Jean-Michel Basquiat & Hip hop
The probably most popular artist in hip hop
If Michael Jordan is the most referenced basketball player when rappers rhyme, Basquiat is the most popular painter. Franklin Sirmans writes in the book In The Cipher: Basquiat and Hip Hop Culture "Basquiat's art focused on "suggestive dichotomies", such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. He appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique."
It goes well with topics that rappers today write about and hence why it's a relevant artist. A couple of tracks that mention Basquiat is J. Cole in his track Rich Niggaz where he raps:
"It's like Sony signed Basquiat. He gave it all he got, and now a nigga don't paint the same, damn"
"Cole is saying once you give it all you got or truly love something youll be able to do things no one could imagine. i.e Basquiat." Read more about the context about this lyrics here.
Listen to the track.
Jay Z also quotes Basquiat in his song Picasso Baby where he says "I'm the new Jean-Michel". Tierney Sneed writes "It's an allusion that Jay-Z has made for years.But the parallels between the artist's and musician's careers suggest that Jay-Z is not so much the new Basquiat, but a continuation of the struggles the painter faced had he been allowed to mature. Dying due to a heroin overdose at 27, Basquiat was just beginning to grapple with the contradictions of success and his humble, urban beginnings, a contradiction that has defined much of Jay-Z's (and plenty of other rappers') career. This juxtaposition is also a dominant theme for much of "Magna Carta Holy Grail." Simply put: Jay-Z is Basquiat grown old."
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