Jay Z's "Picasso Baby" performance art video will premiere on HBO

By Kevin McFarland | July 29, 2013 | 7:00pm

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Jay Z's "Picasso Baby" performance art video will premiere on HBO

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A few weeks ago Jay Z followed in the footsteps of Tilda Swinton and The National by showing up at an art gallery to perform “Picasso Baby” for six straight hours. The performance art piece was designed to culminate in a music video, and now comes the news that the video will premiere on HBO, after Hova appears as the mid-show guest on Real Time With Bill Maher on August 2—hopefully as a less self-indulgent complement to the Beyoncé documentary the network aired earlier this year.

Jay Z performed "Picasso Baby" on a loop for six hours, rapping to individuals and pairs pulled from the audience that included Judd Apatow, Alan Cumming, Marina Abramovic, and art critic Jerry Saltz. Watch the teaser below, as the now hyphen-less mogul waxes philosophic again about how “rap is painting out loud,” and “concerts are pretty much performance art.”