Ladies, do you feel more respected this morning?

In case you missed the breaking news, the rapper Jay-Z, father to the most anticipated baby of the decade (at least until Kate and William get around to things) made a poetic announcement yesterday. (Really, he announced it in a poem.)

He will no longer use the word "bitch" to describe women.

I'll let him describe his epiphany:

Before I got in the game, made a change, and got rich/ I didn't think hard about using the word bitch/I rapped, I flipped it, I sold it, I lived it/Now with my daughter in this world I curse those that give it.

There's more, including:

No man will degrade her, or call her name/I'm so focused on your future, the degradation has passed/ I wish you wealth, health and insight/Forever young you may pass/Blue Ivy Carter, my angel.

Sweet.

In a hypocritical and late to the party kind of a way.

Jay-Z is not the first man to realize he has been a misogynistic jerk only after he has a daughter.

Okay, maybe the academic studies don't use those words exactly, but one, from the University of Maryland titled "Like Daughter, Like Father: How Women's Wages Change When CEOs Have Daughters," found that the birth of a girl to a male CEO closes the wage gap at his company by .5 percentage points, and if that daughter is the CEOs first child the gap closes by 2.8 percentage points.)

Why? Researchers theorize that "a switch flips" in the CEO daddy's head, "making him more sensitive to gender issues."

That same switch might flip some of a father's political views, too. A study of the voting records of US Congressmen found that those with daughters voted more liberally on issues of reproductive rights, flexible work policies and funding for education. And data on British families found that fathers with three sons and no daughters were far more likely to vote for conservative candidates than were fathers of three daughters and no sons.

"Daughters make people more left-wing, while having sons, by contrast, makes them more right-wing" the author of that last study, Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick said when it was released in 2009.

I'm not sure whether calling women names is a left-wing or right-wing thing, and I am glad that, for whatever reason, Jay-Z has decided to stop. It would have been better though, if he'd never started in the first place; never written lyrics like "I don't love 'em I fuck 'em, I don't chase 'em I duck 'em, I replace 'em with another one"; or if he had been so moved years ago out of respect for, say, his mother, or his wife, or 50 percent of the population.

Since no apology was offered anywhere in this latest poem, then I feel no need to accept one. But I do congratulate the Carters on the birth of their little girl. And I wish them a little boy someday, too, so that Jay-Z has the chance to raise him into a man who respects women from the start.

For the launch of his autobiography, hip-hop's premiere entrepreneur turned marketing into interactive art and a scavenger hunt that rewarded his die-hard fans. Here's an exclusive peek inside Jay's bag of tricks.

On Kanye West's new song, "So Appalled," Jay-Z raps, "I'm so appalled, I might buy the mall, just to show [...] how much more I have in store."

As Jay's protégé's album dropped this week (and leaked much earlier on the web), Jay himself was revealing what he'd long had in store for the publishing world: a game-changing marketing plan for his autobiography, Decoded, itself a groundbreaking book.

Beyond a mere collection of stories--which many readers would find plenty tantalizing--Decoded is also a rap Rosetta Stone. Listeners can literally decode Jay's lyrics on 11 studio albums to unlock new details about the 40-year-old's personal history. The marketing for the book took the idea further, mashing up old-school billboard advertising, new-school social media, mobile apps, and more for an interactive game that let players unlock pages of the book and enter to win concert tickets and memorabilia. Jay's corporate partners, meanwhile, scored a fortune in buzz.

Jay initially hooked up with the creative agency Droga5, who conceived, created, implemented, produced, and delivered the campaign with the help of Microsoft search engine Bing. Droga5 slapped all 320 pages of Decoded in various blown-up sizes on some unexpected surfaces: a rooftop in New Orleans, a pool bottom in Miami (above), cheeseburger wrappers in New York City, a pool table in Jay's 40/40 Club, and many more.

[Check out 32 images of the not-so-hidden pages around the country here.]

Reading became a scavenger hunt.

Fans could log on to bing.com/jay-z between Oct. 18 and Nov. 20--last Saturday--and follow clues to Bing Maps locations and real life places where text from the book was blown up bigger than life or layered onto a guitar, onto records in jukeboxes, or onto a 1980s Cadillac parked in front of a Run-DMC mural in Queens. The most dedicated followers could read the whole book for free weeks before it came out. Plus, anyone who unlocked a page online or in person (by texting a code located on the physical page) was entered to win that page signed by Jay-Z or tickets to a Jay-Z/Coldplay New Year's Eve concert in Las Vegas.

