Jay-Z and Gwyneth Paltrow Talk Hip Hop

Last Week, Jay-Z celebrated the launch of his new culture and lifestyle website Life and Times. Now, to usher in the launch, Hov has linked up with Gwyneth Paltrow, star of films like Iron Man and Se7en and wife of his “Beach Chairs” collaborator Chris Martin, to interview each other for their respective websites.

Paltrow’s interview of Hov begins with him explaining his recent Internet endeavor. Although he’s shyed away from social media networks like Twitter and Facebook in the past, Jay said that he’s always wanted to to start a website that covers interesting and sometimes off-beat issues.

“I started working on it in its various incarnations over a year ago,” he explained. “I’ve thought about it forever. You know how it works, seeing other sites and being either inspired or saying, ‘That’s shit. I would do it like’…there is a basic metric for what we cover but, more importantly, I believe it’s how we cover it. The DNA is to basically let the subject speak for itself. We don’t want to tell you what to think. As far as how personal? I would say it has to pique my interest.”

During Jay’s interview for his site, Paltrow revealed that she has been an avid Hip Hop fan for the majority of her adult life. She explained that not only is she a fan of acts like revered Public Enemy and LL Cool J, but that she is obsessed with N.W.A. She even said that at one point, she knew every lyric that Eazy-E, MC Ren, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre rhymed on their seminal debut Straight Outta Compton.

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“I first was exposed to hip-hop when I was about 16 [in 1988] by some boys who went to collegiate,” she explained to Hov. “The Beastie Boys were sort of the way in for us preppie kids. We were into Public Enemy, Run-DMC and LL Cool J. But then I went to LA the summer between my junior and senior year of high school and I discovered N.W.A., which became my obsession. I was fascinated by lyrics as rhythm and how [Dr.] Dre had a such different cadence and perspective from say, Eazy-E, who I thought was one of the most ironic and brilliant voices Hip Hop has ever had. It was an accident that I learned every word of Straight Outta Compton and to love something that a.) I had no real understanding of in terms of the culture that it was emanating from and b.) to love something that my parents literally could not grasp. But I was hooked. I can’t remember what I ate for dinner last night but I could sing to you every single word of N.W.A’s ‘Fuck Tha Police’ or [Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock’s] ‘It Takes Two.’ Go figure.”