The Reflection of the American Dream by Jay-Z - Research Paper Example

      The term American Dream was framed and used by famous American writer and historian James Truslow Adams in his book the Epic of America (1931). He wrote in that book, “The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability of achievement…. The American Dream that has lured tens of millions of all nations to our shores in the past century has not been a dream of material plenty… It has been a dream of being able to grow to fullest development as a man and woman…” (“What is the American Dream? “, 2002) With reference to such statement it can be said that the phrase American Dream actually indicates that basic philosophy of the United States of America is to ensure its inhabitants as well as citizens with the freedom to attain their ambition through persistence devotion and free choice. This phrase encompasses within its broad scope basic philosophy of the U.S. Constitution as it has been used by the Fathers of the Constitution, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” (“The Declaration of Independence”, 1995) Due to this philosophical sustenance the United States of America is considered as the land of opportunity, where an individual receives scope to prosper in life on the foundation of talent and capability to pursue his goal instead of depending over his political or personal influences.       There are numerous examples of such personalities in the history of the United States that have achieved their ambition depending over their individuality, foresightedness and talent. This thesis aims to emphasize over such a personality, Shawn Corey Carter, famously known as Jay-z. He started his career as a U.S. hip hop artist and later on he has emerged as one of the very successful businessman in the U.S. music industry.  (Hess, 2007) History of Jay-z: The childhood of Jay-z was very similar with most of the other African American children, shrouded by crime and moral corruption. Being a part of the African American tradition, he, like most of his counterparts, realized deprivation from main course of the society. He was born at the Brooklyn area of New York. In some of this song there are explicit elements of childhood memories. Once asked about this childhood at the Marcy Project, he recalled, “…a poor neighborhood, but (once where) you learned loyalty and integrity.” (Brown, 2005, 5) He has identified prevailing poverty as the main reason for increasing anti-social activities of the place and it “wasn’t safe” as far as the honor factor of an individual is concerned, but, “It’s beautiful place to grow up…” (Brown, 2005, 5)       Jay-z’s upbringing was mainly done by female members, his mother and sisters, of his family but the absence of male figures has created an emotional void at the psychological level and ‘the lack of male presence in his life sent him to streets in search of a father figure.’ (Brown, 2005, 5) Later on Jay explained, “there’s no worse pain (than growing up without a father.) He has also identified this factor as one of the main reasons for his broken relationships in the later part of his life: “I had long-term relationships with three beautiful women who loved me to death, but I had always been holding back. I had never been in love, because my heart was still broken from my father (leaving.)” (Brown, 2005, 6) This very aspect of absence of his father has haunted him for the rest of his life. Due to his father’s absence financial striving was a recurrent event for his family and this experience made him understand about the importance of life. Perhaps, this is the main reason that even after earning so much of fortune as one of the most leading figures in the rap scenario of U.S., Jay wished to soar higher and finally ended up being a successful entrepreneur. In this context he remarked, “(Money’s) pretty important; I mean, it changed my people’s lives…” (Brown, 2005, 7)       Jay’s family plays perhaps the most important role in developing his taste for music since his very childhood. It is due to such musical influence Jay’s attempt to write songs continued and he spent hours in such effort. Though he used to be a bright student at his school but it is due to his love for music he chose the path of a musician as his profession as well as execution of his love. In his youth, Jay went through several transformations but his love for music remained the same. His serious musical orientation commenced since the late 80’s. In this context he recalls, “At Gordy Groove’s house, Big Daddy Kane, Jaz, and myself are about to put vocals on a tape (not a CD, a tape), a freestyle over a beat Gordy created. Jaz goes first, I go second, Kane goes last.” (Brown, 29) This circle played a crucial role in developing Jay as a mature rap musician and from Jay’s recollection it is clear that Kane’s music and sense of composition influenced him to the highest degree, “I still remember Kane’s rhyme: …. I was inspired and went directly home to write a thousand new and improved rhymes. During the next few months, the tape circulated and the feedback was positive ‘the second kid who rapped’.” (Brown, 2005, 29)   The Activities of Jay-Z: It is due to his spontaneous talent of producing perfect rap rhyme he drew attention of many contemporary rap musicians, among whom Jaz-O was one of the most prominent figures. Jaz-O had the plan to come up as a rap artist and at the same time Jay’s emergence as a new rap talent made a perfect match. They formed a partnership to develop better rap rhyme. This is the time, when he adopted the name Jay-Z.       