Then, at the very last minute, Bing and Droga5 decided that one lucky person who'd decoded all 200 clues using Bing Maps would get The Jay-Z Lifetime Pass, a golden ticket of sorts, good for admission for two to any Jay-Z concert anywhere on the planet for life.

"We heard a story through our Facebook page of a woman, a lawyer, who more or less hired a team of six or seven people who all scouted through the clues," Bing General Manager Eric Hadley tells Fast Company.

The average time it took to decode the online clues was a little more than five minutes, he says. But it was the repeat visits that Hadley says were such a boon to Bing.

To get the whole book, "you had to go into Bing Maps and interact with Bing up to three times a day," Hadley says, adding that the behavior helped visitors "break the habit" of using other search engines.

Jay-Z was a natural match for the so-called "decision engine," Hadley says: "We've had a pretty long history with Jay-Z. He was the focus of a conference we did at Microsoft. We introduced him to Bill Gates a while ago."

And beyond the artist's penchant for dropping locations, Jay aligned with Bing's users. People ages 18 to 24 consume 61% more search pages online than the average Web user. African-American Web surfers view 29% more search pages. Affluent African-Americans are more likely to use Bing as their primary search than Google, Hadley says. And users who listen to hip-hop at least once a week consume 19% more search pages online in any given month than the general population.

Jay, himself, remained intimately involved in the clues, too, Droga5 CEO Andrew Essex tells Fast Company. "He was actively involved in writing and vetting the clues. Alarmingly so." He'd suggest more or less specificity at times or recommend references to different places or events.

At least one clue came solely from Jay, Essex says: "Ironically, Jay has never been spotted eating pork in this establishment." (Answer below the picture of the pages on plates in that place.)

Answer: The Spotted Pig

As Cannes judges shortlist their Lions, we talk with creatives about the key decisions that helped them transform their visions into award-worthy campaigns. Here, Droga5 copywriter Adam Noel and art director Jon Kubik discuss the Jay-Z Decoded campaign, which just took home the Outdoor Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions.

For the release of Jay-Z’s Decoded, agency Droga5 broke new ground in outdoor advertising, media strategy, and open source publishing by releasing each of the memoir’s pages into the world before the book hit stores.

The Decoded campaign was actually a dual client brief, Droga5 was charged with creating an integrated campaign for Microsoft’s Bing at the same time as the agency got the brief to launch Hova’s first book.

The idea: Put every page of the book into a real world location that in some way spoke to the content on that page. So, while some pages were splashed on billboards, others turned up in less expected locations--like the bottom of the pool at Miami’s Delano Hotel, on pool tables, in the lining of suits. (You can see 32 of the locations in this slideshow.) The campaign also included a Bing Maps-enabled scavenger hunt, allowing the audience to uncover clues as to the location of each page.

Here, Droga5 copywriter Adam Noel and art director Jon Kubik discuss some of the turning points in the multi-faceted campaign, which just took home the Outdoor Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions. 

1: Have two client briefs and one big idea.
We almost made this impossible for ourselves right from the get-go, agreeing to take on two very different yet bold briefs and then coming up with one big idea that united them into a joint campaign. It was a balancing act for us, with twice as many opinions from two powerful corporations that usually get what they want, no matter what. RocNation and Microsoft are big brands, big reputations, big money. We needed to be nimble in order to make sure both clients were continuously obliged and at the same time respectful of our vision. Each needed the other and the idea was made all the better by the joint ambitions.

