Holy Grail! Did Jay-Z Just Perform in an Art Gallery?
Wouldn’t it be clever if Jay-Z performed his new song “Picasso Baby” at an art museum?
Done.
The hip-hop mogul, who just released his album Magna Carta Holy Grail,reportedly rapped the song over and over for six hours at New York’s Pace Gallery.
[Related: Miley Cyrus and Britney Spears respond to Jay-Z’s Twitter shout-outs]
According to reports, the footage will be used for a music video directed by Mark Romanek, who also worked on Jay’s “99 Problems” short.
Beginning around 1 p.m. ET Wednesday, people were ushered into the space for hour-long shifts to watch the Watch The Throne rapper live, The Fader reported.
Jay’s presentation featured a few special guests, including performance artist Marina Abramovic, who took the stage with him. Jay and Abramovic shared a dynamic face-off. She confidentially approached him as he rapped, invading his personal space, momentarily pressing her forehead against his.
The showing was reportedly inspired by Abramovic’s 2010 exhibition Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present staged at the Museum Of Modern Art (MoMA) New York. In her work, Abramovic sat still at a table for seven-and-a half hours a day for three months.
Also spotted were Judd Apatow, Girls actor Adam Driver and artist Laurie Simmons, according to The New York Daily News.
The story was popular on social media sites, prompting numerous Vine video clips and Twitter comments.
[Related: Jay-Z and Beyoncé dance at star-studded Magna Carta Holy Grail album release party]
Matt Blakemore said the event was too much for him. “I really really really can’t cope with Jay-Z and Marina Abramovic cavorting about the Pace Gallery like it’s a normal Wednesday afternoon,” he posted on Twitter.
I really really really can’t cope with Jay-Z and Marina Abramovic cavorting about the Pace Gallery like its a normal Wednesday afternoon.
— Matt Blakemore (@MattBlakemore) July 10, 2013
Complex magazine got a kick out of seeing the footage of a woman riding a scooter around Jay’s small white platform, wearing a lime green dress and cast and dubbed her six-second clip The Best Video On The Internet Today.
“Picasso Baby” is a fitting choice for such an unorthodox hip-hop marketing promotion. In a lyric, Jay tells his daughter Blue Ivy not to worry about touching their Jean-Michel Basquiat piece. “Yellow Basquiat in my kitchen corner. Go ahead lean on that sh-t Blue. You own it,” he raps. He also references attending Art Bassel, wanting a Mark Rothko painting and desiring a house like Paris’s The Louvre museum.