Beyoncé and Jay Z:
Still Crazy In Love
How music’s power couple maintained their focus and became America’s sweethearts
In Paris, France—the city where Beyoncé and Jay Z were engaged, and where their daughter Blue Ivy was conceived—the curtain begins to draw on the final performance of their 19-city On The Run tour, captured for the recent HBO special documenting the evening. A misty-eyed Beyoncé, draped in a flowing black-and-white cape displaying the stars and stripes, looks at Jay Z, holds her heart, and says with a slight, uncharacteristic crack in her voice, “I just want to say, it’s been an honor. I’m your biggest fan, I love you so much.”
The evercool Jay-Z blushes and attempts to muster up some words, but all that comes out is something quite analogous. “It’s been an honor, a pleasure to share the stage with you. I couldn’t dream of anything else, to be in a stadium with the woman I love, who I believe is the greatest entertainer of our time.”
And with that, there’s not a dry eye in the house.
Words like “power couple” are usually thrown around when we talk about Bey and Jay. Beyoncé topped the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2014, with Jay not far behind in sixth place. The accolades of both artists are too numerous and unnecessary to list here, but the estimated worth for the couple is now over $1 billion, according to a report in Vogue, making them the first couple in music with a combined value that starts with a capital “B.”
Outstanding achievement comes naturally for a duo who took unique approaches—in Jay’s hashtagged words, “New Rules”—to releasing their respective 2013 albums, tapping into exclusivity deals with competing technology companies, Apple and Samsung. It begs the question if this was ever considered a conflict of interest for either corporation. Who won this battle? Blue Ivy, of course.
Naturally, a capitalist society like ours tends to treat anyone in the billionaire bracket like royalty. And while there is certainly no shortage of celebrity couples to admire, praise and worship (or ignore, depending on your tastes), few command the same level of respect as The Carters. Consider their close friends and fellow paparazzi magnets, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, whose proximity to them highlights the differences between the two couples.
While Jay Z said on “Izzo,” “Show them how to move through a room full of vultures,” Kanye West, who produced the song, can barely contain himself when said creatures enter his view. And while Kim has taken the Paris Hilton “famous-for-being-famous” brand as her own, her accomplishments—whatever they may be—are nil in comparison to the abundant talents of Queen Bey.
Outstanding professional accomplishments allow both artists to stand on their own, with neither really “needing” the other, artistically or financially. Jay tails Beyoncé in earnings but is largely regarded in rap circles as one of the “top five, dead or alive,” an accolade that even a superstar like Will Smith lacks. This is an epithet that he has willed into existence since the inception of his career, once he declared himself “God emcee, me, Jay-Hova.” Beyoncé is of course the complete package: talent, beauty, style, grace, and unbridled, empowering sexuality. Like Diana Ross’s Mahogany before her, she is “the woman every woman wants to be, and every man wants to have.” But as Jay reminds us on “Public Service Announcement,” “I’ve got the hottest chick in the game, wearing my chain.” Sorry, fellas.
Jay and Bey is a combination created in the pop culture dream factory. Their audiences intersect, and their talents outshine their peers. They are very much music’s prom king and queen, the couple that everyone wanted to see ride off into the sunset together.
The mystique that the two carry also plays a huge role in their perceived value. Beyoncé rarely gives interviews with anyone less than Oprah, yet she doesn’t come off as a Streisand-level diva. And while Jay will talk to the press more often, he is reserved and soft-spoken, never revealing more than he has to. Meanwhile, Jay’s Watch The Throne collaborator, Kanye, is stopping his performances for lengthy diatribes about the ills of being rich and famous, while Kim and her family allow cameras in their home for endless, empty reality TV.
Beyoncé and Jay Z realize that they do need to pull the curtain back from time-to-time, to ensure that they are not perceived as “the evil 1%.” It’s interesting that their wealth—even separately—far outweighs that of, say, Mitt Romney, who is valued at a paltry $250 million. (A pittance.) But their authetic rags-to-riches stories are what distinguishes them from the Romneys, or even the Obamas. This is likely why Jay Z will still grant interviews to New York City radio stations, or will collaborate with street level rappers that otherwise couldn’t afford a guest verse from him.
That curtain was forcefully yanked back earlier this year, when TMZ leaked a security video of Beyoncé’s sister, Solange Knowles, attacking Jay Z in an elevator. The bottom feeders finally had something with which to crucify our modern-day poster stars for The American Dream. Previously, the only critique you’d hear was that Jay Z and Beyoncé were part of a shadowy secret society called The Illuminati, and the proof of this was in the images of triangles on their album covers. Triangles. Google that, if you feel inclined.
