

Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create accountGift audiobook credit bundles
You pick the number of credits, your recipient picks the audiobooks, and AALBC is supported by your purchase.
Start giftingJAY-Z
This program is read by the author, and includes an introduction written by Pharrell, and read by Nick Cannon.
"Dyson's incisive analysis of JAY-Z's brilliance not only offers a brief history of hip-hop's critical place in American culture, but also hints at how we can best move forward." —Questlove
JAY-Z: Made in America is the fruit of Michael Eric Dyson’s decade of teaching the work of one of the greatest poets this nation has produced, as gifted a wordsmith as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Rita Dove. But as a rapper, he’s sometimes not given the credit he deserves for just how great an artist he’s been for so long.
This audiobook wrestles with the biggest themes of JAY-Z's career, including hustling, and it recognizes the way that he’s always weaved politics into his music, making important statements about race, criminal justice, black wealth and social injustice. As he enters his fifties, and to mark his thirty years as a recording artist, this is the perfect time to take a look at JAY-Z’s career and his role in making this nation what it is today. In many ways, this is JAY-Z’s America as much as it’s Pelosi’s America, or Trump’s America, or Martin Luther King’s America. JAY-Z has given this country a language to think with and words to live by.
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON—Distinguished University Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies, College of Arts & Science, and of Ethics and Society, Divinity School, and NEH Centennial Chair at Vanderbilt University—is one of America’s premier public intellectuals and the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers including Tears We Cannot Stop, What Truth Sounds Like, JAY-Z, and Long Time Coming. A winner of the 2018 nonfiction Southern Book Prize, Dr. Dyson is also a recipient of two NAACP Image awards and the 2020 Langston Hughes Festival Medallion. Former president Barack Obama has noted: “Everybody who speaks after Michael Eric Dyson pales in comparison.”
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON—Distinguished University Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies, College of Arts & Science, and of Ethics and Society, Divinity School, and NEH Centennial Chair at Vanderbilt University—is one of America’s premier public intellectuals and the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers including Tears We Cannot Stop, What Truth Sounds Like, JAY-Z, and Long Time Coming. A winner of the 2018 nonfiction Southern Book Prize, Dr. Dyson is also a recipient of two NAACP Image awards and the 2020 Langston Hughes Festival Medallion. Former president Barack Obama has noted: “Everybody who speaks after Michael Eric Dyson pales in comparison.”
Nick Cannon is a successful, multi-faceted entertainer: comedian, TV executive producer and host, filmstar/director, entrepreneur, philanthropist and children’s book author. He was cited by People Magazine as one of the “Top 10 Most Successful Young People in Hollywood.” Presently he is host of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”. Through his highly successful multi-media company NCredible Entertainment, Cannon produces TV and film projects, including Nickelodeon’s Make It Pop (which recently got re-newed for a 2nd season), HALO Awards, and TeenNick Top 10, React To That. On the film side, Cannon made his first appearance on the big screen alongside Will Smith in Men in Black II. Other television credits include the classic feature film Drumline. He also starred as one of the lead character roles in Spike Lee’s controversial movie Chi’Raq. Noted by the New York Times as “one of the most recognizable personalities in teen media,” Cannon also actively serves as the CEO of the teen magazine Celebrity High, as well as Chairman of TeenNick, Nickelodeon’s television network aimed at the teen audience.