15 Songs on How Jay-Z is A Spiritual Guru Part 9

From Part 8.

We’re wrapping up our series, and the album wraps up as well, with an absolutely incredible tribute to youth. A catchy weaving of brilliant words laid overtop a re-make of a classic.

15. Young Forever
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Summary of Principles: Deepak Chopra’s Ageless Body, Timeless Mind echo’s the sentiments expressed in this song in incredible detail. So does Caroline Sutherland’s ‘The Body Knows’ series. Increased longevity is the domain of many Spiritual Gurus.	[Mr. Hudson] Let’s dance in style, Let’s dance for a while, Heaven can wait we’re only watching the skies Hoping for the best but expecting the worst, Are you gonna drop the bomb or not? Let us die young or let us live forever, We don’t have the power but we never say never, Sitting in a sandpit, Life is a short trip, The music’s for the sad man,A beautiful spin-off of ’Forever Young’ [Chorus] Forever young, I wanna be forever young Do you really want to live forever? Forever and ever Forever young I wanna be Forever young Do you really want to live forever? Forever, forever [Jay-Z] So we live a life like a video When the sun is always out and you never get old And the champagne’s always cold And the music is always good And the pretty girls just happen to stop by in the hood And they hop their pretty ass up on the hood of dat pretty ass car Without a wrinkle in today Cuz there is no tomorrow Just some picture perfect day To last a whole lifetime And it never ends Cos all we have to do is hit rewind So lets just stay in the moment, smoke some weed, Drink some wine, Reminisce talk some shit forever young is in your mind Leave a mark that can’t erase neither space nor time So when the director yells cut, I’ll be fine, I’m forever young…Sigh. A beautiful, beautiful, beautiful thing. I feel younger just reading it, and listening to it? With Jay-Z’s emotion and spirit and significantly phat beats behind it? Heaven. Thinking along these lines is a powerful, powerful way to create, and though Jay-Z is 41 measured by physical standards, he’s got undeniable youth, and continues to dominate hip-hop and grow his legacy. [Chorus] [Jay-Z] Fear not when, fear not why, Fear not much while we’re alive, Life is for living not living up tight, See ya somewhere up in the sky, Fear not die, I’ll be alive for a million years, bye bye, An call to everyone to realize that fretting about the past or worrying about the future is not really living, let go of the stress, appreciate the moment and that you’re alive. So not for legends, I’m forever young My name shall survive Jesus said it, Buddha said it, Osho said it - The truth always lives on. Through the darkest blocks, over kitchen stoves, Over Pyrex pots, my name shall be passed down to generations While debating up in barber shops, young slung, hung here, Shorty, the nigga from here With a little ambition just what we can become here, And as the father passed his story down to his sons ears, Younger kid, younger every year, yeah Jay-Z, like SpiritSentient, is talking about the evolution of humanity. So if you love me baby this is how you let me know. Don’t ever let me go, that’s how you let me know, baby, [Chorus] [Jay-Z] Slamming Bentley doors, Hopping out of Porsche’s, Popping up on Forbes lists, Gorgeous, Hold up, Niggas thought i lost it, They be talking bullshit I be talking more shit They nauseous, Hold up, I’ll be here forever You know, I’m on my fall shit, And I ain’t waiting for closure, I will never forfeit, Less than four bars, Guru bring the chorus in, Did you get the picture yet, I’m painting you a portrait of young…What better way to instill an emotional, intense, passionate feeling of young in his listeners? [Chorus]

That song wraps up our spiritual take on Jay-Z’s rap.

I’d like to say that Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter is a very personal inspiration to me.

I envision a new level of aware, conscious celebrity, and I intend to lead the way in that respect, but I’m thinking Jay-Z already has. The man is an absolute visionary, that started in hip-hop and has expanded far, far beyond.

To me, he’s an astounding creative soul, constantly pushing the limits… of everything! He’s never afraid to change his style *and succeed with it. He’s never hesitant to speak out or engage a controversial topic and set society straight on it. He’ll defend those who are unjustly attacked, and he’ll pave the way for others. I love this man–’no homo.’

One of my favourite ‘ballsy moves’ he’s made was head-lining the 2008 Glastonbury [rock] Festival. First of all to even persuade, entice, or inspire the Glastonbury Crew to be open to having an American rapper headline is a massive accomplishment which sets precedent for many artists to come.

