Devone Tucker, a black conservative Republican blogger, argues that Jay-Z will eventually have Michael Jackson’s iconic impact: “Jay-Z’s music is the official soundtrack for this generation. His beats and lyrics are embedded in the minds of those who will own houses, raise children and pay taxes in the 2010s and 2020s. They’ll talk about what it was like to buy The Black Album and Kingdom Come. Every generation has a figure to worship, a person who can seemingly do no wrong. Jay-Z has already assumed that Elvis/Michael role for this generation. Presley made rock mainstream, Jackson increased the popularity of pop, and Carter made hip-hop the national anthem.

It was Carter who once and for all destroyed the notion that hip-hop was just a fad, a temporary musical trend that would fade away like grunge and disco. It was Carter who became the Billy Graham of hip-hop, the person who made the musical form a permanent fixture in the world’s consciousness. Like Elvis and Michael before him, Jay-Z has been branded a negative role model by older Americans.

Crusaders for civility in the 1950s lambasted Elvis for swiveling his hips, and morality monitors in the 1980s gave Jackson a thumbs-down for his crotch-grabbing antics. Carter has also been on the wrong side of the culture-war battlefield, although his image is not a completely negative one. One can dislike some of the language in Jay-Z’s music while also giving him due respect for his tremendous business skills. When it comes to investing wisely, effectively promoting one’s own brand and knowing what the people want, he is in fact a positive role model. (Perhaps if Jackson possessed financial wisdom equaling Carter’s, he would have been able to avoid some of the problems that beset his final years.)”

Mr. Tucker continues his commentary: “Say what you will about some of the themes in his music, but there’s a certain class to Jay-Z; you get the sense that he’s mentally balanced, disciplined, shrewd enough to avoid the dangers that ultimately ensnared Elvis and Michael. He’s an American success story - a man who overcame disadvantage and an absent father to become the King of Hip-Hop and one of the sharpest business minds of the 21st century. In fact, it’s fair to argue that because of his status as a ‘normal superstar,’ Jay-Z is a better role model for today’s children than Michael and Elvis were for yesterday’s. Is Carter flawless? No, but who is?

In a world running short on role models, should we throw him away because of past controversies? Or should we realize that those who look up to Carter could do far worse in terms of selecting a hero? There are millions of Americans who are growing up in circumstances quite similar to those of Jay-Z’s youth. In him, they see a way out, a way beyond the projects or the barrio or even the economically struggling small town. Long before anyone ever heard of Barack Obama, Jay-Z represented hope to these Americans. He was, and is, their icon.”

Source: Booker Rising