Watch the Crown: JAY-Z x Basquiat
Track 14 // Vol. 04: 808s & Curate
MOST YOUNG KINGS GET THIER HEAD CUT OFF.
You’ll find that phrase if you look closely at Jean-Michel Basquiat’s painting, Charles the First. It’s oddly prophetic given the parallel legacies this painting connects. The name of this painting suggests the beheaded King Charles I of England, but actually refers to one of Basquiat’s favorite artists, jazz musician Charlie Parker, who influenced many of his works. Like Parker, Basquiat made a huge impact in a short yet prolific career and ultimately died young battling heroin addiction. (Parker at 34; Basquiat at 27.) Both were young kings swallowed by the scenes that surrounded them. Basquiat’s life was a wildfire that consumed the world; his legacy still ignites it. His paintings are coronations of unbridled ideas within structured iconography. Death hovered over his life like the crowns he painted over his skulls, like the halos over his skeletons.
I’ve written a bit about Basquiat in previous posts, but if you’d like more context about his life, I’d recommend watching this quick and comprehensive TED Ed video. (My only note is that at the time this video was released in 2019, Basquiat held the record for the highest auction price for an American painter, but his friend and collaborator Andy Warhol took back that spot in 2022.)
In many ways, Charles the First is a classic example of Basquiat’s paneled paintings, his distinct visual language of stylized text, gestural marks, and figural outlines—all within a cryptically coded hierarchy. He purposefully misspelled and crossed out words as a method of highlighting themes: “I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them.”
Basquiat painted Charles the First in 1982, the year many collectors, art historians, and auction houses regard as the time he created his best, most valuable work. His top three most expensive paintings at auction—including his record-breaking $110.5 million price for Untitled (1982)—all come from this year. In 1982, he sold out his first solo show at Annina Nosei Gallery in New York, pricing paintings at $10,000-$25,000 a pop. Forty years later, Untitled (1982) is worth 10,000 times its original value.
Part of what makes Charles the First and the mythology of Basquiat even more compelling now is the contemporary context around which fellow Brooklynite, hip hop legend, and business mogul JAY-Z builds through his work.
Track 14 is about JAY-Z’s creative connection to Jean-Michel Basquiat. Inspiration is a warning shot. Watch the crown.
Charles the First became the inspiration for JAY-Z’s song “Most Kingz.” The song was produced for a mixtape, so it’s a bit raw and remains unattached to an album. This song marks the first time JAY-Z mentions Basquiat in his lyrics in 2006, thus establishing JAY-Z’s creative connection to him. He opens the song with, “Inspired by Basquiat, my chariot’s on fire” and then proceeds to deliver some of his best bars:
Most kings (... get their heads cut off)
With the same sword they knight you they gon' good night you with
Shit, that's only half if they like you
That ain't even the half what they might do
Don't believe me, ask Michael
See Martin, see Malcom
See Biggie, see Pac, see success and its outcome
See Jesus, see Judas,
See Caesar, see Brutus
See success is like suicide
Suicide, it’s a suicide
When you succeed, be prepared to be crucified.
“Most Kingz” tells the story of the downsides to success, the costs of achieving fame and wealth, and how the world will put you on a pedestal only to knock it down. In JAY-Z’s autobiography Decoded, he reflects on this interpretation of Charles the First and how it relates to his own life.
“Basquiat’s work often deals with fame and success; the story of what happens when you actually get the thing you’d die for. One Basquiat print I own is called Charles the First—it’s about Charlie Parker, the jazz pioneer who died young of a heroin overdose, like Basquiat. In the corner of the painting are the words, MOST
YOUNGKINGS GET THIER HEAD CUT OFF…I read it as a statement about what happens when you achieve a certain position, you become a target. People want to take your head, your crown, your title.”
He discusses his peers who, like Basquiat, died young, before they could reach their peak, and those for whom success became a curse—extorted for money, addicted to drugs, sued by families, betrayed by friends, and/or self-destructed from the pressures of fame.
“One critic said about Basquiat that the boys in his paintings didn’t grow up to be men, they grew up to be corpses, skeletons, and ghosts. Maybe that’s the curse of being young, Black, and gifted in America—and if you add sudden success to that, it only makes it more likely that you’ll succumb, like Basquiat did in a loft not far from the one I live in now, a loft filled with his art. But I don’t think so. I don’t accept that falling is inevitable—I think there’s a way to avoid it, a way to win, to get success and its spoils, and get away with it without losing your soul or your life or both. I’m trying to rewrite the old script, but Basquiat’s painting sits on my wall like a warning.”
JAY-Z further breaks the track down here:
JAY-Z recorded “Most Kingz” at the time he was working on Kingdom Come, his post-retirement comeback after The Black Album, in 2006. Kingdom Come is a thematic shift for JAY-Z, who earlier in his career flaunted wealth and status, as was the trend for the early-aughts bling-era of hip hop. Kingdom Come boasts its cocky moments (“Show Me What You Got”), but overall creates a space for JAY-Z to introspect over his self-described survivor’s guilt (“Kingdom Come”), past relationships (“Lost One”), and the meaning of life after achieving unimaginable success (“Beach Chair”). “Most Kingz” and “Beach Chair,” were both recorded in the same session and feature Coldplay’s frontman Chris Martin. We hear some of the same bars in “Most Kingz” again in Coldplay’s remix of “Lost+” featuring JAY-Z off of their 2008 EP, Prospekt’s March. All three songs belong to the same sonic universe of sustained organ chords, layered, affected hooks, and wistful lyrics. They ultimately address the awkward liminality of what comes after the high, if not the the low?
