Shamira Ibrahim

This is Kaboshin.

I got Shamira Ibrahim and Rania El Mujamar here to get into this with me.

Welcome to the show, y'all.

Hey, good to be here.

Thank you.

Thank you for having us.

Shamira Ibrahim is a Canadian-born culture critic based in New York, and Rania Al Mujamar is an artist and organizer based in Toronto.

Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother is out in Toronto theaters now.

It's one of many songs that Jay-Z unpacks with producer Rick Rubin.

J Smooth is here, Shamira Ibrahim is here.

Hello to both of you.

Hello, hello.

Of course.

Good to talk to you.

Shamira Ibrahim is a Canadian-born culture critic based in New York, and Jay Smooth is a veteran hip-hop broadcaster and culture critic also based in New York.

You can stream all eight episodes of Jay-Z in 8 right now on Crave.

I'm Aisha Harris.

This is NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, and I'm here with culture writer and critic Shamira Ibrahim.

Hi, Shamira.

Welcome back.

Exactly.

That brings us to the end of our show.

Roxana Hadadi, Shamira Ibrahim, thanks so much for being here.

It was great chatting with you both.

Our audio editor is Patrick Wong, who also produced our theme music, and Mackenzie Foy helps out with our social media posts.

If you pop over to criticalminded.org, You can find both the full Beautiful Struggles report on Pop Music Critics of Color, as well as the companion zine, Liner Notes, edited by Shamira Ibrahim and featuring everyone from Lenica Cruz to Tatiana Lee Rodriguez to Timotep Aku and a dozen other contributors.

Our podcast is a production of Critical Minded, an initiative of allied media projects investing in cultural critics of color to help strengthen the field of criticism through care, community, and long-term support.

You could visit them at criticalminded.org or visit criticalminded underscore community on Instagram.

But Jay-Z's always been this kind of polarizing figure when it comes to how he's moved as a business mogul and in his personal life.

So who is this series for exactly, and does it do what it sets out to do? I'm Aisha Harris, and we're gonna get into that here on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour with culture writer and critic Shamira Ibrahim.

Hi, Shamira.

Great to have you here.

Hey, Aisha.

I think we can kind of debate those merits, absolutely.

But yeah, Jay-Z and 8 is airing on HBO and streaming on HBO Max.

And so Shamira, I guess let's just get into it.