Interview (Fictional) of Shawn Corey Carter or Jay-Z
Jay-Z is a famous American Rapper, writer, producer
record and one of the most successful artists and rapper of all time. He has
sold more than 75 million records global, and received 19 Grammy Awards for his
works. The three albums, The Blueprint, The Black album and Reasonable Doubt,
are in the top 500 greatest hits album of all time from Rolling Stone’s list.
Now we have the interview of Jay-Z which will show how he responses to our question about his career.
Question 1; How did you become an artist, what made
you start your career?
Jay-Z: The environment in my community is the most obvious
reason that I started my career. I used music and rap to escape from drug,
violence, and poverty that surrounded my environment when I was young. My
family also influenced my because my father left me when I was only eleven
years old, therefore; I was raised by my mother only in drug- infested area. It
made me wanted to escape from these environment, and it’s why I turned into
rap.
Question 2; does your music reflect on your experienced that you
have faced?
Jay-Z: Yes it does, almost all of my songs were written about the events
that happened in my life. I used music as a way to express my experiences I faced
within my community and personal life. For example; “Moment of Clarity” rap
about the cruel circumstances of my father and uncle’s life and death. In this
song, I rap about my life that I grew up in a family that was broken by the
drug abuse violence that spread over the community. These violence and drugs
caused me to dabble in drug, and formed a barrier between me and my father.
This problem made my father to leave my family. However in this song, I rap
about the way I found to accept the failure of my father. I gained the enough
clarity to accept my father’s failure. “Lost One” is another song I wrote about
the pain in my life. It was about the death of my nephew that drove the car I bought
for him. I felt that it was by responsibility of his death. Hence I wrote the
song in order to express my pain and feeling through it.
Question 3; what is your theme or style you use when writing you
songs? Does it have anything specific?
Jay-Z: No it doesn’t, but most of the song I made relates to the
experiences I faced throughout my life. Almost all the songs include the
reflection and the felling I had of events; some of it includes violence, drug
and the losses of my own family member and friends. There were many bad events occurred
to my family such as the death of my nephew, the violent that my family had
faced and the death of my cousin. These things made me to write song about them
expressing my feeling and pain. I was once singing a song regarding to the
politic too because I’m also a good friend with Obama who are the same black
American as me.
Question 4; do you think that your songs have impact on the society
and audience?
Jay-Z: Yes, I think that my songs do impact the audience in many ways,
such as the uses of rhyme and my language skill in writing the song. I use
rhyme as a common thing in my music which easily influenced the audience into
the meaning of the song. I also use the language of my culture, American
English, to define who I am and where I am from which attract the Black
audience. The songs that I wrote also change some image of pop song to be more
hardcore in lyrics which some artist follows my step. My music works also
impact the perspective of society in looking themselves too. I express some my
pain biography through music, stating that to be successful is tough, which
affect the audiences in the society to think that ‘in order to be successful,
you need to work hard’. I can say that my songs itself impact society and
audience.
Last Question; do you think that the way you’ve written your song
provides you authenticity?
Jay-Z: Yes, I think that how I’ve written my song define who I am. It
shows my ability to rhyme, express my feeling and idea through fluent language
and vocabulary, and the meaning of the song I wrote. Meanwhile, the way that I wrote
my song still has the felling of Black American language within it which defines
me. However, I cannot say that the only language in song itself really provides
me an authenticity. The root of who I am and where I am from also provide me
the authenticity. My surrounded community makes me who I am today, it create
the motion to be an artist, expressing idea and feeling through music.