A.G. Gancarski
It’s a measure of, well, something that it took almost a week after Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry interviewed with the Florida Times-Union editorial board for his best quote to come out.
Curry dropped science on former mayor and current City Council adversary Tommy Hazouri, by channeling some late-period Jay-Z.
“He’s loud as a motorbike but wouldn’t bust a grape in a fruit fight.”
Now, let’s all be honest. There might be more quotable lines in “99 Problems.” And Curry could have quoted more vintage Jay-Z (i.e., “I look for Presidents to represent me”) or even something else from Jay-Z’s 21st century oeuvre, like perhaps his duet with Nas on “Black Republicans.”
But dude made his point.
Hazouri had to check it out on Rap Genius before he could respond.
He later went online to read the lyrics of “99 Problems” and the line quoted by Curry.
“He can say what he wants,” Hazouri said. “I think he underestimates me.”
Maybe. Or maybe Curry is doing what we used to call “flipping the script.”
Why quote Jay Z if you’re Lenny Curry playing the dozens? It’s simple. As the pro wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper used to say, “just when they think they have the answers, I change the questions.”
In bringing 21st century pop culture to #jaxpol, a city where seemingly every member of the Jacksonville power elite except for Curry (who doesn’t miss Gator games) was at the Night Ranger/Def Leppard concert on Saturday night, the mayor was speaking to a core constituency ignored by politician sound bites in this city.
Hip hop fans.
For those of Curry’s generation, who grew up with such titanic battles as Kool Moe Dee Vs LL Cool J, Juice Crew Vs Boogie Down Productions, EPMD Vs. Eric B and Rakim, Eazy E Vs. Dr. Dre, and Nas and Jay Z (before they realized they ran New York), this is the lingua franca, a straight up power move like Vatican II.
Local Dems, of course, fulminate that “this isn’t leadership.” As if they don’t remember KRS ONE ending PM Dawn’s career by jumping on stage and taking their mike mid set.
That’s a line to circle back to when this mayor is out of office.
In eight years, give or take.
Betrayed also in the Felix Unger style reactions is that even after getting housed in the 2015 election, the local Dems don’t understand the people in this town.
They don’t care about “unprecedented” moves on commissions or boards.
They don’t care if someone from the JEA Board is cutting Facebook promos against reporters.
What do they care about?
Having a mayor who speaks their language.
It’s hard to trust people enough to do that. The previous mayor, who definitely had the capacity to keep it real if he wanted to, instead kept things more buttoned up than Emily Dickinson’s corset.
Mayor Curry isn’t making that mistake.
In quoting Jay Z to the Times-Union, Curry’s inverting paradigms and changing the game.
It’s a power move, pure and simple.
And from the guy the Dems kept saying would “turn back the clock” if elected, no less.
Yep, he took it back…. way back… to 2003.
