick Rubin):
Jay-Z also went on a #newrules Twitter rant yesterday, his first tweets since April:
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
Totes naive. MOST main stream artists have hella sponsors, big and small, and their record companies also have ties to large corporations. Basically, our culture is run by corporations, whether we like to think that way or not.
Sadly, that’s true. However, I’ve tired of Jay-Z and Beyonce as a “brand”.
They been sell outs. What have they gave back to the community, that made them illy rich. They need to use their money, not ask other to donate to the cause,when y’all rich n don’t give shit. Ut shake your ass n stage n spit a few versus of aong. Sorry never bought their music or anything they were selling ..JMO
Selling out? He’s “a business, man!”
I think the title of his new album is lacking. Maybe “Magna Carta Holy Grail Sword of Excaliber Shroud of Turin”?
He should take your suggestion, that would be an AMAZING title!
….but does he know that the Magna Carta is a real thing or did he hear ‘carta’ and thought is sounded nice, especially as he could use it as a play of words on his name, and ‘magna’ and thought it was a play on champagne?
My guess…he thinks Magna Carta is the mystical name given to the most exclusive and elite credit card in the history of the world. Legend has it that there can only be one cardholder. The fact that it plays on his real name only means he’s destined to be “the one”…
Jay Z is smarter than most people give him credit for hence the reason he has been able to build his empire and the title of his album is not by chance rather a well though out process. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709177/jay-z-magna-carta-holy-grail-album-meaning.jhtml
oh Janet, self aggrandisement doesn’t mean a person is smart.
He probably heard Magnum Carter lol. Wish these two would go away already. When do you have enough $$?
I think he knows what Magna Carta means. He’s a pretty sharp business man. But y’all are killing it with the snark and making me lol. 😀
ahaaaahaha
He is a business man, he makes business deals
I don’t care about it being sponsored or not because in this day and age pretty much everything is. What I can’t wrap my head around is that title…it just strikes me as random words tossed together. Magna Carta Holy Grail huh? I am confused. 😛
I don’t care about it being sponsored or not because in this day and age pretty much everything is. What I can’t wrap my head around is that title…it just strikes me as random word pairs tossed together. Magna Carta Holy Grail huh? I am confused. 😛
Erm… Jay-Z sold out about thirty seconds after he was born. He raps about stuff he owns to music he stole for middle class white kids.
Finger-On-The-Pulse-Of-Youth-Culture Gwynnie Paltrow wouldn’t be best buddies with anything less!
What music did he steal?
H to the Izzo was style-jacking Snoop. I wouldn’t say he steals per se, but he copies contemporaries like no other. He takes what someone does and puts his own twist like 2 seconds after someone else. His last few albums were straight up Kanye, but they’re friends so whatevs.
All i thought when i saw that commercial on sunday: the nerve of this guy’s ego! Calling himself Jay-hova (cuz now you’re God?), copying people but thinking he’s an original musical genius, Watch the Throne and now THIS for an album title? Ugh, I’m over the Carter’s self-obsession.
Oh and having your sponsor buy a million albums so you go platinum shows his insecurity. All because of Lil Wayne! They’re really mad Lil Wayne debuted the Carter 3 and went platinum the first week. No rap album has done that for years. Jay couldn’t do it with BP3 and didn’t do it when he teamed up with Kanye on the last duet album. So there you go.
@kelly—right? Like rap and hip-hop were born in the streets, why Jay is from….
@Mcraw
‘H to the Izzo was style-jacking Snoop(wut?) I wouldn’t say he steals per se, but he copies contemporaries like no other.’
–It’s called evolution. His flow might not the same as it was in ’96, people change and develop different styles, its called growth.
‘Calling himself Jay-hova (cuz now you’re God?)’ its a play on words and reference to the 5 percenters. google it.
‘Oh and having your sponsor buy a million albums so you go platinum shows his insecurity.’ – UM, NO. I’d call that GREAT business acumen.
he’s been calling himself “hova” since 1993. as in “j-hova,” as in “jehovah,” as in the god of rap.
this is not a new thing, nor is it a “reference” to anything besides his (perceived) skill.
I never said Jay-hova was new. I know that it’s a play on Jehovah’s name. I’m saying that’s a sign of his ego. The same as Kanye calling himself Yeezus as if he’s Jesus. Many MC’s have called themselves the god of rap. Calling yourself Jehovah and Jesus, however, is pure egotism, and is ugly and offensive to anyone spiritually minded.
And I would NOT call what he does evolution. He’s known for straight up copying Tupac, Biggie, Snoop, Jadakiss, Nas… the list goes on. If by evolution, you mean borrowing someone else’s lyrics and changing your flow to follow theirs, then ok. But he has leeched onto the work of others and, I admit, made it better on some occasions.
As far as defining him buying a million of his own records (through his sponsors) as “business acumen” let the first-week numbers for his last two albums speak for themselves. Half a million. Still good numbers, but not for his ego. If Leanne Rimes gets called out for buying 10,000 twitter followers, how the hell is Jay-Z being respected for buying a million of HIS OWN album and calling himself platinum?!
Sampling music is not stealing.
MCraw, you nailed it!! As for the deal about LeAnn vs Jay-Z… how ppl can blast one yet praise the other? Well, that’s just them showing their love for one and hate for the other with a dash of plain ole hypocrisy at play!! And before some of you get your panties in a wad, here’s a little FYI for ya. I’m not a fan of either. I rather remain neutral for you see when you do, you’re able to see and speak the truth…..
