The Brooklyn Public Library’s front has been covered in JAY-Z’s lyrics in anticipation of an exhibition honoring the rapper that is rumored to debut later this week.
Lyrics from songs like “Hovi Baby,” “Sweet,” “Encore,” “Justify My Thug,” and more from the decorated catalog of the rap deity were seen inscribed on the BPL building in the style of a newspaper article earlier this week in footage of the public library in Jay’s hometown getting a makeover.
The Brooklyn Public Library will be closed on Thursday, July 13, according to Hell Gate, as it gets ready to welcome visitors to the aforementioned JAY-Z exhibit on Friday, July 14.
A replica of the renowned Baseline Studios, which Jigga and Juan Perez’s recording studio co-owned, will be included in the project, which will be described as a “personal shrine to JAY-Z himself” and be part of the exhibit.
JAY-Z’s lyrics are frequently cited as examples of the best work in the genre, and his 2010 autobiography, Decoded, made extensive use of them.
Rapsody, Dr. Gloria Carter, Jay’s mother, and other special guests spoke at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Night in the Library: The Philosophy of Hip Hop event last month in honor of Hip Hop 50.
He was an extremely unique young man. Yo ma, the sun is bright and I want to go outside, he was the young child who would say. ‘Baby, it’s freezing outside,’ I’ll say. The sun is shining, he’d say. Gloria Carter said to the event’s host Angie Martinez, “I’d be like, ‘Okay, I’ma let you walk outside.
“Open the door, send him outside, and as I peer out, a few minutes later, he rings the bell [shivering].” I therefore wondered, “What happened?” ‘It’s freezing outside,’ he said. That is how one learns a lesson.