Jay-Z's racial project "Picasso Baby"

In early August Jay-Z took over the Pace Gallery in New York in order to perform the song, Picasso Baby, from his album, "Magna Carta, Holy Grail". The gallery was set up with a bench facing a platform for Jay-Z to perform. The bench and platform were enclosed by a wire for the audience to stand behind, while the surrounding walls were completely white to keep the attention focused on the center of the room. Once Jay-Z entered and started his lyrical performance the audience realized that the entire enclosed area was the stage, as different artists stepped into the musical rectangle and interacted with Jay-Z. His performance ran for six hours straight and made national headlines.

Historically, Africans were viewed as non-human beings and incapable of art or self expression. Once Black forms of art and expression were finally accepted within mainstream European society, they were still viewed as inferior or lacking in complexity in comparison to European forms. Today there are still remnants of this tradition, especially when it comes to hip hop and rap which are art forms originally rooted in Black culture. Jay-Z's racial project "Picasso Baby" challenges the inferior views of Black art, especially hip hop and rap.

Michael Omi & Howard Winant define a racial project as "an interpretation, representation, or explanation of racial dynamics, and an effort to reorganize and redistribute resources along particular racial lines (56)". Although Jay-Z does not explicitly say this is his intent, he does mention that "once art started becoming part of the galleries there became this separation from the culture movement and hip hop." Jay-Z recognizes the disconnect of Black art, hip hop/rap, and traditional European art forms. Jay-Z interprets, represents, and explains what he believes the racial dynamic and relationship of Black art and other forms should look like. In the film you see Jay-Z and various artists essentially in dialog through their respective expressive mediums. In one particular scene he is face to face with artist Marina Ambramovic, and while she is artistically expressing herself, Jay-Z continues to rap while indulging in her art form. This atmosphere created an exchange of energies, gifts, and talents to show that this Black art form is similar to and is just as important as any other.  By creating an inclusive space of all art forms he is redistributing social credibility  to the Black art form and to the Black community. In the end, Jay-Z says it plainly: "We are all artists, we are alike, we are cousins."