Decoded

You got the humble souls mixtape, you know the the book of hove that they got at the brooklyn public library

There was an interview with Terry Gross and Jay-Z and she says I want to ask you kind of an odd question

You know how a lot of hip-hop artists when they're on stage they kind of grab their crotch

And Jay-Z says yes, yes they do and I have an explanation for it

He broke down how in rock and roll bands people that grow up in that musical environment, they start in vans and then they go to these small clubs and they hone their craft over time and grow from these small places to bigger and bigger venues and eventually if all goes well become a rock star

But he said it's very different in the hip-hop genre because usually the music leads first, not the band just growing over time. And so Jay-Z explains that in hip-hop usually you have this hit record and then because the music led first they're just going to throw this person on stage, they've never been on stage before, they don't know how to perform because the music led first versus the band first