2: Keep the idea pure.
The core idea was to drop every single page of the book out into the real world and then create an online experience that used Bing search and Bing Maps for people to locate all the pages. But the decision that really took it up another notch of difficulty was our choice to put the pages only in locations that were relevant to the content on each page. In essence, we couldn’t just buy a mass load of media and throw all the pages out in one hit like most campaigns do. There had to be a strategy and plan for each and every page; 300-plus media strategies all aimed to tell Jay-Z’s story right where it happened. And often the appropriate media just didn’t exist in these specific locations. As a result we had to create our own media. From a vintage Cadillac wrapped in pages paying homage to the birthplace of New York hip-hop, to a 50-pound bronze plaque in the Marcy projects commemorating Jay-Z’s childhood. The unique placements covered hundreds of thousands of square miles around the globe and were released daily for a month with a collection of scrutinized Jay-approved clues leading to each location [At least one clue was the sole creation of Jay himself, Droga5 CEO Andrew Essex told Fast Company recently: "Ironcially Jay has never been spotted eating pork in this establishment"--a reference to the Manhattan bar and restaurant The Spotted Pig, which Jay co-owns.] The book launch was a month of non-stop executing that constantly changed for Random House's book edits, vendor capabilities, and budget. In the end, it was our willingness to change tack along the way (without compromising the idea) that saw the campaign such a huge success for all. With that said, not everything went to plan all the time, but our intent and drive made up for any hurdles.

3: Put your life aside for 6 months and hope your loved ones understand.
Six months went by without seeing the people that matter most. Some nights we didn’t come home, and when we did, our significant others were already asleep. But in the end, the success of the campaign far overcame the painstaking efforts during production, and we wouldn’t take any of those nights back for the prospect of getting laid.

On the eve of what would have been Tupac Shakur's 40th birthday, an imprisoned man has admitted to shooting the late rapper/actor during a robbery at Manhattan's Quad Studios in November 1994. What's even more startling is that the alleged triggerman, Dexter Isaac, is claiming in a letter that was obtained by AllHipHop.com that 'Pac's former associate, Jimmy "Henchman" Rosemond, paid him $2,500 to do the deed.

While this may be a revelation to some, 'Pac's former protégé and Outlawz member E.D.I. Mean told MTV News that he was well aware.

 

 

 

"It's not news for us, because this is information that we been had and that been knew about. And we always knew that it'll come out one day, because what's done in the dark always comes to light," he said before pointing to Shakur's music as proof. "I just feel like it's verification for what 'Pac said, because a lot of people felt when 'Pac was saying what he was saying on Makaveli that he was out of line for saying that."

The specific lyric E.D. is referencing is from "Against All Odds," a fiery track that appeared on Tupac's The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory album (commonly referred to as the Makaveli album). On the song, the now-deceased MC implies that Henchman set him up in 1994 as he raps: "And did I mention promise to pay back Jimmy Henchman in due time/ I know you bitch n---as is listenin', the world is mine/ Set me up, wet me up, n---as stuck me up/ Heard the guns bust, but you tricks never shut me up."

Ultimately, E.D.I. Mean believes that Isaac's confession will eventually help the authorities solve the 1996 murder of Shakur as well as the 1997 shooting death of the Notorious B.I.G. — two crimes that many feel are related. "This will go on for a little bit longer, and I really feel like it's a domino effect," he said. "This will really lead up to their actual murderers. Both Big and 'Pac and everybody can move on, and this will be like some closure for not only the families, but the whole hip-hop community, because it's been an open wound since 1996 and 1997."

In a 2008 interview with MTV News, Rosemond denied any involvement in the 1994 shooting and dismissed the song as a shock tactic that rappers often use. "Absolutely never [had I] even know about it, never heard about it — before, afterward — had nothing to do with it," Rosemond added about the ambush. "Nobody that I know [was] associated with [the attack], and this is why I have confidently, in the last 14 years, told people that they can dig up whatever they want to dig up. And I've been very firm in what I've said to people: that I've had nothing to do with it."

Isaac, who is currently serving life in prison for murder, robbery, fraud and witness-intimidation charges, tells a different story. "I want to apologize to his family [Tupac Shakur] and for the mistake I did for that sucker [Jimmy Henchman]," Isaac told AllHipHop.com from prison. "I am trying to clean it up to give [Tupac's and Biggie's] mothers some closure."

Rosemond himself is facing legal trouble. On May 17, news broke that federal authorities issued an arrest warrant for Henchman in connection with a drug case. Henchman, who runs Czar Entertainment, a company that manages the career of the Game and other rap artists, fired back in a letter, lashing out at the "slanderous media" coverage he has received about the case. He also went on to call out Isaac's credibility. "If the government is relying on informants like Winston 'Winnie' Harris, a convicted drug dealer and Jamaican deportee, who came to me and motioned via hand signal that he was forced to wear a wire and begged me to skip town, or Dexter Isaac, who is serving life in prison plus 30 years, then I'm sure I will not be offered a fair trial."