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The four young men are stunned; Freddy faints.
Thats when Minnies mother walks out into the yard and asks where her son is.
He tells his mother hes had enough hes moving to New York to pursue rapping.
He snatches up a few belongings, kisses his little sister, and promises to come back one day.
New York, Philly, the DMV, out West to Colorado, down to Atlanta.
He finally found his people in Detroit in 2002.
I dont know where he is, but once we find him, were good.
And then one day, Jay was living in Philly.
He was in a barbershop with some Nation of Islam people.
Jay was like: Johnny from Detroit?
Does he have a brother named Jamal?
He would disappear for months on end then call Chav from the Greyhound station, ready to rap.
There were rumors abouthim and Erykah Badu.
The levees loom, of course.
At other points his songs arejoyousorwhimsical.
But the through line is that unchecked ambition.
Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again.
But why, some say, the moon?
Why choose this as our goal?
And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain?
Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic?
Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon!
Id pack my bags and head home if I was you.
But The Announcement and Shiny Suit Theory came after the big bang that made them inevitable.
It was like firing a cannon in a library.
It became a rap phenomenon.
It felt radical in its way.
The announced release dates came and went, then the rumored ones passed too.
Meanwhile, Jayreportedlybroke up the marriage of a Rothschild heiress and disappeared into castles in the English countryside.
He made abad songwith Mobb Deep and named it after a video game.
There were acoupleoftimeshe evenheadfaked at the album proper.Nothing stuck.
He was featured on Big Seans Control, but nobody cares who was on Controlaside from Kendrick.
The 2010s came and went.
Few rappers have put out well-regarded albums in their mid-40s; none have put out a celebrated debut.