Jay-Z Tells the Truth: Kinda, Sorta, Maybe, but Yeah Ultimately-ish
Real Philosophical, Racial, and Social Questions We Dismiss as "Hollywood."
Jay-Z won an award at the Grammys for something other than his music, brought his daughter on stage and talked about his wife. This should have been a smile moment, but, as Jay-Z says when he’d nervous he “tells the truth.” And he did. During his acceptance, the rapper said:
“I don’t want to embarrass this young lady, but she has the most Grammys than everyone and never won album of the year. So even by your own metrics, that doesn’t work. Think about that: The most Grammys. Never won album of the year. That doesn’t work.
Jay-Z did tell the truth insofar as he told the reality of life in the terms in which he sees it. What he did was take actual facts about what Beyoncé has won (more Grammys than anyone), and laid over top of it his interpretation about what she hasn’t won, (Album of the Year).
Jay-Z gifted us with one of the most fascinating sociological conversations in a while. One of his statements is a fact. Beyoncé has won more Grammys than anyone. The second part is an interpretation of those facts.
First, this is an interesting philosophical conversation. One could easily say that Jay-Z is making a category mistake1. Songs are not albums. That could mean Beyoncé is unique in history in making songs, but she hasn't had sufficient enough great songs on one album in one particular year to best the other albums in the category the same year. That doesn’t mean the “metrics” don’t add up. It means the way he weighs the metrics don’t add up…to his categories, which could be miscategorized. Maybe think about it this way: Someone can make a movie with several great scenes, but several great scenes don’t make a great movie. A few beautiful passages don’t make a great book. Think about a movie you’ve watched because of the trailer, but all the funny parts were in the trailer. One metric is the parts. The other metric is the whole2.