There was a fair amount of skepticism when Jay Z showed up for a six-hour long performance art piece at New York's Pace Gallery, but the "Picasso Baby" video — carefully edited down to ten minutes of mixed voice-overs and actual footage from the event — should put some of that to rest. Whether or not you agree that this was the appropriate context for his content (frankly, we see no issue with it), you have to admit that he's clearly thought about this a lot. And he has some interesting things to say about the bourgeois attitude that causes what he clearly views as an unnecessary divide between mainstream pop art and what most NYC critics are used to viewing as "real" art. In this video, which premiered last night, Hova accompanies his impressive free-styling with a brief but intelligent discussion on his aim to distill art to its purest, finest, most visceral forms. For him, that means reuniting "cousins" in the art world for an all-in-the-family event. And as far as were concerned, it's a noble aim that, happily, turned into a thought-provoking success.
Photo/Video: Courtesy of Roc Nation.