Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud
Oct 14, 2026 · 33 min · 17 segments
With the release of the new HBO docuseries ‘Jay-Z in 8,’ Elamin is joined by culture critics Jay Smooth and Shamira Ibrahim to discuss the deep dive into the lyrics and director Rick Rubin’s approach…
Elamin AbdelmahmoudHost
Maya Annik BedwardGuest
Jay SmoothGuest
Shamira IbrahimGuestI, th- this is the moment where Jay's explaining to Rick Rubin why rapping as a form of employment was kinda looked down by the generation of hustlers that Jay-Z came out with.
Hustlers was making so much money that rappers was corny.
So I almost had to hide the fact that I wanted to be a rapper.
Like, "You wanna do that? We already doing this." Like-
... that, that seems like a step backwards.
In fact, my first record, Can't Knock the Hustle, I really was talking to the hustlers.
"Who do you think you are? Maybe one day you'll be a star."
That was the feeling of I wanted to be a rapper, and the, the hustlers looked down upon being a rapper at that time.
J Smooth, like, I, I can't get enough of that, the idea that, like, Jay sort of had to, like, feel like he has to kind of apologize, be like, "Sorry for trying to do my art.
I understand that hustling is actually a much better sort of business proposition here." What'd you make of that moment?
Yeah, that's so interesting because I think Jay's just a few years older than me, so he was front and center for this shift hip hop went through, where in the '80s no rapper was really getting rich-rich-
so the hustlers on the block were still sort of the benchmark of opulence and material success.
But by the mid-'90s when Jay is coming to the fore, that's right when hip hop has become mainstream enough that rappers are starting to get rich-rich, and rapping is becoming a pathway towards being a mogul.
So Jay is really at the forefront of figuring out how you inhabit that as an artist.
It also makes me think about how he often sort of dealt with that by drawing parallels and metaphors between being a businessman and being a hustler, but it's pretty rare that he acknowledges being a mogul or a businessman also has its own cloudy, murky morality- The same way that being a hustler does.
So it, it made me think about his place in that history, and also the places he's not as willing to go when he thinks about it.
I, th- this is the moment where Jay's explaining to Rick Rubin why rapping as a form of employment was kinda looked down by the generation of hustlers that Jay-Z came out with.
Hustlers was making so much money that rappers was corny.
So I almost had to hide the fact that I wanted to be a rapper.
Like, "You wanna do that? We already doing this." Like-
... that, that seems like a step backwards.
In fact, my first record, Can't Knock the Hustle, I really was talking to the hustlers.
"Who do you think you are? Maybe one day you'll be a star."
That was the feeling of I wanted to be a rapper, and the, the hustlers looked down upon being a rapper at that time.
J Smooth, like, I, I can't get enough of that, the idea that, like, Jay sort of had to, like, feel like he has to kind of apologize, be like, "Sorry for trying to do my art.
I understand that hustling is actually a much better sort of business proposition here." What'd you make of that moment?
Yeah, that's so interesting because I think Jay's just a few years older than me, so he was front and center for this shift hip hop went through, where in the '80s no rapper was really getting rich-rich-
so the hustlers on the block were still sort of the benchmark of opulence and material success.
But by the mid-'90s when Jay is coming to the fore, that's right when hip hop has become mainstream enough that rappers are starting to get rich-rich, and rapping is becoming a pathway towards being a mogul.
So Jay is really at the forefront of figuring out how you inhabit that as an artist.
It also makes me think about how he often sort of dealt with that by drawing parallels and metaphors between being a businessman and being a hustler, but it's pretty rare that he acknowledges being a mogul or a businessman also has its own cloudy, murky morality- The same way that being a hustler does.
So it, it made me think about his place in that history, and also the places he's not as willing to go when he thinks about it.
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