coits 's review for:

Jay-Z: Made in America by Michael Eric Dyson

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I was disappointed in this book. I was expecting a biography-focused book about Jay-Z punctuated by important moments in his music career, but this was, instead, a strange amalgamation of hip-hop / Civil Rights history tangents, unexpected / hard to connect biographical notes about other culture shakers, and, to be quite frank, a weird read of Beyonce's Lemonade. It felt as though Dyson was unclear on what he wanted the book to be, making the experience reading a bit disorienting. I was most pleased by the annotated bibliography--it gave notes on each of Jay-Z's music projects that I found to be too concise. If you are looking to read a well-focused book about the life and art of Jay-Z, I wouldn't necessarily look here.