Empire State of Mind
Page 12
Throughout the video, the choreography suggests a relationship beyond the screen. In the chorus, Jay-Z wraps his arm around Beyoncé while saying, “All I need in this life of sin / Is me and my girlfriend.” Beyoncé replies, “Down to ride to the very end / Is me and my boyfriend.” Appearing as even a fictional partner in crime was a departure for the clean-cut Beyoncé; similarly, being seen with a presumably devout pop diva was unusual for Jay-Z. Each brought the other a bit of something they didn’t have before—and the collaboration marked the beginning of a symbiotic relationship inside and outside of the recording booth. “We exchanged audiences,” Jay-Z said two years later. “Her records are huge Top 40 records, and she helped ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ go to number one. What I gave her was a street credibility, a different edge.”29
Meanwhile, the back pages buzzed with speculation on Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s relationship. In March 2003, papers in New York and Miami reported that the couple was already on the outs. “It sounds as though the music has stopped playing for Jay-Z and Beyoncé Knowles,” crowed the Miami Herald. Reporters from New York’s Daily News spotted the rapper with another woman at a Big Apple nightclub. Days later, the Herald quoted him talking about the video for “ ’03 Bonnie and Clyde” with a “wistful” air. “That’s an old video,” he said. “I’ve got a new video out.”30
By the time Beyoncé released her solo debut Dangerously in Love in the summer of 2003, however, there was no doubt that Jay-Z and Beyoncé were a couple. The album’s lead track was “Crazy in Love,” a bombastic orgy of horns, bass, and cowbell, topped off with a verse from Jay-Z. The song went on to win two Grammy awards and countless other accolades, including a number three ranking on Rolling Stone’s list of the decade’s best songs—right behind Jay-Z’s “99 Problems,” released later that same year.31
The song was also turned into an award-winning music video. The final scene—Jay-Z and Beyoncé dancing together after setting fire to a nearby car—cemented the couple’s status in the popular eye. Beyoncé also showcased her considerable dancing and rump-shaking abilities (toward the end of the clip, she kicks off the top of a fire hydrant and undulates in the resulting deluge for the balance of the video), but insisted that her increasingly sexy videos were still congruent with her religious views. “God is the main person in my life, and I would never do anything to offend Him,” she told Britain’s Daily Mirror in 2003. “I honestly believe He wants people to celebrate their bodies, as long as you don’t compromise your Christianity in the process.”32
Perhaps with this in mind, her replies to questions about Jay-Z were extremely limited early on in their relationship. When a Vanity Fair writer asked Beyoncé in 2005 if the sentiments she expressed in “Crazy in Love” were reflective of her feelings for Jay-Z, all she offered was, “Yes, it was very real.”33 As the years went on, Beyoncé elaborated a bit but remained stingy with details. “Most of [my] love songs are really personal,” she explained in 2009. “I am so private always, it’s like therapy for me to be able to sing about what I really care about, to release that.”34
Songwriter and Beyoncé collaborator Amanda Ghost gave a more detailed explanation. “She keeps the Jay-Z references ambiguous, but music is the one place she can be incredibly expressive—look at the lyrics to the track ‘Ave Maria,’ ” Ghost said in 2009. “She talks about being surrounded by friends, but she’s alone: ‘How can the silence seem so loud?’ and then, ‘There’s only us when the lights go down.’ I think that’s probably the most personal line on the whole album about her and Jay, because they are very real, and they’re very much in love, and it must be pretty tough to have that love when you’re incredibly famous.”35
Beyoncé’s attitude toward her fame, along with Jay-Z’s obvious dedication to her, helped sell her parents on the notion of their daughter dating a former drug dealer. The more they got to know Jay-Z, the more they approved of him. “Jay is just such a gentleman, and he is so smart, I was so happy that they got together,” Tina Knowles said in 2005. “They’re two smart people, and it’s great for both of them—it’s such a great match.”36
