5 Jay-Z Songs For "The Great Gatsby"

On Friday MTV.com reported that Baz Lurhmann, the director of the film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, used Jay-Z songs on the set to motivate his cast.

Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway in April 2012

“On my first day he had Jay-Z pumped up full and we did the entire scene with, you know, Jay-Z in our ear on full blast while acting and it was just so liberating,” Isla Fischer told MTV. “He really understands actors and how self-conscious we feel at times, and how exposed we are and how we never know where anything lands. Just the complexity of being vulnerable every minute when you’re acting and he just makes you feel so safe.”

While the juxtaposition of hip-hop with a novel published in 1925 seems like a reach, the book’s focus on a mysterious millionaire bootlegger throwing parties in the “Roaring 20s” under the shadow of prohibition in New York City makes Jigga Man’s music an ideal fit.

Fischer wouldn’t reveal which songs were blaring on set, but here are five we think should have been in rotation on the set of The Great Gatsby.

5) “American Dreamin'”, American Gangster, 2007

“Who in the F knows how to be successful/ Need a “Personal Jesus,” I’m in Depeche Mode /They say it’s celestial, it’s all in the stars Like Tony LaRussa on how you play your Cards”

4) “Allure”, The Black Album,2003

“The game is a lightbulb with eleventy-million volts/ And I’m just a moth, addicted to the floss /And doors lift from the floor and the tops come off /By any means necessary, whatever the cost, even if it means lives is lost…”

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3) “Party Life”, American Gangster, 2007

“Ordered some Patreezy/while talkin to this breezy Brushin off my three-piece/ I make this look too easy/So tall and lanky; my suit, it should thank me I make it look, good to be this hood Meyer Lansky”

2) “The City Is Mine”, In My Lifetime Vol. 1,1997

“I represent the lifestyle of those who thirst cream/ A buck fifty a shot, Louis the Thirteenth”

1) “Empire State Of Mind”, The Blueprint 3, 2009

“Came here for school, graduated to the high life/ Ball players, rap stars, addicted to the limelight /MDMA got you feelin’ like a champion/ The city never sleeps, better slip you an Ambien”