jay-z

[Annabelle 0]

bloated.

 

listen. i'm all for pop in rap. but it has to be inspired. there has to be an iota of sincerity behind it.

 

gone is the grit. gone is the hunger. insert usher, beyonce, chris martin, ne-yo, ect. and thats not to say they're responsible for this albums contemptuous fallacy. jay has embarrassed himself by going through the motions and fulfilling every possible rap cliche. he's even sampling kanye's "george bush" rant which is as misleading as jay's own insufferable boastful declarations. he couldn't sit on the sidelines. he had to construct an album that is more in the vision of rihanna & the people he's been signing for def jam than for his legacy. he'll get his millions but he'll surely regret this abomination 5-10 years down the road. remember the blueprint? remember when he dropped the takeover? lush violins and orchestral production for the king of new york? cam'ron was right. who'da thought? rip hova.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

Fuck. I was hoping "Show Me What You Got" was just a poppy single amongst eleven other tight songs. I'll still probably check it out.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

I knew he was bullshitting about The Black Album being his last.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Typically deep, trenchant insight from Bob Van Deon. Keep your inanity to the wrestling folders, nobody.

[Annabelle 0]

understandably, my rap tastes are usually not not in agreeance with the masses. this album lacks the immidiacy of anything he has done. his cadence is slow. there's too much gloss on the production. it pains me to say this after i have been saying how wonderful jay z's accomplishment to rap has been. that said, the guy still "runs the rap game". i don't expect this nonsense from nas, though. he's usually a little more 'hard' than jay-z anyway. if only he didn't take his ill-advised foray into the double album fraternity. kinda killed any momentum he had before hand.

[Man Who Sold The World 0]

I figured Jay would bow in accordance to this shell we now call "Hip Hop". Jay-Z being called the best was a very popular fallacy, but he just basically went along with what was popular at the time. It seems Game, however, has put his balls on the table and presented us with a nod to the old-school hip hop. Nowhere on his album (aside from his Ode To Dre) will you find a love song. Aside from the terrible "Strip Club", Game has a more solid record than Jay-Z's, who appears to be going the Diddy route and placing every captain of the industry in his song. Shame, because I feel Jay-Z is more lyrical than Game. His (Jay-z's) album however, is a cop out, and he's a genius for not letting this sucker leak out sooner, because he'd lose alot of sales.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

This CD was COMPLETE garbage.

 

I'm sick of jay saying that he's the CEO of rap and other bullshit.

 

 

ESPECIALLY when he get's on Funk Flex's show talking about how he's better than everyone else and that Jim Jones is the 9th guy on the bench booing Jeter.

 

 

Complete bullshit.

 

 

A messege to jay...

 

 

SHUT THE FUCK UP!

 

You're washed up! You suck! Go ahead, steal some more rappers lines...

[Guest Felonies!]

Did Jay-Z do anything specific to advance the rap genre or what? I never understood what his contribution was, but my ignorance in this area is well-documented.

[The Niggardly King 0]

Did Jay-Z do anything specific to advance the rap genre or what? I never understood what his contribution was, but my ignorance in this area is well-documented.

 

He was one of the few great standards of hip hop during a revoltingly terrible time.

[Man Who Sold The World 0]

Did Jay-Z do anything specific to advance the rap genre or what? I never understood what his contribution was, but my ignorance in this area is well-documented.

 

He was one of the few great standards of hip hop during a revoltingly terrible time.

 

Ironic.

[Guest Felonies!]

Okay then. I just know he runs Def Jam and dresses well and has like twenty stupid nicknames, but I never really figured out how he got from Point A to Point B, because the singles of his that I remember were nothing special to me. Though like KOAB said, I did sort of come to the conclusion that he rose to the top of the heap because there really wasn't anybody better at the time.

[Fökai 0]

I figured Jay would bow in accordance to this shell we now call "Hip Hop". Jay-Z being called the best was a very popular fallacy, but he just basically went along with what was popular at the time. It seems Game, however, has put his balls on the table and presented us with a nod to the old-school hip hop. Nowhere on his album (aside from his Ode To Dre) will you find a love song. Aside from the terrible "Strip Club", Game has a more solid record than Jay-Z's, who appears to be going the Diddy route and placing every captain of the industry in his song. Shame, because I feel Jay-Z is more lyrical than Game. His (Jay-z's) album however, is a cop out, and he's a genius for not letting this sucker leak out sooner, because he'd lose alot of sales.

 

But put that into perspective. Game's best effort behind Dre is just a hair better than Jay's pop album. I expect Game to mount Dre on the next album and he'll then achieve "King of Hip-Hop" status.

 

Anyway, I think Jay is bulletproof at this point and he knows it. No one will call him on a terrible album if he leaves here. That said, a few songs on here outright blow ass, like the first single, or are just embarrassing to listen to ('Minority Report'). Just another reason why the current wave of hip-hop artists should really keep their nose out of politics, because the lyrics are neither relevant or thought-provoking. Just overall crap. But just watch: he pulls another great album out of his ass on the next go-around and this one will be forgotten like The Dynasty or Blueprint 2.1.

[Annabelle 0]

Did Jay-Z do anything specific to advance the rap genre or what? I never understood what his contribution was, but my ignorance in this area is well-documented.