Chris Rock’s summation of this event during his BET Awards monologue put it best, “Solange hit the right rapper. Jay’s a businessman now—he can’t just go punching girls in the face! He got a meeting with Nabisco in the morning!”
Solange’s unexplained attack definitely raised eyebrows and was a blemish on an otherwise superlative decade for both artists. From there, new headlines were generated, suggesting that their marriage was in trouble, that Jay Z had a mistress, that they were heading for divorce, that they were having counselling sessions over Skype, and whatever else the collective imagination could muster up.
As it turns out, this event may have helped them in ways they couldn’t immediately see.
The idea of “American sweethearts” goes back to the early days of celebrity. In the 50s, you had Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, who weren’t married, but audiences loved to see on screen together. The 70s brought us Sonny and Cher, who shared the stage together in a way not so different from Jay and Bey. And of course, the last decade belonged to Mr. & Mrs Smith—Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie—that is, until the tabloids started to design Jolie as a baby-hoarding nutcase.
Unlike their predecessors, The Carters lack the conservative, squeaky clean image of times past. Beyonce is a sultry lioness that exudes just the right amount of wrong, while Jay comes from a sordid, drug-dealing past. Yet these qualities are not as taboo in today’s society as they were in previous generations. Sex is used to sell Dentyne, while drugs are slowly becoming legalized, with marijuana dispensaries on every corner in California. Jay and Bey are just edgy and provocative enough to get their audiences’ collective fires burning, yet can still close that deal with Nabisco in the morning.
The duo have played this up in the On The Run tour, which draws the long-standing comparisons of them to early American outlaws, Bonnie and Clyde. It’s a parallel that was introduced on their 2003 collaboration, “‘03 Bonnie & Clyde” from Jay’z Blueprint 2 album, and again on “Part II (On The Run),” from Jay’s 2013 Magna Carta Holy Grail LP.
The HBO concert film, which runs longer than Transformers 2, is incredibly watchable, despite its marathon length. Midway through the show, which organically and masterfully alternates between solo and duet performances, there’s a subsection of songs and film clips that suggests all is not well in the Carter household. In an on-screen sketch, Beyoncé leaves several voicemail messages for Jay, who seemingly ignores her. They then run through a series of selections that paint them as independent, single people, in sort of a battle of the sexes that loosely tells a tale of Jay still being a player (“99 Problems,” “Song Cry”) and Beyoncé being fed up with it (“If I Were A Boy,” “Resentment,” and a cover of Lauryn Hill’s “Ex-Factor”). Naturally our minds go, “Is this why Solange flipped out?” But as the film reminds us in the beginning, “This is not real life.”
Well aware of the effects of The Solange Incident, the duo have triumphed with some clever, subtle damage control. Beyoncé mentioned it not-so-indirectly on her remix of “Flawless,” suggesting, “Of course sometimes shit go down when there’s a billion dollars in an elevator!” The approach is not unlike that of a cavalier 2004 Jay, “Got some dirt on my shoulder, could you brush it off for me?”
Other carefully-orchestrated steps have included B posing on Instagram in one of Jay’s “Carter” jerseys, and the two bringing out their billion dollar baby at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards.
Chess moves like these need little explanation; the internet will fill in the blanks.
Now the rumor mill has begun to turn in the the opposite direction. The headlines read: Beyoncé and Jay Z have renewed their wedding vows. Beyoncé and Jay Z are collaborating on a full-length album. Beyoncé and Jay Z are collaborating on a second baby. Beyoncé and Jay Z are buying this house.
There’s no greater display of their love for one another than during the final performance of the On The Run HBO special, an expertly-crafted mash-up of Jay’s “Young Forever”—the hook sung by Beyoncé, rather than original collaborator Mr. Hudson—and her own “Halo.” What makes this extra special is a video segment allowing viewers a very intimate look at Jay and Bey’s private life, a series of very personal images that amount to a paparazzo’s wet dream.
For the first time ever, we see their wedding day, Jay kissing the neck of a naked and pregnant Beyoncé, the birth of Blue Ivy, and other private moments. As the video plays, they stand side-by-side and watch with the audience, steadily swaying to the beat. When the performance ends, they look at one another, almost smitten, and Jay cries “We did it!” Beyoncé giggles, and does an “Oh, what a feeling, Toyota” leap, before embracing and kissing Jay on stage, for all of the world to see. What comes next are their heartfelt words to one another, all done with a level of sincerity that cannot be faked.
It’s at this moment that they become something far greater than just a billion dollar power couple; they’ve become America’s sweethearts.
And that’s priceless.
Follow DJ Pizzo on Twitter @djpizzoHHS
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