Gentrify Your What?
Jay-Z freestyled for his audience at Webster Hall last month in order to pay respect to the late Nipsey Hussle. While this was a gesture to honor his fellow rapper, it also drew a great deal of controversy from the media. A video, as well as a transcription of his freestyle, can be found here. In light of this controversy, we here at X-Mode want to use location data to help shed light on what Jay-Z was trying to say.
DISCLAIMER: Jay-Z is not here to defend himself, so he is not able to confirm or deny the meaning behind his lyrics (but on the off chance that he’s reading this- hi, huge fan of your music). The claims made here are based on applying factual definitions to the lyrics of his freestyle.
Alright, let’s get into it. For anyone who doesn’t know, gentrification is defined in Merriam-Webster as “the process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste.” Jay-Z, being a Brooklyn native, has seen his hometown experience gentrification in every sense of the word. Location data has shown public housing projects and brownstones being located on the same block in Brooklyn. That means that there is a group of people who qualify for low-income housing living down the street from people living in multi-million dollar brownstones. This is a signifier of gentrification.
So, in Jay-Z’s verse, he says “gentrify your own hood before these people do it, claim imminent dominance and have your people move in.” In theory, this sounds great, but if “gentrifying your hood” means conforming to the middle-class taste, what does this actually look like? Locally owned businesses that cater to low-income businesses will disappear, low-income jobs will disappear, and people who cannot afford the rise in housing prices will be driven out and into another area of the city that has not been gentrified yet.
This graphic shows the effect gentrification has had on Brooklyn in the past couple of decades. As rent increases (areas that are darker blue), people are pushed out of these areas and must move to areas where the rent is still fairly low.
In his verse, Jay-Z also says that “the neighborhood designed to keep us trapped,” which is partly true depending on how you interpret this claim. Gentrification is not necessarily confined to an individualized basis. Gentrification can also occur in an institutionalized manner. Housing laws in the state of New York have been manipulated in a way that helps residents of public housing move into their own house as long as their household income hits a certain number (which was almost impossible to attain in the timeline given to them). In terms of location data, this showed residents moving out then right back into public housing or moving out of one public housing complex, into their own house, then into a public housing complex in another area of the city. So it is possible that these laws were put into place in an attempt to increase the statistics regarding the number of people moving out of public housing. Or they could have been put into place in an attempt to force them to move back into a public housing complex in another area of the city, allowing for further gentrification of their previous home.
The reality of the situation is that most people who earn a livable wage and move to cities like Brooklyn or South Los Angeles are considered gentrifiers. So, if you are a gentrifier, what can you do? VOTE. The effects of gentrification are exacerbated by political power, so voting to implement policies that are in the best interest of the original residents lessens the effects of gentrification.
So, Jay-Z, I’m not saying you shouldn’t try to make your neighborhood/community better, but location data shows that this might not be the best solution.
By: Caroline Shelquist