Then Noel Gallagher of Oasis, a powerful celebrity opinion-swayer in his own right, spoke publicly against the inclusion of hip-hop in the Glastonbury Festival (I’m not sure about this quote but NME.com reported Gallagher as saying Jay-Z had ‘no fucking chance’ of headlining the festival,) and the buzz on the net from Glastonbury loyals were that Jay-Z would ruin it, Radiohead would be a far better choice, and that Jay had ruined ticket sales.

In the face of all this, Jay-Z effing rocked the show hard. His entire set is on youtube, and you can witness his style, flow, charisma, energy, and pure love for the audience.

At one point the crowd had been goin’ strong so much all night and so amped off Jay’s set, that he calms them down like this:

"It’s too crazy…
Gimme somethin’ smooth…
I need everybody to help me out…
You guys follow me…"

He has them eating out of the palm as his hand.

"Two step – same way though, same way…
If you ain’t goin’ this way, you goin’ the wrong way…
There ya go,
That’s nice,
That looks beautiful…
Get the flags going the same way too…
Yeah,
Thats right,
Y’Look so beautiful out there!
Uh huh"

Great concert vibe, for sure.

And towards the end as he’s concluding his astonishingly successful set (in which he covers Oasis, and U2 with the crowd eating it up) he says:

"So they say you guys don’t want me to be here tonight
Audience: (Noooo!)
Said you guys are not into hip-hop
Audience: (Naaawwwww…)
I got one question, where’s the love
Audience: (YeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!)"

And all said and done? Glastonbury had a sold out Festival, and they connected with an audience they’d never connected with before. Not only that, but a huge amount of ‘rockers’ began to open their minds to hip-hop.

For an artist to step out of their comfort zone, to get up on a stage in front of hundreds of thousands of people who could easily riot, or all leave, putting their entire reputation on the line, is stunning. Jay continues to do big things.

A more beautiful, confident, integrity-filled move is a challenge to imagine for many.

He’s sold 11 number one albums, I can see his next one, the upcoming Thug Motivation 103, making it 12.

He’s possibly the most popular international live performer of our time (or ever?)

His empire (and it really is an empire) consists of:

RocaWear

Roc Nation

Jay-Z Inc.

Scion LLC (Artful Dodge + Shawn Carter Collection)

New Jersey Nets

J-Hotels

40/40 Club

Translation Advertising

Carol’s Daughter

Rocafella Records (Bought-Out)

Nabbed from CorporateTakeoverMag.com

He has a perfume/fragrance and now he’s headlined Coachella — will probably hit Bonaroo, Summer Sonic, and Rock AM Festivals. He is simply a creative giant, continuing to succeed, and I for one, LOVE it.

Stay up to date with Jay-Z on his official site, YouTube channel, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

"Even in the beginning you had to go about it like that, ’cause if you do things for money, you’ll get money — you won’t get anything else, right. I mean hopefully, heh, you’ll get money and then you’ll be gone. There’s a lot of guys who just did it for the money, they came, and they went. Y’know, so you have to have that mentality from the beginning, you gotta Do What You Love to do. There’s a lotta people that’s making music and it’s not really what they wanna do. They do it because, it’s a way out for them. It’s a hustle and you can’t knock that – I said that on my first album right, you can’t knock the hustle but it’s not their passion. And you could see it, and you could tell, and you could see by the quality of music that they make that it’s not they’re passion…Nothin’ worth having comes without hardship — That’s not how life works." – Jay-Z in a 2010 interview with Tim Westwood.

I’ve always been open to all kinds of music, and I have a massive, massive music collection personally, and I’ve always loved hip-hop — but I can definitely say Jay-Z has blown my mind wide-open on hiphop.

Not only that but singing along with this man’s positive, motivating, inspiring, abundant, passionate words is probably the easiest, most powerful method of personal affirmations ever. At least, for me it is

Hova, SpiritSentient salutes you.

 

 

So how about you guys? Any songs you really connect with and feel are some ‘next-level’ spirituality? There’re tons out there

 

If you want more Jay-Z, check his interviews:

Interview Magazine
Tim Westwood 2010
Jay-Z On Oprah

Or this hot documentary: NY-Z an Absolut Collaboration

 

Jay-Z’s Spirit – Part 1
Jay-Z’s Spirit – Part 2
Jay-Z’s Spirit – Part 3
Jay-Z’s Spirit – Part 4
Jay-Z’s Spirit – Part 5
Jay-Z’s Spirit – Part 6
Jay-Z’s Spirit – Part 7
Jay-Z’s Spirit – Part 8
Jay-Z’s Spirit – Part 9