This Has Always Been Jay-Z’s Blueprint

The way Elizabeth Méndez Berry remembers it, she was standing by the bar and munching on hors d’oeuvres at a Robin Thicke album release party in the fall of 2003. Then a writer for Vibe magazine, Méndez Berry observed Jay-Z from a distance when he walked in wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt and a diamond-encrusted Jesus piece around his neck. She was taken aback by the audacity.