Today from the "Who Runs the World" files: Jay-Z and Beyonce on the Time 100 list of the world's most influential people.
Time casts luminaries to write appreciations of those the magazine selects to be on the list, and none other than New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg penned the article on Jay-Z, who graces the cover of the magazine. "The Great Gatsby" director Baz Luhrmann took up the task of celebrating Beyonce.
Bloomberg writes that Jay-Z's path from Brooklyn drug dealer to music and business mogul represents "what makes New York New York."
"He’s an artist-entrepreneur who stands at the center of culture and commerce in 21st century America, and his influence stretches across races, religions and regions," the mayor writes.
Luhrmann, who fielded a song for the soundtrack of "The Great Gatsby" (which Jay-Z produced) from Beyonce, positions the "icon" as a singular talent. "No one has that voice, no one moves the way she moves, no one can hold an audience the way she does," he writes.
"When Beyonce does an album, when Beyonce sings a song, when Beyonce does anything, it’s an event, and it’s broadly influential," Luhrmann writes. "Right now, she is the heir-apparent diva of the USA — the reigning national voice."
Wonderfully enough, they're even counted among one another's best accomplishments. Luhrmann describes the couple as "the royal couple of culture" and, in a parenthetical that could have been the focal point of Bloomberg's Jay-Z post, the mayor dryly notes that "He even put a ring on Beyonce."
To read more of the Time 100, including John Legend on Frank Ocean, Stevie Wonder on Justin Timberlake, Celine Dion on Christina Aguilera and many more, head over to the magazine's website.
