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Empire State Of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner To Corner Office (2011)

by Zack O'Malley Greenburg(Favorite Author)

3.64 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1591843812 (ISBN13: 9781591843818)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Portfolio Hardcover

review 1: I guess the book accomplishes what it proposed to deliver: a story of Jay Z's ascent from drug dealing to sitting courtside at Nets games and being paid millions of dollars to mention particular champagne brands in his songs. But you can learn most of that from a Wikipedia entry or a few magazine articles, so I'm not certain why writing Empire State of Mind was all that necessary.The author went well out of his way, throughout the book, to insert himself into the story, add silly personal vignettes about his interviews, and name-drop. Surely Greenburg has read a good biography or two in his day, where he would find little/none of that. Empire State of Mind also lacks any serious analysis of Jay Z's cultural impact, besides what you'd already discern from a cursory web arti... morecle.Not recommended unless you're trying to research Jay Z or a related topic and want to accumulate relevant sources.
review 2: Much of the content is cribbed from previously published sources already available via Google, but its nice to have it packaged in one book. Interesting insights on deals (Roc Nation, Roc-a-fella clothing, Roc-a-fella records, Brooklyn Nets, reclaiming his masters through Def Jam post) dealings with Dame Dash, failed Jay-Z Blue initiative, anecdotes about Jay-z as operating executive. Only worth reading if you'd read anything about Jay-z. less

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