The British singer Jay-Z credits for “penetrating urban culture”
Jay-Z has never been shy of shouting out the hip-hop artists who have inspired him, but it turns out he’s happy to show off his appreciation for his favourite pop stars, too.
During a conversation with Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown in 2009, conducted for a feature in NME, Jay reflected on some of the British musicians that he’s looked up to over the years. His initial selection was fairly obvious. “Well,” he told Brown, “John Lennon, The Beatles… forget about it!”
In a conversation about inspirational British musicians, The Beatles are always liable to come up. But Jay-Z’s next highlight was perhaps more of a surprise. He brought up George Michael.
Describing the one-time Wham! frontman as “really strong in the neighbourhood,” Jay went so far as to claim that Michael “penetrated urban culture really strong.” He said he didn’t know if that was because of “the tracks or the melodies.”
On the surface, the notion that George Michael broke through to the urban neighbourhoods of America, where hip-hop was so dominant, seems faintly absurd. The English lead singer of an ’80s pop duo doesn’t necessarily seem like a spokesperson for young Black kids in places like New York. But, actually, there was more to George Michael than immediately met the eye.
Even from the earliest days of Wham!, Michael was a huge advocate for hip-hop. The duo’s first ever single, in fact, was a rap song directly inspired by ‘Rapper’s Delight.’
Around 1981, Michael’s bandmate Andrew Ridgeley was dancing to ‘Rapper’s Delight’ and, as he did so, he started to add his own lyrics. There was something in this, so he and Michael later worked on it and, eventually, they ended up with their own rap song called ‘Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do).’
The song, which could hardly be described as gritty, is extremely fun and upbeat, while Michael’s rapping is hardly the most sophisticated. But it actually touches on some interesting themes, with Michael rapping about a good life that is secured by government assistance. The song specifically celebrates the British governmental department responsible for providing unemployment assistance for those who need it, and it makes the point that people are more than the jobs that they work.
In a sense, ‘Wham Rap!’ is a celebration of the British social democratic state that, not long after the song’s release, would be severely weakened by decades of neoliberal governance in the country. It’s quite a fascinating theme for a pop song, and it is one that, clearly, resonated with some unlikely listeners. Jay-Z, for one, was a big admirer of the main man who wrote it.