Jay-Z
Listening Booth
Luxury and Mockery on Pusha T’s “It’s Almost Dry”
The new record is as leisurely as it is confrontational, performed from a position of casual, assumed superiority.
Palm Springs Postcard
Shooting the Good Life for Jay-Z’s Cannabis Company
Hype Williams, whom Sean Combs once called “the Black Scorsese,” recasts Slim Aarons’s poolside scenes in Palm Springs.
Culture Desk
The Power and Paradox of Beyoncé and Jay-Z Taking Over the Louvre
Their engagement with the museum’s European canon shouldn’t be flattened into a shorthand for transgression. They are interested, instead, in playing with tableaux.
Culture Desk
Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Ode to Happiness in “Everything Is Love”
The joint album is a pointed reversal of the serious, heavy tone of most of the couple’s previous records; there is no torment, only celebration.
2017 In Review
My Favorite Things About Pop Music in 2017
Cultural Comment
Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, and the Music of Success
There was an aspirational cool when, in 2005, Jay-Z proclaimed, “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man.” Now it’s simply true.
A Critic at Large
Beywatch
Cultural Comment
Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” Is a Revelation of Spirit
Daily Comment
Donald Trump Is a Rapper
The Sporting Scene
A Night in Kings County
Shouts & Murmurs
Liner Notes
Onward and Upward with the Arts
The Impossible Body
On and Off the Avenue