Jay-Z Does 6-Hour Performance Art Marathon

Jay-Z has entered the realm of performance art. These days rap and art seem to be synonymous with each other. Artists who are rooted in the hip hop culture like Kanye West and Russell Simmons have latched on to art to establish themselves outside of the box.

Now it’s Jay-Z’s turn to take a dip into the art world. Jay-Z seems to always do things one hundred and ten percent, so what did his first foray to the performance art world look like? Well, while you were working Jay-Z acted as his own one man show in the middle of an exhibition room at the Pace Gallery in Manhattan.

The performance took place today and lasted for a total of six hours, which saw Jay-Z rapping to his new song “Picasso Baby” off of his album Magna Carta Holy Grail. The performance of “Picasso Baby” will also act as part of his new music video.

If there was ever a person to give Jay-Z the go ahead to tackle performance art it’s the mother of performance art Marina Abramovi?. The artist was also on hand at the performance, and of course took to the center with Jay-Z where the two danced around while a video camera captured it all.

Along with a professional videographer, those who stumbled across the exhibition had their cell phones out, capturing the performance as they cheered a congenial Jay-Z on. Some people even took to video site Vine to show a bit of their performance art experience with Jay-Z.

We should have guessed that this was coming from Jigga. Just the other day Jay-Z uncharacteristically answered questions from people on Twitter about the album. Jay-Z said this era was all about #newrules, and mentioned that there would be “6 pieces of art.” At the time we thought it was just a clever play on words, but now we’re thinking it’s time to take Jay-Z literally.

This comes after Kanye West’s successful yet unconventional promotional strategy that features videos for his singles projected on buildings all over the United States.

Do you think Jay-Z will follow up with an encore performance?

Check out more Jay-Z at Pace Gallery: