BONUS: Ari on Jay-Z’s path from projects to Wall St, MLK & Blueprint Breakdown (1996-2026)

In this podcast extra, news anchor and music journalist Ari Melber delivers a special report on Jay-Z’s life & career, drawing on the rapper’s dense lyrics, his classic albums “Reasonable Doubt” and “The Blueprint,” and original reporting on the history, culture and politics informing how those albums resonate today — amid their anniversaries and the Yankee Stadium shows. From New York’s poverty and crime in the 1990s to today’s promises of a better future by tech and business elites, the report probes the rigged stakes and double standards facing working people and hip hop. Melber has reported extensively on hip hop on his program, “The Beat,” including a 2022 breakdown of a Jay Z verse that the rapper released as “Hov Did.”

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