Following the success of “Crazy in Love” and the accompanying video, there has been nary a peep of bad news reported in Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s relationship. “Jay and I have always been very private about our relationships,” she told Larry King in 2009. “Even after we became husband and wife, we still continue to be private. And I think it’s protected us from a lot of things. And people give us a lot of respect. And I guess I learned that as happy as I am, I still need to keep it private.”37
Lacey Rose, the writer who penned Beyoncé’s Forbes cover story in 2006, credits the couple’s approach. “They’re very tight-lipped about that relationship, and frankly, I think that’s very wise,” says Rose. “Their careers and products garner so much attention, they don’t need their private lives to do that. That’s what sets them apart from the celebrities lining the pages of Us Weekly. For many, it’s their latest relationship drama that keeps them in the news. In the case of Jay-Z and Beyoncé, it’s a concert or a video. That’s not to say that their relationship isn’t part of the tabloid culture, but they don’t need to provide the details to stay relevant.”38
Another reason Jay-Z and Beyoncé have largely avoided tabloid drama is that they’re capable of turning off their stage personas, and often do. “Shawn Carter is happy to put on his Jay-Z suit, but then he goes back to being Mr. Carter,” says entertainment lawyer Bernie Resnick in a telephone interview. “Most people think of him as a brash, big-shot guy. He’s not. He’s quiet, introspective. The guy wears nice clothes, nothing flashy. He’s a gentleman.” In person, Resnick says they’re both very down-to-earth. “They’re Mr. and Mrs. Carter going to dinner.”39
Observers also note the sense of intimacy that Jay-Z and Beyoncé exude in person, very different from the unsentimental attitude with which Jay-Z approaches his business ventures. “They’re careful to not be demonstrative in public, but spend some time around them and you’ll see all the hallmarks of a close, committed couple,” wrote Touré, in Rolling Stone’s 2005 cover story on Jay-Z. “They’re physically playful, they eat oxtail off the same plate, she’s often giggling at something he’s said, they can talk with just their eyes.”40 Adds Jeff Chang: “It’s the closest thing to love that we have in America, this marriage.”41
Legitimacy of their love aside, the marriage makes both Jay-Z and Beyoncé even more attractive to advertisers. Though they’ve never endorsed a product together, a commercial appearance by one suggests the approval of the other. If Beyoncé shows up on TV enjoying a Pepsi, there’s at least a subliminal suggestion that Jay-Z likes it, too, and vice versa. “If you get one, you’re getting the other,” says Chang. “It’s an amazingly powerful situation that they have.”42 Adds media buyer Ryan Schinman: “It’s a case of one plus one equals ten.”43
The value of synergy isn’t lost on the lovebirds. Both make note of it in Beyoncé’s 2006 song “Upgrade U,” which begins with a challenge from Jay-Z. “How you going to upgrade me? What’s higher than number one?” Beyoncé returns by name-checking Ralph Lauren Purple Label neckties and Audemars Piguet watches, presumably brands he wouldn’t have heard of were it not for her feminine sophistication. More interestingly, she outlines how she’ll help him earn more money. “I’ma help you build your account,” she says. “When you’re in the big meetings for the mil[ions], you take me in just to complement the deal / Anything you cop I split the bill. Believe me, I can upgrade you.”44
Whether Beyoncé is actually in the room when Jay-Z closes his deals, her tacit approval certainly is. That’s something that can open doors that might previously have been closed. For example, in 2004—after Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s relationship became common knowledge—Jay-Z purchased a seven-figure stake in Carol’s Daughter, which makes skin and hair-care products for women and girls.45 The move, which could be worth millions more as Carol’s Daughter continues to grow, probably wouldn’t have been possible if Jay
-Z had still been “Big Pimpin’ ” when the opportunity arose.
