Moment of Clarity

In my Media Theory class, we've been talking a lot about the distinction between art and entertainment. One proposed way to differentiate, was that art is something that takes effort to absorb, while entertainment is something you can get lost in without effort. Personally, I don't think that the difference is that easy to define, in fact in many cases I don't think there is a difference. To make something that successfully captivates and entertains an audience requires a great deal of artistry.

Another topic we touched on in the course was the idea that a lot of art is dumbed down so that it can be more easily understood and accepted as entertainment.

Jay-Z immediately jumped to mind as an artist who claims to dumb down some of his music, in order to connect with more people and to also sell more records. And I feel that to be able to be in such control of your abilities, altering the lyrical complexity of your work while maintaining the quality of that work, demonstrates tremendous artistic talent.

In his song Moment of Clarity, Jay-Z said, "If skills sold/Truth be told/I'd probably be/Lyrically/Talib Kweli/Truthfully/I wanna rhyme like Common Sense/(But I did five Mil)/I ain't been rhyming like Common since."

Here is is explaining that he would prefer to rap like Common or Talib Kweli, both of whom are renowned for their lyricism, but that lyricism doesn't sell records. On a number of songs over his career, Jay-Z has indeed displayed that when he wants to be, he is one of the best technical rappers alive. However when it comes to his singles he dumbs down his high art for the sake of the masses.