Jay-Z is a renowned emcee who became the first hip-hop artist to have a music video budget of over $1 million. With classy, flamboyant visuals for tracks such as ‘Show Me What You Got’ and ‘Do It Again (Put Ya Hands Up)’ Jay’s videos always deliver.
However, in an interview, the Brooklyn native revealed that he hates watching his old music videos. Speaking with online entertainment magazine Complex, Jay-Z (real name Shawn Carter) reflected on his time working with the legendary director Hype Williams. Recalling his experience, Carter explained that although he enjoyed working with Williams, he was not a fan of some of the videos they had made together.
Detailing his partnership with Williams, Carter recounted, “Hype definitely has a vision for what he wants to see. So he’d be like, ‘Yo, blow the smoke right here, and this is gonna be crazy, it’s going to be bananas!’ But I don’t know if I was coachable as far as a performance at that time.”
He continued, “I don’t know if anyone could coach me because I was so guarded. I think about the early videos that I have, and I listen to myself talking, and it’s kind of hard for me to watch.”
Carter proceeded to state that, at that point in his career, Williams may have had more success directing with other musicians, explaining, “That’s not even how I speak. So, I don’t know if he could coach my performance, but he definitely coached the scene and everything around it. And other people may have a different experience.”
The Marcy Houses legend explained how Hype may have had better success coaching Missy Elliott and Busta Rhymes because they were less guarded and more outlandish, detailing, “I’m sure he coached Missy more or coached Busta more, and you could get more out of them. I don’t know if he could get more out of us at that time. And then it was like 30 of us, and all we wanted to do is laugh.”
During his conversation with Complex, Jay explored his closed-off nature more but put it down to immaturity and insecurity, admitting, “Because of how guarded I was, I hated acting. This is why I don’t act, because I would get in my way. I would be thinking, ‘No, I don’t wanna do something that I ain’t gonna look cool.’ But I was young and immature. Or I was young mentally. You know, if you see our own movies, I was in for like 30 seconds, and I wasn’t even speaking.”
Carter revealed that his guarded nature is what stopped him from attempting to enter the Hollywood space like his hip-hop counterparts Method Man, 50 Cent and others. You can see a photo of Hype Williams and Jay-Z filming the music video for ‘Big Pimpin’ in Trinidad below.