Remember on “Big Brother,” when Kanye rapped about getting out-rapped by Jay-Z? (“On that ‘Diamonds’ remix I swore I spazzed / then my big brother came through and kicked my ass,” etc.) Well, prepare yourself now for a world in which Kanye raps about getting out-blogged by Jay: Life + Times, an extensive, aesthetically pleasing lifestyle site helmed by Hova, has premiered.
First: Was anyone even aware Jay was working on something like this? This is a serious endeavor. A whole team of writers and designers is apparently on board, and the site already has a bunch of — mind-boggling, thanks to the association — content, like pieces on music-blog favorites Gold Panda and Little Dragon; interviews with chef Daniel Boulud, fashion blogger Garance Doré, and a shoe designer; and a video on a soccer prodigy. It’s similar to the way KanyeWest.com looked before shifting gears for the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy promo run — with tags like “style,” “leisure,” and “arts + design” — but it’s way more ambitious than ‘Ye’s site ever was. Presumably Jay has a full-time editor overseeing all this content, although we’d very much like to imagine him uploading photos in WordPress himself. (So far, his only direct contribution is this pretty photo of clouds. But it’s bylined (!) as SC, which means he does have an author archive.)
You can certainly see this kind of thing — an attempt to connect Jay to all things that are hip and relevant, from now until that fateful day when dinosaurs return to stalk the earth and kill us all — springing up from a boardroom meeting at Roc Nation, something about “expanding and preserving Jay-Z’s brand.” Or, alternately, you can imagine it springing up from a rowdy tea time at Chris Martin’s crib, with Gwyneth Paltrow pushing Hova to branch out with a GOOP of his own. And, really, can you blame him for wanting to share the elemental fabric that makes his life great? Hov, too, wants you to Live Your Best Life.
Anyway, we are now contractually obligated to do two things. First, remind you of this Jay-Z line from Drake’s “Light Up”: “I don’t do too much blogging / I just run the town, I don’t do too much jogging.” Second, post a video of Jay-Z in a motel room with fake guns:
