{"id":1194,"date":"2013-08-06T09:53:29","date_gmt":"2013-08-06T16:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1194"},"modified":"2013-08-06T09:53:29","modified_gmt":"2013-08-06T16:53:29","slug":"the-problematic-charity-of-jay-zs-picasso-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1194","title":{"rendered":"The Problematic Charity of Jay Z\u2019s Picasso Baby"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the weekend I watch the extended music-video-quasi-art-thing <i>Picasso Baby: A Performance Art Film. <\/i>I would argue it\u2019s one of those three nouns: a performance. And while I think Jay Z has been making \u00a0strong efforts at pushing himself and the hip-hop genre into loftier domains, I think <i>Picasso Baby<\/i> is representative of what\u2019s wrong with his strategy.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xMG2oNqBy-Y\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The daylong project is essentially replicating Marina Abramovic\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marina_Abramovic#The_Artist_Is_Present.2C_March.E2.80.93May_2010\" target=\"_blank\">The Artist Is Present<\/a>\u201d installation but with, like, music and dancing and hoots and hollers. However, the attempt feels more like a bastadization of Abramovic\u2019s work than a transformation.<\/p>\n<p>Abramovic\u2019s work (watch <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yKw7LuEqUVs\" target=\"_blank\">this<\/a> for a short primer) presented a moment of interaction as a gift and built upon it. (And she made a lot of people <a href=\"http:\/\/marinaabramovicmademecry.tumblr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">cry<\/a> in doing so.) Jay Z? Not so much. Instead of <i>Picasso Baby<\/i> being about individuals getting these one-on-one moments of reflection with an artist, the film represents the moment as something closer to worship. Abramovic\u2019s work was (to me) about that interaction <i>between<\/i> two people. A mutual exchange that felt like it changed both participants. Jay Z on the other hand simply reinforces hip-hop swagger in a new space\u2013a whiter space (both in terms of color aesthetic and in terms of racial representation).<\/p>\n<p>This is media <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Society_of_the_Spectacle\" target=\"_blank\">spectacle<\/a> for the sake of spectacle. Aside from Jay and a bunch of hipster-approved celebrities, the most apparent things in the film are the presence of cameras and the absolutely bonkers responses from fans.<\/p>\n<p><b>How do we read this?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The film highlights two young men of color yelling, \u201cBrooklyn\u2019s in the house.\u201d Does this give street cred for an artist in an otherwise exclusionary space from his past audience? Is it, instead an invitation into art spaces urban youth may not see as welcoming? Or is Jay Z leaving behind this audience? The design aesthetics of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Magna-Carta-Holy-Grail-Jay-Z\/dp\/B00DMRNMRQ\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1375807005&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=magna+carta+holy\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Magna Carta Holy Grail<\/i><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Watch-Throne-Kanye-West-Jay\/dp\/B005BQLCBO\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1375807000&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=watch+the+throne\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Watch the Throne<\/i><\/a> were an artsy move that\u00a0could, for instance, be interpreted\u00a0as a step toward even <i>bigger<\/i> hip-hop bravado.<\/p>\n<p>At one point in the film a fan looks at the camera, addressing Jay Z and says, &#8220;You make yourself art. That&#8217;s amazing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But this is the distant art of an artist out of touch.<\/p>\n<p>Among the things Jay has garnered headlines for over the past months\u2013the sad <a href=\"http:\/\/popwatch.ew.com\/2013\/07\/31\/jay-z-hyphen-craigslist\/\" target=\"_blank\">breakup with his hyphen<\/a>, the debut of his album art next to <a href=\"http:\/\/pitchfork.com\/news\/51403-jay-z-unveils-magna-carta-holy-grail-cover-art-next-to-the-actual-magna-carta\/\" target=\"_blank\">the <i>actual<\/i> Magna Carta<\/a>\u2013there was a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment\/music\/posts\/la-et-ms-jay-z-on-social-responsibility-my-presence-is-charity-20130726,0,687987.story\" target=\"_blank\">problematic statement he made<\/a>: responding to a quote from Harry Belafonte about social responsibility, Jay Z said, \u201cmy presence is charity. Just who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So there\u2019s that.<\/p>\n<p>And <i>Picasso Baby<\/i> reinforces this dangerous belief in Jay\u2019s charity. It\u2019s a dangerous pathway for young people to encounter in an otherwise looser culture of fandom today. While I see Jay Z trying to build on the momentum and hype of a new album, I don\u2019t think this is the approach that creates healthy networks amongst fans. It only offers a singular pathway of idol-worship.<\/p>\n<p>[Note: There is a rant to be made &#8211; and likely made ad nauseum elsewhere on the internets &#8211; about Kanye and Jay and the two roads diverging on a diamond-studded path. I would say Kanye is just as confounding in his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Yeezus-Kanye-West\/dp\/B00CV5ZPA2\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1375807053&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=yeezus\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Yeezus<\/i><\/a>-like direction. He isolates audiences across the board and more directly challenges the direction a continually maturing genre is headed. I would also add that the <a href=\"http:\/\/prettymuchamazing.com\/videos\/kanye-wests-new-song-new-slaves\" target=\"_blank\">lead up<\/a> to <i>Yeezus<\/i> was a masterful example of transmedia marketing in 2013 that educators could directly crib within the classroom. 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I would argue it\u2019s one of those three nouns: a performance. And while I think Jay Z has been making \u00a0strong efforts at pushing himself and the hip-hop genre into loftier domains, I think Picasso Baby is representative of what\u2019s wrong [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Tell people this is awesome:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1194&amp;share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email this to a friend\"><span>Email<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-1194\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1194&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on 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