He’s been all about making money for years. His wife too. They’ll sign their names to any deal that promises them $. It’s a creative idea but it’s a shady way to automatically take his album to Platinum status. I won’t be downloading it. I don’t waste my money on anything related to the Carter’s.
Cosign. They reserved Blue Ivy’s domain name, trademark, everything– these people are shrewd about business..
Complete God Complex. Nuff Illuminati.
Ya no wonder he is friends with Kanye
I’m just trying to figure out what most of his tweets mean, LOL.
Me too. Not a clue what he is saying or talking about.
Thank God it is not just me…
I bumped my head earlier and thought I had a concision 🙁
I feel better now 🙂
He’s an endorser of Camel. He goes by the name of Joe in the ads.
Yep, it’s shocking that a man married to Beyonce Pepsi Knowles is a sell-out…
That album title doesn’t even make sense. Anyone with even the briefest knowledge of history knows Magna Carta translates to Great Charter. Idiotic patronising bullshitter. I don’t think he ever sold out. To sell out you have to have something to begin with.
According to the MTV link above, “Magna Carta” refers to how Jay-Z and all his homies are “re-writing the rules” of how to release a CD in this day and age. So it does have meaning, though it is still totally self-aggrandizing and lame in my opinion. What a narcissistic culture we have created.
Knowing what a revolution the Magna Carter was to humanity, i am furious that he would co-opt it for his own ego.
Rewriting the rules? Getting someone to buy your crap and then give it away? Hoping this doesn’t count toward total copies sold. i don’t think corporate sales are the spirit of the awards.
Meh. Prince sold the UK rights to his Planet Earth album to the Daily Mail, who then gave it away. Prince got a nice cash sum and a huge jump in back catalogue sales; the newspaper sold 3 million copies of that issue (1.5 times the usual circulation).
He did this way back in 2007. Wake-Me-Up-When-It’s-All-‘Hova is a little behind the times!
I gotta tell ya’ll, I hear “Holy Grail” and can think of nothing but “Monty Python’s” but I doubt that this is a CD of pure f-ckery..
LOL! Monty Python is where I went, too.
Good point Sarah, he and beyawnce are complete sell outs, music means nothing to them other than ego self-aggrandizing which is why I won’t buy their crap. ANd no, musicians once upon a time – in the 60s/70s – didn’t sell out – as big as Zeppelin was they never did cheesy corporate licensing; this twit talks like he’s a 99 per center but he’s a 1 per center – tell me again what the Obama’s see in these two. I expected more substance from our Prez.
WOnder how much will go to charity and will anyone call them out.
Oh, last time I looked Mumford and Sons, Rodrigo and Gabriela and Esperanza Spalding weren’t selling out and they’re way better than these two overrated clowns.
Who care’s about the 60s and 70s?! This is 2013 and Beyonce and Jay Z run shit. You better recognize, clown! Oh and FYI, they don’t have to give anything to charity
Dear God, I hope you’re being sarcastic.
Not sarcastic at all, just honest. The only billionaire couple in music history! You better recognize, clown!
Meta-humor.
I like it.
They do. Otherwise why bother sampling it??
calm down.
I don’t know if they think as highly of you as you do of them. serious.
clown, seriously?
Kelly needs to put the Kool-Aid down and step away from the computer. : D
Kelly either you are a philistine or 12; tons of people (my son and all his friends), young people worldwide, listen to music from that era and the 50s and revere that music over today’s stuff; Go on youtube and type in Sam Cooke, James Brown, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, etc. millions of views, no vids. live performances mainly – we will see whether bouncy and camel are treated the same way 40-50 yrs from now.
Jay has talent as a rapper, but he isn’t the greatest as he likes to think. Let’s face it, if it wasn’t for Biggie’s death he would never have been able to rise the way he did.
But I have to admit that I am bias, I’ve disliked him since he sampled Tupac’s song, while having trashed him during and even after his death and that makes him a phony in my eyes.
“Apparently, this deal has lead a lot of people to complain about Jay “selling out”. RLY? Are those people not aware of how Jay and Beyonce roll these days? Even their farts have corporate sponsors.”
This.
yeah, he been sold out years ago.
What I got from one of his tweets is that he’s mad Billboard is not counting the 1,000,000 million albums he “sold” (Samsung bought) so the album won’t count as going platinum? You didn’t sell anything, people are getting it for free – lots of people will take a free album if they like the genre but would never buy it. So it shouldn’t count. It’s like those singers who buy up copies of their own albums so it won’t flop as hard. That’s a shady way to say you have another platinum album. Fraud.
but samsung BOUGHT those copies. BOUGHT THEM. so he HAS sold a million copies.
You think Samsung paid him $12 for each CD? No. It’s a shell game.
I have to laugh at the hypocrisy. THis is the dude that used to boycott the Grammy’s and MTV Awards because according to him, they never recognized “real hip hop” and only celebrated more commercialized, bubble gum rappers. So on that count alone, he is a sellout!
His albums haven’t done anything for me since BP2. So over him and his little faux Illuminati crew………….
ROSEBUD.
Ummm Jay-z sold out 11 albums ago!
Frankly, i don’t know why any of this is surprising. or is it surprising how far these people go in their self regard??
It’s all about timing. Jay Z and Beyonce well they were at the right place at the right time.
Anyway, how does a previous drug dealer’s wife get to sing at the President’s inauguration. Really America!
She’s no role model!
Show business not show friends, right? I appreciate the re-introduction of the word sellout though. Can we bring back bought politician too?