Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
If Elvis Presley is the king of rock ‘n’ roll, then Jay-Z must be the king of hip-hop. He’s put out more number one albums than any artist in the U.S., including Elvis. Plus, he owns an NBA team, a record company, and a clothing company, making him one of the wealthiest businessmen in America. And as if all that weren’t enough, he’s married to Beyonce.
Jay-Z wasn’t always so successful. He grew up in the projects, was abandoned by his father at age 12, and never finished high school. But music was always a big part of his life, and he started recording rap songs in the 1980s. His new album, The Blueprint 3, is his 11th studio album and his 11th album to hit number one. Find out if Jason and Ella think he deserves all his success.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
Jason: I’m not usually a huge hip-hop fanatic, but I just saw this new video with Jay Z and Rihanna.
Ella: Yeah?
Jason: Absolutely amazing.
Ella: You’ve converted.
Jason: Yeah.
Ella: My favorite song has gotta be “Venus vs. Mars.” “On to the Next One”...All the beats are really individual and you can tell he put a lot of time into each of the songs.
Jason: Wow. What do you think of all the collaborations, like all the teamwork on that album?
Ella: It’s pretty neat. You don’t see that too often. You only see the one person on the one side. But he has a lot of different collaborations with everyone, and you can see their styles in his songs too.
Jason: Yeah, it seems like hip-hop used to be more about egos and now people are kind of working together.
Ella: It’s a blending.
Jason: I guess that’s why he’s sold more number one albums, or made more number one albums than anyone else.
Ella: That’s quite impressive, isn’t it?
Jason: He just beat Elvis, did you know that?
Ella: Yeah. I’m gonna be going to his concert and he’s donating all the money to charity.
Jason: Really?
Ella: Yeah!
Grammar Point
Go Super to learn "Present Perfect Tense" from this lesson
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Discussion
Jason doesn’t normally like hip-hop, but he loves the new song “Run This Town” by Jay-Z and Rihanna. Ella loves Jay-Z and two of the songs off his new album, The BluePrint 3, are some of her favorite songs.
Jason mentions that Jay-Z has done a lot of collaborations. In addition to Rihanna, he’s worked with artists like Kanye West, Alicia Keys, and of course his lovely wife, Beyonce. Ella thinks Jay-Z must be more humble than some other rap artists since he’s willing to share the spotlight with his fellow musicians. But he must be pretty generous, since he’s donating all the money from one of his upcoming concerts to charity.
Are you a fan of Jay-Z? Which famous musician would you most like to collaborate with?
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