Along with chef Mario Batali, Bono, and others, Jay is an investor in the popular hangout. On July 2, we were on the top floor in the private room of the Spotted Pig restaurant, in New York’s West Village. It’s commerce, it’s politics, the fabric of the real as well as the imagined life. Jay Z is a new kind of 21st-century artist where the canvas is not just the 12 notes, the wicked beats, and a rhyming dictionary in his head. The one bleeding in the garret having cut his own ear off. In music, we love the idea of the screwed-up, shooting-up, fucked-up artist. “It was after 9/11,” Foxx said, “and the city had just stopped still. (Later, Foxx told me that when his father got out of “mandatory college” the first concert he took his father to see was Jay Z’s in Miami. Jay shouted at the screens, calling various players various nicknames: The Heat’s Shane Battier became “Bang Bang” Battier! One of the Spurs guards-who was having a terrible series-was “Apple Turnover!” The actor Jamie Foxx stopped by. Jay showed me the “Shawn Carter” watch he designed for Hublot, which will cost somewhere around $20,000 and will be out later this year. D’Ussé, Jay’s preferred brand of Cognac, was served. More food, more drinks, more yelling at the screens. On hand were Jay’s best friend, Emory Jones, who’s a partner in Jay’s clothing company Chaka Pilgrim, head of creative visionary marketing for the Roc Nation conglomerate John Meneilly, from Jay’s management team and former Def Jam Records executive Kevin Liles. Two nights later, Game Seven, the same suite, more friends.
Jay was rooting for the Heat, who won the game by three points, which meant the finals would go to a Game Seven. By the third quarter, with the Spurs ahead by 10 points and looking like they’d win the championship, Jay said, “This is over.” A few minutes later, LeBron’s headband accidentally fell off, Miami’s Ray Allen hit a three-pointer to tie the score, and the game went into overtime. A waitress took drink and food orders: spicy shrimp, guacamole, French fries, sliders. Juan Perez and I tried to explain to Beyoncé how, as Knicks fans, we hate the Heat. With no makeup on, she appeared around 20 years old. She wore shorts, a white silk sleeveless top, and Tabitha Simmons striped sneakers her long hair was tied back with a scarf. Beyoncé, his wife of five years, showed up after a recording session and sat down next to her husband. The 40/40-a baseball term that means getting 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in one season-is Jay’s home away from home. Various people stopped by to say hello: the singer Ne-Yo, Charlotte Bobcats point guard Kemba Walker-people pay respects to Jay not unlike they did to Don Corleone in The Godfather. At first, when Jay’s pal LeBron James was having a mediocre game, Knicks fan Juan Perez yelled profane and hysterically funny insults at the TV. Some in the room were rooting for the Spurs, or, rather, against the Heat. These are guys who came up together from the streets the language was raw. And there’s a lot to laugh about when you’re with this group. He laughs a lot-his trademark short, staccato laugh. But in his private suite, he’s the Jay Z that only his friends and family get to see: extroverted, curious, gregarious, hilarious, and downright chatty. Everyone knows he’s really smart, really talented, really rich, and wildly successful. His friend the producer Rick Rubin once described Jay to me as “the coolest guy in the room.” Any room. When you meet Jay Z for the first time, or even the first few times, or get a rare, perfunctory interview, he is a thoughtful, guarded, reticent man. His white sneakers were in front of him on the floor. Jay wore a white T-shirt, black hoodie, jeans, and striped socks from the Stance sock company (he’s an investor). Among them: Juan Perez, the president of the newly formed Roc Nation Sports William “World Wide Wes” Wesley, a consultant to CAA Sports, which has recently partnered with Roc Nation Sports Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith, a friend of Jay’s for 25 years and head of A&R for Roc Nation Records and his longtime trusted publicist, Jana Fleishman. The noise in this room came from the game on two large flatscreen TVs and the loud camaraderie of Jay’s guests-most of whom are his closest friends, people who’ve been in his inner circle for years.
Upstairs in his owner’s suite, Jay Z leaned back on one of the white leather sofas that line the large room. Downstairs, the sports bar was noisy with paying customers. On June 18, the 40/40 Club, on West 25th Street, New York City, was jammed with basketball fans there to see the Miami Heat versus the San Antonio Spurs in Game Six of the N.B.A. What are you doing collecting art? WhatĪre you talking about? Wait a minute, you’re getting out of the zone. You’re supposed to rap, carry a boom box, wear chains, and go Everyone’s supposed to stay in their lines and be neat.
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