Fifty years ago, hip-hop was invented in New York City, and it wasn’t much longer before it took the world by storm. If you’ve so much as turned on a radio over the past five decades, you know that countless stars have since emerged from the genre — including Shawn Carter, a.k.a. billionaire entrepreneur Jay-Z, who quickly made a name for himself as a talented rapper from humble beginnings.
Raised in Brooklyn, Jay-Z’s work chronicles his early life in the Marcy Projects (a public housing complex) and his embodiment of the American dream as he evolved into a mega-mogul. Known for sharply depicting the impact of very real issues like the crack cocaine epidemic, many of Jay-Z’s lyrics offer glimpses into the challenges of growing up in poverty and finding a way out while cherishing your roots. This summer, the Brooklyn Library is celebrating Jay-Z’s life and cultural significance — alongside the history of hip hop and Brooklyn itself — in an incredible installation called The Book of HOV.
We sat down with Linda Johnson, CEO and president of the Brooklyn Library, to talk about the exhibit. We learned all about why Jay-Z’s team initially said no to the idea — and what changed their mind. Plus, Johnson explained the tricky business of setting up a secret 40,000-square-foot exhibit in a working library that couldn’t be closed to the public.
Katie Couric Media: Where did the idea for the exhibition come from?
Linda Johnson: It’s the 50th anniversary of hip-hop in 2023. We were initially planning something called “Night in the Library: The Philosophy of Hip-Hop.” As the plans were in the works, I began thinking that if there was ever a year that Jay-Z would agree to be honored by the library, this would be the year. Through mutual friends, I got a hold of the CEO of Jay’s company, Roc Nation.
I pitched this idea, and as I expected, they said, “No, Jay doesn’t ever do that sort of thing.” Then, I started explaining that we’re the most democratic institution in Brooklyn and that we’re located less than two miles away from the Marcy Projects, where Jay was born and raised. I said that if we did something for Jay here in Brooklyn, it would be so meaningful to so many people. She said to me, out of the blue, “How many square feet is the library?” I said, “It’s nearly 350,000 square feet.”
It turned out that during the pandemic, when all the stages across the globe were dark, they’d decided to get a handle on everything that Jay had in storage — memorabilia, his masters, documents, photographs, and clothing. By the end of the evening, we had a plan to create an exhibition in the library. Since January, we’ve been scrambling to create this 40,000-square-foot exhibition. It’s in every nook and cranny of the library, but the library continues to operate as usual. There’s no ticketing, there’s no charge — everything we do at the library is free. We also have a special edition library card for each of Jay’s 13 albums. So people are lining up to get these special library cards. But people are still coming in to do their daily stuff at the library and wandering through this extraordinary exhibition, which is exactly how we designed it.
Does this exhibit feel like an extension of the community?
The people who are coming are real Jay fans. Part of the exhibition is the front of the library — it’s clad in vinyl. It was all a secret, so people passing by said, “Jay’s lyrics are on the front of the Brooklyn Public Library. What’s happening?” There was a lot of buzz before anybody knew what it was about.
It was a surprise for Jay, too. He knew that there was going to be an exhibition, but he didn’t know the magnitude of it. Beyoncé was touring in Europe, so he was with the kids and out of the country, which was helpful because he wasn’t in the office, which became the center of all this organizing.
A lot of the exhibition was constructed in the Brooklyn Navy yard. There’s a reconstruction of Baseline Studios, which is the studio where he recorded [The Blueprint and The Black Album]. That reconstruction is faithful to the lollipops on his desk.
Were there any unexpected challenges while setting up?
The team that we pulled together are groups of people that Jay has worked with over the years. The team that actually produced the exhibition is the same team that creates the Super Bowl halftime shows. That’s the level of production that we’re talking about. When they were putting the vinyl material onto the library, they had these ninja-like guys from Las Vegas who were repelling down the front of the building to affix this sheet onto the facade of the library.
We were here all night for the week before the opening. We couldn’t close the library. The only day that we closed was the day before it opened to the public. So, for a long time they were working around our hours. There’s a mural that’s from a British artist named Jazz Grant. It’s mammoth: It covers a huge expanse and they worked on it at night after closing. They draped it so that it was covered during the day. At night they’d reopen it and work on it again. We worked around the clock.
What’s your favorite part of the exhibit?
The thing I love about it the best is the story that it tells. You learn a tremendous amount about a very inspiring man who started his life in the Marcy Projects and is now on the world stage. We can inspire the kids who were like Jay when he was young. They can be inspired to reach higher. That’s what it’s really about: Explaining to our patrons what’s achievable.
Also, there’s a model of the Barclays Center. Jay played the first eight nights when the Barclays Center was opened. It was great for him and it was great for the Barclays Center. There’s also a sculpture in the lobby [The Blueprint III sculpture] by Nicola Yeoman and Dan Tobin Smith that’s a replica of [The Blueprint 3] album cover. It’s quite beautiful. Also, the photographs are amazing, and there’s an extraordinary video that includes Obama’s remarks when Jay was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. All together, it tells a really deep story.
We like to honor Brooklyn’s own, and there are not many people who have come out of Brooklyn that are more seminal than Jay. So he is being honored at our gala with his mother, Gloria Carter, on Oct. 2.
What would you like the viewer to gain from this experience?
I want them to be inspired by it. One of the exhibitions in the Youth Wing is an origami project. The kids are making paper airplanes and they’re being strung up on the ceiling. When Jay was a kid in the Marcy Projects, he would make paper planes and he would throw them out the window of his bedroom. The idea is that you can go from being that kid who’s dreaming big to actually realizing your dreams.
We also hope to bring new people to the library who don’t come here frequently. There’s a line of people signing up for those special edition library cards, and I hope they use them. We do a lot here, from helping with very basic literacy skills to hosting Pulitzer Prize-winning authors. We hope people will come and take advantage, not only of the resources we offer, but of the programs that we offer. We hope tourists will come, too. We put billboards up in Times Square over the weekend.
Roc Nation had a vision for what this was going to include and for the quality that it had to be. I believe in doing everything excellently or not doing it at all, and they shared that vision. The exhibit is very professional and very beautiful.
