Well, well. The Songwriters Hall of Fame insisted on inducting Jay Z, who doesn’t actually write songs. And what did he do? He didn’t show up for the ceremony. The “reason” floating around on the internet is that Beyonce is about to give birth to twins.
Of course, Jay Z could have flown back and forth from L.A. to New York on his private plane. But, no. SHOF bad karma knocked out someone who shouldn’t have gotten the award in the first place. Jay Z is many things, but songwriter is not one of them.
On Twitter, Jay Z thanked a bunch of rappers. But he doesn’t explain how he writes these ‘songs’ or how he chooses samples of other people’s music to underscore his rap lyrics.
Here’s an old interview with Jay Z that sheds some light on these things
Meantime, across town Elvis Costello put on a great show at Central Park Summerstage. Downtown, Norm Lewis and Carole Carmelo had a press night in their extraordinary off Broadway performance of “Sweeney Todd.” So there were plenty of more fulfilling things going on around town.
Some other guests at the SHOF dinner were Berry Gordy, Smokey Robinson, Ed Sheeran, Usher, Pitbull, and Jon Bon Jovi.