Monday, August 31, 2009
Music / TV Jay-Z on Real Time with Bill Maher: Trading Jokes and Books
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 9:27 AM
On Friday, Jay-Z went on Real Time and spoke to Bill Maher for half an hour, and though there were awkward moments, the two kept it almost too chummy. Jay made some really insightful points (including talking about how rap lyrics are "coded"), and Maher discusses rap music more intelligently and seriously than any TV personality in recent memory. (He also seems to know Jay's entire discography, which is impressive.) Mostly, though, it feels like two buddies chatting about music. Here it is in four parts:
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Also, I'm not sure what Jay-Z did Friday evening or Saturday, but Sunday afternoon he was definitely with Beyonce at the Williamsburg waterfront catching the Grizzly Bear show:
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2009…
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Nearly 30 minutes of serious talk about rap is certainly a rarity on television, or anywhere, really, so this is pretty great. But "almost too chummy" is the understatement of the year -- if Matt Lauer had conducted that same interview with, say, Paul McCartney, it would have been derided (mostly by Bill Maher) as a half-hour-long blowjob.
(Which reminds me, the part where Jay-Z says hip-hop doesn't require the use of your knees... "for some of us" is awesome.)
This deserves an award it was absolutely priceless. Thank You Bill, thank you B Sutton. Times have changed and it's about time someone spoke inteligently about something that has become a part of us whether we know it or not. Thank You.
Leave it to rap... The remix of the interview is already out. Bill Maher is a surprisingly decent rapper, though he's "new to da game" by his own admission:
http://tinyurl.com/nlvtjx
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