NOW A NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, AND PUBLISHER'S
WEEKLY **BESTSELLER
**
Dyson writes with the affection of a fan but the rigor of an academic.
... Using extensive passages from Jay-Z's lyrics, 'Made in America'
examines the rapper's role as a poet, an aesthete, an advocate for
racial justice and a business, man, but devotes much of its energy to
Hova the Hustler. --Allison Stewart, The Washington Post
Dyson's incisive analysis of JAY-Z's brilliance not only offers a brief
history of hip-hop's critical place in American culture, but also hints
at how we can best move forward. --Questlove
JAY-Z: Made in America is the fruit of Michael Eric Dyson's decade of
teaching the work of one of the greatest poets this nation has produced,
as gifted a wordsmith as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Rita Dove. But
as a rapper, he's sometimes not given the credit he deserves for just
how great an artist he's been for so long.
This book wrestles with the biggest themes of JAY-Z's career, including
hustling, and it recognizes the way that he's always weaved politics
into his music, making important statements about race, criminal
justice, black wealth and social injustice. As he enters his fifties,
and to mark his thirty years as a recording artist, this is the perfect
time to take a look at JAY-Z's career and his role in making this nation
what it is today.
In many ways, this is JAY-Z's America as much as it's Pelosi's America,
or Trump's America, or Martin Luther King's America. JAY-Z has given
this country a language to think with and words to live by.
Featuring a Foreword by Pharrell
