Why Jay-Z?

Beyond Meridian Lecture Series

Arcadia University

Glenside, Pennsylvania

October 3, 2017

Troubled circumstances in his youth. Occupant of an environment shaped by persistent and structural anti-black racism. A memoir to reflect on his experiences. Those characteristics describe Frederick Douglass, Richard Wright, Malcolm X, and others. They also describe the life and times of Shawn Carter, best known, as Jay Z.

The past two semesters, people have often asked why Jay Z is the central figure of an upper level African American literary courses I teach at UTA called “The Life and Times of S. Carter.” In #theJayZclass, I work with students to place Jay Z’s albums in a broad African American literary continuum of autobiographical and semi-autobiographical works. We also use text-mining software to quantify linguistic trends and create various datasets about the rapper.

Even though many people place him among a cohort of legendary lyricists and moguls, I have found that my students, rap fans, and some educators may still wonder what makes Jay Z worthy of focused attention in a literature course.