Jay-Z and Beyoncé seem to be excellent role models for each other, career-wise. “I think they both recognize the value of branding themselves, and it’s something they’ve both done really well,” says Rose. “Both of them are people who recognize the key to being an entertainment mogul today is that you have to be everywhere. You can’t just have an album or a clothing line or a movie, you have to have all those things. They’re very good at that, and I’m sure it’s a product of one inspiring the other.”46 Beyoncé’s relentless appetite for touring, acting, recording, and anything else that can help her add to her own entertainment empire is another plus. “This is a girl that never, ever stops,” says Rose. “Sleep doesn’t seem to be a priority. That has to be inspiring for her husband.” Sure enough, marrying Beyoncé brought a new meaning to the word hustle for Jay-Z. In the two years following their nuptials, the highlights of his frenetic schedule included recording his eleventh solo album, embarking on a world tour with stops in over fifty cities, and inking a ten-year, $150-million deal with concert promoter Live Nation.
Clearly, Jay-Z and Beyoncé haven’t allowed marriage to get in the way of their rigorous touring and recording schedules. Being able to afford private jets is helpful, but even when they’re on the road to see each other perform in concert, work comes first. On one occasion in early 2008, Beyoncé flew to Miami for a Jay-Z show but made sure to schedule some time in the recording studio beforehand with James “Jim Jonsin” Scheffer, a Grammy-winning producer based in South Florida.
“Beyoncé was coming into Miami to just listen to some music and meet us,” Jonsin explains at an interview atop a Hollywood hotel on the eve of the 2010 Grammy awards. “It was this whole process, you had to meet the A&R [artists and repertoire specialist], you had to meet her father. It was almost a big background-check thing.”47
Beyoncé’s usual quality control measures were put into effect despite the fact that her sister, singer Solange, was the one who recommended Jonsin. Once he was cleared, Beyoncé set up a time to come to Jonsin’s studio and listen to a few tracks he’d cooked up, including the one that eventually became “Sweet Dreams,” a hit single. “We made the track, and she comes by around four or five o’clock to listen to it; she’s going to go to Jay-Z’s concert at six,” recalls Jonsin. “So we play some music for her. That particular song, she went nuts. She loved it. She insisted on going in the vocal booth and recording it right then and there, so she started cutting it, and she was late to Jay-Z’s concert.”
Jonsin wasn’t surprised. “I think their careers blossomed together,” he says. “They’re the president and first lady of the music industry, they run shit . . . By marrying Beyoncé, he attached himself to all her fans, and then they went and got into his stuff. The same goes for her, she got a bunch of new fans from him.”
As much as they gained from their marriage, Jay-Z and Beyoncé stand to raise their profiles even further once they start a family of their own. “For both of them, it adds another dimension,” says Rose. “From a promotion or endorsement standpoint, it adds another audience. For an output standpoint for Beyoncé, obviously she won’t be able to do one hundred and fifty tour dates per year anymore, so maybe it’s Broadway. This is not a woman who’s going to slow down.”48 And for Jay-Z, becoming a father will further improve his endorsement prospects. “Now he becomes a family man, and he opens up to a different world, a different side of the business,” says Schinman. “If you see what’s going on right now, family sells. I think he’s got nothing but upside.”49
So in the end, is the union of Jay-Z and Beyoncé a marriage or a merger? Listen to the song “Upgrade U,” released barely a year before the pair got hitched, for the answer. Toward the middle of Jay-Z’s verse, he mentions that Beyoncé is “on the verge” of something that rhymes with “verge.” But the word—either “marriage” or “merge”—is slurred. For a rhymester as precise as Jay-Z, that’s likely no accident: his relationship with Beyoncé is both.
9
Net Gain
On a bright and bitter day in March 2009, a clump of New York’s most influential citizens has clustered around the site of the billion-dollar Barclays Center, future home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets. Backed by a yellow Caterpillar excavator, the distinguished crew includes Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor David Paterson, and Borough President Marty Markowitz, all clad in dark suits and hard hats, shovels ready to kick off a symbolic groundbreaking.
The eyes of the ceremony’s onlookers, however, aren’t focused on any of the politicians. They’re directed toward the man towering at least a foot above the diminutive Markowitz: Jay-Z, co-owner of the Nets, and looking the part in a three-piece suit over a Gordon Gekko-style white-collared shirt. Suddenly, a loud pop echoes through the cold air and a stream of blue confetti rains down. Jay-Z and the politicians dip their shovels into the dirt as cameras click.
