Someone over at Esquire thought it’d be cool to write about Mr. Empire State. Can’t fault them there. He’s coming off a big year. But then they went and gave the writer, Lisa Taddeo, the greenlight to cover him this way:
“Jay-Z is black black. He is old-school double-dark-chocolate-chunk black. He is black the way Labatt is blue. He is not white black, Barack black, like our president. Or the kind of black that doesn’t curse and deplores the n-word, the genteel black, like Oprah. He is, arguably, the first black-black guy to cross over into Oprah-land and Bill Clintonworld without making the Oprah-sized no-look-back forward flip that means you’re selling not necessarily your soul but perhaps something fleshier, a little more external.”
To make matters worse, they highlighted the above text for dramatic affect. Before you go thinking that it’s only black people who are thinking WTF other’s have sounded off on Esquire missing the mark.
Slate.com
The Unbelievably Bad Metaphors in Esquire’s Profile of Jay-Z
The Village Voice
On the Esquire Profile of Jay-Z That Is Making the Rounds Right Now
Oh and Happy New Year.
