
Remember when The Black Album was about to drop and Jay was on this crazy marketing spree with the Black S.Dots, the Black Phone, and The Fade to Black Movie? Well the most interesting of all these promotional vehicles never did materialize: The Black Book.
The book was being penned by veteran hip hop journalist dream hampton and was to tell Jay’s life story from his childhood in Marcy to his meteoric rise to the top of entertainment industry as the self proclaimed "Greatest Rapper Alive". Well, just the other day I was thinking, what the hell ever happened to that damn book? Well, a piece in today’s NY Daily News about the Rolling Stone interview answers that question, although I can’t say I’m happy with the reason:
…But the man who grew up as Sean Carter is still keeping people at a distance. After spending two years working with writer Dream Hampton on his memoir, "The Black Book," Jay doesn’t want the public to read it. In fact, he can’t bring himself to read it.
"I know that people really want to know about me," he says, "and I thought I was OK with it, but as it got closer and closer, I said, ‘What am I doing?’"
Hampton, we hear, is far from pleased with her subject’s sudden shyness. Particularly when he’s so eager to cash in on his fame by offering his image to any corporation through his Jay-Z Blue licensing company.
Come on Jay, you’ve been living in the public light for damn near 10 years now, so you might as well break down and tell the damn story. I’d much rather read your book than "From Pieces to Hate Weight" or whatever that Fitty pamphlet was called. What’s funny though is that despite all of this, the book is available on Amazon for pre-order. The article also talks about Jay’s issues with his pops and women and all that Oprah type of shit.
Sidenote: So that ‘s what the hell he meant when he said "My favorite hue, is Jay-Z Blue". Everybody was like ‘that lines hot’, but when you asked them what he was talking about they were like ‘Fuck if I know, but it sounded hot’.