For JAY-Z, owning a print of Charles the First functions as a warning for him to stay grounded, as motivation to hold onto the crown, as a reminder to continue the legacy of the greats before him—Charlie Parker and Jean-Michel Basquiat—but not at the cost of his own life and principles. As JAY-Z described seeing “corpses, skeletons, and ghosts” in Basquiat’s work, these symbols harken back to memento mori—objects in still-life paintings that remind the viewer of life’s fleeting nature and death, for example, skulls, clocks, hourglasses, and candles. For JAY-Z, the print is a memento mori itself.
Since “Most Kingz,” JAY-Z has referred to Basquiat in six songs and counting, sometimes multiple times within the same song. Others feel his influence too—Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Swizz Beats, Nas, Lil Wayne, and Rick Ross all have since name-dropped Jean-Michel in their lyrics. JAY-Z perhaps above all else is an extremely savvy businessman and investor—as an avid art collector, he knows his own associations with Basquiat not only keep his legacy alive and thriving, but also drive up interest in a way that ensures value. To give credit where it’s due, there are many reasons why Basquiat is one of the hottest, most sought after artists—first and foremost, the work speaks for itself. But JAY-Z proclaiming in his lyrics, “It ain’t hard to tell, I’m the new Jean-Michel” doesn’t hurt either.
Nearly 35 years after his death, Basquiat’s stock continues to rise with no sign of stopping. He drives global museum attendance and breaks auction records. Outside of the art world, his visibility in music and in fast to high-end fashion makes him accessible to all without diluting the value, mythology, and unattainability of the art itself. His legacy is a formidable, international brand that continues to influence the worlds of fine art and hip hop and inspire collaborations beyond them. Everyone wants a piece of the Basquiat crown.
And now, this:
In 2021, Tiffany & Co. launched a campaign called “About Love,” featuring JAY-Z and Beyoncé, aka The Carters, as a modern reimagining of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Which is more jaw-dropping, the priceless 128.52-karat Tiffany Diamond necklace “only worn by four women since its discovery in 1877” or Equals Pi, a very rarely seen work by Jean-Michel Basquiat painted in his vintage year of 1982? Trick question, the answer is (always) Beyoncé.
I'd wager that Equals Pi is currently valued at much more than the Tiffany Diamond, but perhaps that’s more of a philosophical argument. It’s hard to override the desire and curiosity to ascribe value to “priceless” things—Basquiat the brand here, is as much of a commodity as the jewelry displayed with it. Vogue UK describes the painting as “rendered in Tiffany Blue,” which feels like a co-sign that Basquiat never gave and a co-opted marketing narrative that undermines the statement of the piece. (And what is the statement of the piece? What scholarship can we understand from art that’s rarely shown and experienced?)
Oh, by the way, did you get your Basquiat x Tiffany & Co. advent calendar* last year? *Ahem, price upon request. (It cost $150,000.)
The clear color associations of Tiffany & Co’s iconic robin’s egg blue and Equals Pi’s background feel hard to separate and become further emphasized within the context of this campaign. This New York Times article reports that the criticism surrounding this marketing color narrative started with Stephen Torton, a former assistant of Basquiat, when he posted this on Instagram:
Part of the caption reads:
“The idea that this blue background, which I mixed and applied was in any way related to Tiffany Blue is so absurd that at first I chose not to comment. But this very perverse appropriation of the artist’s inspiration is too much…”
The first owner of this painting, Anne Dayton, shared similar sentiments as Torton. Tiffany’s executive VP of product and communications offered flimsy speculation:
“We know he loved New York, and that he loved luxury and he loved jewelry. My guess is that the [blue painting] is not by chance. The color is so specific that it has to be some kind of homage.”
Honestly, when I take a closer look at this painting (after getting over the color associations), the text “DUNCE DUNCE DUNCE DUNCE” and the cone-shaped hat stand out the most. Is this a painting that truly reinforces a campaign “about love?” Without any context, are we to read this as love makes us…fools? How trite! Don’t get me wrong, I think this campaign is extremely effective and I’m a fan of each of its stars. But while it opens Basquiat the brand, the commodity to new markets—I wonder, does this context expand the meaning of the art itself or does it restrain it?
I think back to JAY-Z’s relationship to Charles the First and his association to Equals Pi. Both serve as commentary on success. The way he built context around Charles the First from his own story brings new life to the legacy of the artwork and the other kinds of art it inspires, especially when it originated from another source of artistic inspiration, Charlie Parker. Alternatively, the campaign context around Equals Pi flattens the meaning of the work, while elevating Tiffany & Co. as a brand. The painting while featured as prominently as Beyoncé and JAY-Z themselves, feels limited in its potential for meaning beyond a decorative piece, a status object, a branded artifact of luxury and cool. But isn’t that what jewelry is, anyway? Who knows, maybe Basquiat would have been down too. As we know from C-suite executives, “he loved jewelry and he loved luxury” after all.
Thanks for reading.
p.s. If you want some more bonus Basquiat content, Today Explained released an episode called “The Case of the Fake Basquiats” yesterday and I found it super interesting: a mysterious storage unit, an FBI raid, an interview with a former Basquiat forger, and scams galore!
Yes, as Dion wrote, "... it seems the good they die young." While there's plenty in these artists' environment to contribute to their demise, can we also assume there's a bit of self destruction in all of us? Just putting it out there. Another thoughtful piece, Elspeth.
Super interesting - whole new world opened up in my head, thanks.