Empire State of Mind

Zack O’Malley Greenburg’s unauthorized biography of Jay-Z reads like a long résumé detailing the business successes (and failures) of a gifted rapper turned exemplary entrepreneur. Since he has no direct access to Jay-Z, Greenburg offers no inside information on how the man handled his business. If you have followed Jay-Z closely from his music to his venture, the stories come at no surprise. To be fair, the book is not as “terrible” as Jay-Z had criticized. It does provide some intriguing glimpses of Jay-Z’s accomplishments.