He Came, He Saw, He Conquered & The Carter Documentary

In one, Alen Yentob, the creative director for BBC, follows a hip-hop star through the build-up to a performance at Glastonbury. In the other, QDIII, the son of Quincy Jones, sits with a hip-hop star on a tour bus and in a five star hotel in Amsterdam. The hip-hop stars have left their 'hood' and found footing in Europe for different reasons. Ultimately, both push an American dream and a brand by making music first and 'ruling the world' second--just in very unique ways.

One collects Richard Prince and Andy Warhol. The other collects the styrafoam cups that have held his cough syzrup. One speaks hesitantly about life as a 'gangster'. The other lives life as a 'gangster'. One meets with the President of the United States to talk basketball. The other, if president, would legalize all narcotics, lower gas prices, legalize prostitution in five states, and do away with child support laws. One hired Frank Gehry to build his basketball arena and government housing for his neighborhood back home. The other is bidding on Frank Sinatra's Plymouth. One used the documentary about himself to promote his non-profit and his own brand. The other used the documentary about himself to promote his brand and has now sued the producers of the documentary for breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing, unfair business practices, fraud, invasion of privacy and injunctive relief.

Lil Wayne and Jay-Z are really different people. They both rap and they both seem to be intelligent dudes that work really, really hard on making music that they are proud of. I don't know exactly why they are both so interesting though. Both documentaries played heavily on poor kid from the ghetto becomes millionaire. I'm not sure if that is what makes their story interesting though. It's not so much about the 'pursuit of happyness' for either of them. They both just want to be 'huge'. Lil Wayne sells a million records in a week and immediately responds by saying the next record will sell five million. Jay-Z is asked about his business interests and he says he wants to change the way culture looks. I think this might be what is interesting. They define cool. Thet are the ones telling us what is coming next. Sociologists spend a whole lot of time trying to describe reality and show how culture moves. These two guys, using very different methods, tell culture how to move. They really might be right when they refer to themselves as kings.