Later that day, local officials gather to puff their political feathers at a press conference in the shelter of an enormous tent. The Barclays Center is back on track after years of delays and lawsuits, soon to rise as the centerpiece of the ambitious Atlantic Yards development to be built atop the rail yard of the same name. After perhaps one too many jokes about Beyoncé, Markowitz introduces Jay-Z, and the mogul strides to the podium.
“What I stand here and represent is hope for Brooklyn, New York City,” says Jay-Z, after the initial applause dies down. “I think about growing up in Brooklyn in Marcy projects and shooting jump shots thinking I could make it to the NBA. Now I’m standing here as an owner of a team that’s coming back to Brooklyn and [taking] pride in that, in bringing that dream so much closer.”
Just fifteen years before becoming the target of Marty Markowitz’s chummy wisecrackery at the future site of the Barclays Center, Jay-Z’s business in Brooklyn was of the illegal variety. The same impulse that led him into that line of work—an unquenchable thirst for wealth and a flair for deal-making—drew Jay-Z into the business of basketball. The Nets’ move from New Jersey to Brooklyn was possible only after years of wrangling at the highest levels of government and business. Through it all, Jay-Z maneuvered himself into a position to both bring NBA basketball to his hometown and squeeze every dollar he could out of the equation.
The connection between Jay-Z and the Nets began with a half-serious suggestion from star point guard Jason Kidd in 2003. Kidd was hosting a birthday party at Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club and joked that the rapper ought to buy a stake in the Nets. The idea intrigued Jay-Z, and that fall he met with real estate developer Bruce Ratner, one of four bidders attempting to buy the team. Unlike the other bidders, Ratner’s ultimate goal was to move the team to Brooklyn, where he’d erect a sparkling new arena and surround it with high-rise commercial and residential towers.1
The plot of land Ratner coveted was an oddly shaped triangle above the rail yards at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues at the edge of downtown Brooklyn. A half-century earlier, Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley had hoped to build a new home for his team on the same site. (O’Malley eventually moved the team to Los Angeles when Robert Moses, who wanted a stadium in Queens, repeatedly blocked him from acquiring the land.2) Ratner was hoping to do what O’Malley couldn’t: convince the city to use eminent domain laws to help him clear the additional acreage needed for his development.
Ratner’s plan was not an easy one to execute. To win his bid for the Nets, he would have to come up with the most lucrative package and also secure the Brooklyn stadium site. To secure the stadium site, he would have to woo city officials by proving there was enough support for the project from Brooklyn’s constituents to overcome the powerful group of mostly upper-middle-class residents opposed to the construction of a giant entertainment complex in the middle of their neighborhood. Enter Jay-Z, one of the borough’s most popular sons.
In December of 2003, Jay-Z joined a team of would-be investors in Ratner’s consortium to unveil plan
s for a billowy silver stadium designed by architect Frank Gehry. The arena would be surrounded by four high-rise towers with 2.1 million square feet of space, along with 4,500 new apartments to the east, all part of Ratner’s $2.5 billion project. The entire development would be easily accessible to the nearby Atlantic Terminal, home to nine subway lines and a major commuter railroad station. After Jay-Z’s appearance and Gehry’s plans drummed up support for the proposal, New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey attempted to one-up Ratner by announcing he’d secured $150 million from his state to build a rail line to the Nets’ old home in East Rutherford.3 At that point, Ratner’s $275 million bid for the Nets was the highest on the table, though other bidders publicly questioned his ability to see such an outlandish plan through to completion. Amid these concerns and rumblings that a New Jersey-based group was preparing to up its bid, Ratner increased his offer to $300 million. In late January of 2004, the offer submitted by Ratner and his consortium of investors was accepted. The Nets were coming to Brooklyn.4
As soon as the deal closed, Jay-Z became a co-owner of the Nets, making him one of the few artists to hold an ownership stake in a major professional sports franchise. “It all came together in some weird way,” he said. “I still didn’t believe it happened even as I was signing the contract to be a part of the ownership. I was like, ‘What is this? Is this real?’ It was just so surreal. I still can’t believe when I say it.”5