The Life & Rhymes Of Jay-Z: An Historical Biography, 1969-2004

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the life and ideas of Jay-Z, arguably the most powerful rapper in history. It is an effort to illuminate the ways in which he managed the vicissitudes of life as they were inscribed in the political, economic cultural, social contexts and message systems of the worlds which he inhabited: the social ideas of class struggle, the fact of black youth disempowerment, educational disenfranchisement, entrepreneurial possibility, and the struggle of families to buffer their children from the horrors of life on the streets.