Brooklyn Public Library Has 99 Issues however Jay-Z Ain’t One

“There’s a understanding in being an artist,” Jay-Z says in one of many many movies of him at present on view on the Brooklyn Public Library’s (BPL) primary department, positioned at Grand Military Plaza within the middle of New York Metropolis’s most populous borough. That the native man born in 1969 as Shawn Carter — however who now prefers to name himself “HOV” — is aware of create memorable standard music and keep atop the leisure trade shouldn’t be unsure. 

However is a public library the suitable venue for a shrine to a billionaire’s glamorous life?

Whether or not the “understanding” HOV refers to locations him within the class of creative genius is a thorny debate that hinges on which standards one makes use of. However conspicuously absent from The Ebook of HOV exhibition is any materials that illustrates how the rap famous person got here to study something. Certainly, there’s scant consideration dedicated to Jay-Z’s life earlier than he reached stardom in his late 20s. 

That absence is doubly odd on condition that Brooklyn’s largest public library is the place generations of youngsters from all backgrounds have discovered to learn and open their minds to the world. However guests to The Ebook of HOV is not going to come away with information about any books, world leaders, and even musicians that impressed younger Shawn Carter. 

The present’s opening final week raised additional questions on its supposed viewers. On a scorching weekday, the closely trafficked library was closed to its constituents in preparation for a celebrity-studded night occasion internet hosting the rapper and his VIP associates.   

Following the lead of the introduction that greets showgoers, the New York Instances known as the exhibition an ode to “aspirational celeb extravagance.” Others could view it as extra akin to a home museum, full with trophies (e.g. Emmys and BET Awards), random memorabilia (a soccer signed by Rihanna), footage of Jay-Z with assorted well-known individuals (similar to Tom Brady), and canopy pictures of him in rich-dude magazines (together with Cigar Aficionado).

It’s value noting that on the opposite aspect of the East River, the primary department of the New York Public Library at present hosts an exhibit of Charles Darwin’s letters, whereas a present on the Schomburg Middle for Analysis in Black Tradition presents artwork by incarcerated individuals. These extra conventional exhibitions adhere to a public library’s longstanding mission.

Not all of The Ebook of HOV merely celebrates Jay-Z’s industrial success, nonetheless. One “chapter” of the exhibit within the BPL’s first-floor Youth Wing is titled “Advancing Policing and Jail Reform.” Whereas the circumstances of Meek Mill and Kalief Browder could also be acquainted to most grownup showgoers, the objects displayed — posters for Mill, the Peabody Award that Jay-Z and firm received for his or her 2017 documentary about Browder — are introduced with none background particulars.  

Given that in the first place look they seem to function choices from the BPL’s e-book assortment, it’s not sure that attendees will discover the ten cabinets close by within the Youth Wing that showcase a handful of books “From the Library of Jay-Z.” These are largely artwork books, together with Basquiat’s Defacement (2019) in addition to books by or about modern Black artists together with Rashid Johnson, Henry Taylor, and Clarence Main.

Such books present a snapshot of Jay-Z’s present mental radar. A lot of what else is on his thoughts surfaces in his music. On the opposite aspect of the primary flooring, a bit titled “Did It All With out a Pen” permits guests to hearken to a whole lot of albums from the BPL music assortment that embrace the unique songs that Jay-Z has sampled all through his profession. That is the closest one will get to illumination within the exhibition. 

By breezing previous his youth, The Ebook of HOV fails to spotlight one other venerable Brooklyn public establishment that contributed to Jay-Z’s mental growth: George Westinghouse Excessive College in Downtown Brooklyn. Jay-Z’s classmates included Busta Rhymes, and throughout the period Biggie, DMX, and Wu-Tang producer Oliver Grant additionally attended the college (as did the late actor Michael Okay. Williams). Such a legacy is worthy of celebration. 

As a substitute, The Ebook of HOV hypes the success of a person who doesn’t endure from a scarcity of hype. The exhibition got here collectively exactly as New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams threatened extreme price range cuts to public libraries, solely to backtrack amid standard outcry. Alas, The Ebook of HOV is thus unlikely to be the final time that the Brooklyn Public Library hosts an arrogance present for a billionaire.