Earlier this week, people in Brooklyn may have noticed that the popular Brooklyn Public Library’s Central branch had a different look to its exterior than usual. That’s because Jay-Z lyrics now grace its facade.
Video shows a group of workers outside of the library constructing the library’s newly designed face. The exterior — which resembles words from a newspaper article — depicts lyrics from Jay-Z’s extensive catalog, including “Hovi Baby,” “Sweet,” “Encore,” “Justify My Thug,” “Smile” and more. A story published by Hell Gate also revealed that the Brooklyn Public Library will close its doors Thursday (July 13) and prepare to honor Hov with an exhibit that will be open to the public the following day. Brooklyn Public Library’s website also notes that the Central branch “will be closed on Thursday, July 13, in preparation for a special event.”
Billboard has reached out to the library for comment.
Last June, the BPL held a celebration titled Night in the Library: The Philosophy of Hip-Hop, which featured Jay’s mother, Dr. Gloria Carter, as a guest speaker. “He was a very special child. He was that kid that was like, ‘Yo, ma. The sun is shining and I want to go outside.’ I’ll be like, ‘Baby, it’s cold out.’ He’d be like, ‘The sun is shining.’ I’d be like, ‘OK, I’m a let you go outside,’” Carter relayed to the night’s host Angie Martinez at the Hip-Hop 50 themed event. “Open the door, put him outside, and I’m looking out the door, and a couple minutes, he’s ringing the bell [shivering]. So I was like, ‘What happened?’ He was like, ‘It’s cold outside.’ That’s how a lesson is learned.”
Check out the BPL Central branch’s design below.
JAY-Z’s lyrics plastered all over the front of Brooklyn public library https://t.co/52WCdDsvQr pic.twitter.com/nciqSci2H0
— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) July 12, 2023
