"Without people, being rich would be very boring."

November 29, 2017 7:56 AM

"I’m the person that looked at the Mona Lisa and be like, Man, that’s gonna be cool in 40 years. I play forever.": The New York Times' Dean Baquet talks therapy, family, music, politics and more with Jay-Z, with annotations by Wesley Morris and Reggie Ugwu.
posted by palindromic (2 comments total)

Wow, those explanatory commas were super weird. Like, "Hi old, white readers, here's a black person to explain who Jay-Z and OJ Simpson are!" But still it was a cool read and I loved the paintings. Jay-Z seems to have enormous emotional literacy - sounds like he's done a ton of work in therapy and life to connect with his vulnerable self. I found this very insightful:

I was just saying there was a lot of fights in our neighborhood that started with “What you looking at? Why you looking at me? You looking at me?” And then you realize: “Oh, you think I see you. You’re in this space where you’re hurting, and you think I see you, so you don’t want me to look at you. And you don’t want me to see you.”
posted by latkes at 8:16 AM on November 29, 2017 [7 favorites]

So much wisdom and insight, yet he still can't see the damage and irony of his line about Jews and money.

We all have our blind spots I guess.
posted by CheapB at 9:39 AM on November 29, 2017 [1 favorite]