"You Can't Make Art With Business In Mind"

We were the first to tell you about it. Don't believe us? Then what's this?

Now that we got that out of the way, what ever happened to Armadale vodka? And those gold bottles of that Ace of Spades? What happens to liquor brands once Jay-Z decides you taste like an irritated bowel movement tonic? We don't know, ask Cristal.

Ok, on to the next one: what you've been waiting for has finally arrived. Absolut Vodka (waddup X-Rate!) hooked up with Jiggaman for NY-Z, a 15-minute doccie on Jay's Blueprint 3 show at Madison Square Garden - now dubbed The House of Hova if you let the blogs tell it.


At the risk of us sounding like naysayers theblagg feels that the black and white treatment of the documentary obviously gives it that classic feel but for a man who has made timeless music for most of his career, that can't have been very hard to pull off.

All things considered, this mini-flick gets theblagg stamp of approval. Shoot, it made us think about venturing out to the concrete jungle where dreams are made of. That's nothing new though. Jay-Z + a screen + (un)warranted admiration = someone inspired. Or at the very least, this formula makes you consider that life can really work out for the better. Even if this life isn't your own. Oh and it's nice to see that Jay bites his wife (you must've known a B comment was coming!) too. Not like that! Ok, maybe like that, but who are we to judge how freaky MARRIED people get in their bedrooms.

Anyhow, what we mean is it's nice to see Jay-Z tried to impress his crowd by using the pop-up toaster thingy that Destiny's Child has been using for yonks. He just doesn't look as graceful as a yaki-wearing rump shaker would. But we digress, what is really irking about NY-Z is that John Mayer has so much screen time. Why?! We won't be surprised if Absolut collaborates with the guitarist with a penchant for making clowns of African-American folks. However, NY-John Mayer doesn't have a great ring to it. Oh well. [Updated to say: The director of NY-Z, Danny Clinch, also worked on a John Mayer doccie in 2008, That explains why there was so much of the Jay-Z special spent on John Mayer... uh-huh.]



The world doesn't need another Jay-Z sycophant. So theblagg can only tell you what we've picked apart from the images and feelings that have been orchestrated to flare up everytime Jay-Z is in front of us. The most important thing we learned from this film is "You can't make art with business in mind... You have to make music out of passion and figure out how to be a businessman after that."

PS: How cute is BK? And that coat. And that military jacket! Hoooweee. Love that girl!

Pictures found over at bahamabrands