Their combination proved to be really effective and soon they made a deal of $400,000 with EMI. Both of them went to London to work over the project and release of their debut album. The scenario changed as they reached London. EMI moved from their stand point and they persuaded Jaz-O to get into contract with another music production company, Bryan ‘Chuck’ New. This production company released Jaz-O’s ‘Hawaiian Sophie’ as a single track to observe response of the audience. As the track did not receive that much of response among audience, the plan of releasing an album was cancelled by the production company. In this context Jay-Z recollects, “When I did a verse on his song ‘Hawaiian Sophie’, that’s how I got my start. A friend of mine named Jaz introduces me to the entertainment business, and looking back, I was pretty much grateful for the opportunity to be put on.” (Brown, 2005, 31) Due to such failure at the initial stage his friend Jaz-O received around $50,000 from the EMI. Jay-Z’s dream of being involved in the music business received a great set back and he came back to where he belonged. Brown has commented about such situation that “Returning to the streets, Jay’s heart was not broken, but now torn between the fast money hustling and the long-term potential of the record business as a means out of the streets forever.” (Brown, 2005, 31) Even after coming back he was greatly interested in the hip-hop genre. There were numerous ideas regarding new compositions and rhyme but he was not getting a scope to execute that properly. In search of the true opportunity he went on roaming around different parts of the nation and whenever he used to come back to New York, he always used to draw the crowd through his free-styling performance. These days several people encouraged his talent of composing great rap rhyme but later on he has admitted that after witnessing the plight of Jaz-O he did not gather that much courage to get involved with the music business one more time.       Finally he followed the advice of Clark Kent, a local DJ, to come down to New York and seriously got involved in the process of “making it in music” (Brown, 2005, 33) Pondering over this phase of time, he later on admitted that he always had an intention behind composing his songs. He reflected that he always wished “to have a conversation with the world … I’m telling the world my plight. I was speaking about the people and neighborhoods and mentality of someone who comes from nothing … I didn’t want to sell drugs. I wanted a better life … I wanted to perform and I didn’t know where performing would take me exactly, but I knew it would take me far away from where I’d come from … Not saying that I wanted to leave my peoples, but ain’t nothing fun about living in poverty.” (Brown, 2005, 33) In all his albums resonance of this philosophy is traced by the audience, though at the initial stage he was not very successful.       His partnership with Damon Dash proved to be a successful one and tuned the course of his career. Initially both of them received negative feedback from the market but they persisted instead of a quick giving up. They retained in the music scenario, understood a lot about the market and they planned to release their album through their mutual effort. Gradually their partnership turned into intimate friendship and finally they established the ‘Roc-A-Fella’ records, which almost received also a partner in the form of Kareem ‘Biggs’ Burke. Under banner of the ‘Roc-A-Fella’ records Jay-Z’s first album Reasonable Doubt was released. Regarding composition of the album Jay commented, “I wanted to write an album that was honest about the glamour of materialism, because living large was real for us. But I also wanted to talk about depression, the drama, the sacrifices, and the pain that come with the street life. I made that album like it was my first and last.” (Brown, 2005, 43) This album was a perfect self made in the true sense of the term and reflection of this self-esteem can be cited from his own statement about developing the album, “We pressed up our own records, shot our own videos, turned our own cars into tour buses, made our own jackets, you name it.” (Brown, 2005, 43) While reviewing the appeal and musical mastery of Jay-Z, Alex Ogg in his famous book The Men Behind Def Jam commented, “Jay-Z’s lyrical prowess was ably demonstrated on his subsequent 1996 debut album, Reasonable Doubt, whose assured, amplified braggadocio succeeded despite the same subject matter (hustling, drugs, life on the street). Many still consider it his finest album, bereft of the commercial concession that would overtake him later.” (Ogg, 2002, 176)       Later on the audience has witnessed that the explicit appeal of his personal life philosophy has somewhat faded in the later albums but Jay-Z’s tracks rapped the whole nation continuously. There was always a recessive motivation inside himself to mix up music and business together and huge success of his debut album provided him with the boost to take another step in that direction. Soon he started working over his new album In My Lifetime Vol.1. His approach regarding launch of the new album was more professional and corporate philosophy oriented. Immediately before launching his second album he came up with a new deal of distribution with Def Jam. Irv Gotti played the role of mediator in the whole deal. Through him Jay-Z also reached two other new rap talents of the era, DMX and Ja Rule. Soon, also took them under the banner of Roc-A-Fella Records. The musical mood of In My Lifetime Vol.1 oriented greatly with the loss of one of his closest childhood friends, Biggie. Due to sudden death of this friend Jay-Z was greatly moved from inside and later on he commented about making of the second album and connection of Biggie’s death, that “It was real difficult making that album…I was so disgusted with the whole situation. He was such a good dude to everyone around him...If you believe in karma – that if you do good things and are a good person, then good things will happen – that will just crush your whole theory.” (Ogg, 2002, 177) However, many people argue that such emotional impulse as well as his inclination towards the music business from corporate perspective is main reasons that the album did not receive the same kind of applause from the audience, compare to his first one. In the rest of his albums Jay-Z reflected his personal philosophy about life and there are a number of tracks that reflected his own experience of life randomly. Since his third album onwards adopted the skill of fusing business and business perfectly. Due to this reason, perhaps, the proper rap rhythmic craftsmanship was a bit lost but looking at the complete activism of Jay-Z one cannot deny that within a very short span of time a new figure emerged in the music business market, with capacity to produce great music as well as amazing leadership quality to pull his business forward.  (Christian, 2004) Jay-Z and the American Dream: There is no reason to develop such a conception that the philosophy behind American Dream is completely utopic. The great U.S. historian and writer James Truslow Adams, who coined the term first, clearly mentioned that America may be a land for fortune for its inhabitants as well as migrants but if someone in this land wants to seat idle with the idea that dream will automatically come to him then he is defying the philosophy of American Dream. In order to achieve that dream an individual needs to chase it with complete enthusiasm and hard labor. Since the day of inception of the United States of America several people have made their fortunes by chasing their dreams in the same manner. Apparently the common people witness only the wealth and fortune that he is enjoying. Thus, there common people have formed this general conception that American dream is all about positivism, as the negative part of the dream does not catch their attention.       The American Dream has become a separate conception, different stream of philosophy that has emerged as central theme of attention for several artists and literary figures of United States of America. One of the most celebrated of such texts is The American Dream by Mike Palecek. Fathers of the U.S. Constitutions tried to provide a completely different conception about the American Dream but since the late 19th century huge migration, continuous process of modernization and urbanization, two Great Wars, the Great American Depression and several metamorphosis at the socio-cultural level have definitely contributed to a great extent in the process of achievement of the dream. Cultural cosmopolitanism, which is often considered as one of the most important symbols of American liberalistic approach, played a great part in adequate materialization of the American Dream. Since the Great War II aftermath period, an individual can cite for several examples of clash between the black people and white residents of U.S. United States of America, more precisely saying, her people were never expressed much liberalistic approach towards the black migrants and African American people of the land, despite all those liberal approach ensured by the constitution. The American Dream by Mike Palecek has put together all these aspects within its scope. Lives of common people, their expectation and desires have been depicted beautifully in this work of literature. One hand, “The Home Helper Show, making The American Dream come true!” and on the other “The local weatherman came on to give the worksheet forecast. His forehead was drenched with sweat.” (Palecek, 2007, 2) The American Dream is the perfect fusion of the dream and the mundane existence. Jay-Z has made perfect combination of both these aspects in his life and work and perhaps this is the reason he is considered as a perfect embodiment of the conception, American Dream.       The paper has already elaborated personal life and achievements of Jay-Z. It is clear from his biographical references that since his very childhood being a black child he did suffer an alienation from the mainstream society. His existence showed him the harsh part of the life and his youth taught him that financial support is one of the most important aspects, without which a person cannot even dream to survive along with his dreams. What makes Jay-Z a perfect reflection of the American Dream is his quest for survival in a better way but that quest has never pinned him down as one of the money mongers. He strived, fought hard, chased his dreams standing over the foundation of his love for music and finally lived life king size. There are several such personnel in U.S., who have earned a lot of fortune and enjoyed a great deal of facilities but all of them are not considered as perfect reflection of the American dream. Jay-Z has emerged from the tide of life and despite several failures he refused to say it an end. Finally he proved himself to be a heroic figure, true leader, who can be followed due to his passion for his life, for music and for achievement of dreams.               Works Cited 1. Brown, J. (2005) Jay-Z and the Roc-A-Fella Records Dynasty, Amber Books Publishing 2. Christian, M.A. (2004) Jay-Z And Beyonce: Music’s Dynamic Duo Silent About Romance But Roars as Performers, Jet, 31 May 3. Hess, M. (2007), Is Hip Hop Dead?: The Past, Present, and Future of America's Most Wanted Music, Greenwood Publishing Group 4. Ogg, A. (2002) The Men Behind Def Jam: The Radical Rise of Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin, Omnibus Press 5. Palecek, M. (2007), The American Dream, CWG PRESS 6. “The Declaration of Independence”, (1995) Independence Hall Association, available at: http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm (accessed on March 14, 2009) 7. “What is the American Dream? “, (2002) The Library of Vongress, available at: http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/97/dream/thedream.html (accessed on March 14, 2009) Read More