 

jay is responsible for what rap music has become. he advanced it for guys like kanye, cam'ron, and even ghostface. but i think that has more to do with kanye's production. the blueprint signified a new plateau for popular rap. he has not progressed to the point of regressed with this latest offering. its like encore for 14 songs.

 

before the blueprint, i think jay-z was just another guy. he was popular but nowhere near the level of after 2001. i'm sure his association with beyonce didn't hurt his rep for 13 year girls either.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

From what I've heard of it it doesn't seem to be the total shit-brick that a lot of people seem to be making it out to be. It's definitely not up to the standards of the Reasonable Doubt/Blueprint/Black Album troika, though.

 

In related news, the Jay-Z/Nas collaboration "Black Republicans" finally hit the net today. It improbably lives up to just about every expectation you could possibly have for it. Goddamn.

[snuffbox 0]

I gave up on this record the first time I heard 'Show Me What You Got'

[godthedog 0]

jay-z's canonization as the biggest/best name in hip-hop has always had much more to do with his self-promotional skill and the public buying it than his actual output. he knows when he's working hard & when he's coasting, puts out the bare minimum amount of greatness to get by as 'great', and makes sure everybody remembers the great stuff & forgets the crap . he's got one of the worst signal-to-noise ratios of anyone i know in the musical canon, and i'm still pissed that he tricked me into buying 'vol. 2'.

 

somebody should do an album-for-album standoff between him and nas. the results might be interesting.

[The Man in Blak 0]

I want to say that Jay-Z was one of the first mainstream rappers to release the a capella mix of his albums out to the public as free material for mashups and remixes (The Black Album), but I'm not 100% sure on that. Any counterexamples to that?

 

Czech, to put that in context for you, think about Zappa's "xenochrony" approach to some of his tracks on Joe's Garage / Sheik Yerbouti. I wikied it, just for you.

[Annabelle 0]

nas would slay jay z in an album to album battle because of jay's fruitless 97-01 phase. like big pimpin, hard knock life, and those other nursery rhyme singalongs. and jay is probably the best self promoter in rap, besides puffy, OF COURSE. atleast jay z has talent.

 

blueprint/black album

 

vs.

 

stillmatic/god's son

 

that would be fun. of course illmatic slays those all. it was written is an unappreciated gem, as well. even when nas goes with really flashy pruduction, his flow usually keeps it legit. he doesn't ever sound too commerical. could anyone imagine biggie's flow ever sounding generic enough to be too commercial? i don't know. honest question.

[Annabelle 0]

big l feat. jayz - da graveyard

 

listen to this. thats how jay could've been. imagine.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Can you confirm the rumours of a Dipset diss track on the cd, banky? Cause if so I've gotta hear that one. There's no way he can top Cam's hilarious "HOW'S THE KING OF NEW YORK ROCKIN SANDALS WITH JEANS!?".

[Guest Felonies!]

nas would slay jay z in an album to album battle because of jay's fruitless 97-01 phase. like big pimpin, hard knock life, and those other nursery rhyme singalongs. and jay is probably the best self promoter in rap, besides puffy, OF COURSE. atleast jay z has talent.

Don't forget "Heartbreaker" w/Mariah Carey. Something about a piwwow fight in da middow uh da night.

 

Puff Daddy was the other one I never understood. Dr. Dre, Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, I understand those, at least.

[Annabelle 0]

even tupac is iffy. as a youngster i loved tupac. but he doesn't really have the trach record to be put in a category with others. all eyez on me, like nearly ever double album, had tons of filler. and death row filler is awful. with angry rapper chicks, castrated r & b, and generic g-funk ripoffs. the idea of tupac is better than the real tupac.

 

but puff daddy is so amazingly talentless as a rapper that even the best ghostwriters, star collabs, & million dollar productions are reduced to nothing. but boy can he ever dance!

[Guest Felonies!]

Well, we do know what a huge impact Tupac had on the life of erstwhile board member Dangerous Donnie D.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I just put this on. Wish me luck.

[BUTT 0]

Good luck Incandenza

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I'm over halfway through this. This is just the sort of album that—as addressed earlier—Jay-Z would release in the downtime between putting out albums to prove that his claims of running the rap game or whatever wasn't just blowing smoke. Kingdom Come is agreeable enough filler—and rest assured, this is little other than filler—but not the sort of thing someone coming out of "retirement" following what was arguably the best album of his career should have bothered releasing. Not that I know anything; this will obviously make Jay-Z a mint, so feh. Good for him.

[UZI Suicide 0]

From what I've heard of it it doesn't seem to be the total shit-brick that a lot of people seem to be making it out to be. It's definitely not up to the standards of the Reasonable Doubt/Blueprint/Black Album troika, though.

 

In related news, the Jay-Z/Nas collaboration "Black Republicans" finally hit the net today. It improbably lives up to just about every expectation you could possibly have for it. Goddamn.

 

"Black Republican" is great. Pretty much everything you could expect when you put Nas and Jay-Z together on the same track. Nas just kills his verse.

 

If anyone wants to hear it (this is a clear version, not the one that was floating around the last couple of days with the annoying DJ's screaming over it) - http://rapidshare.com/files/3312172/nas_-_...blican.mp3.html

[Ripper 0]

The bootleg of this album. Ugh.

 

I will say it like this. EVERY single Just Blaze produced song sucks. I like pretty much all of the ones that Dre produced alhtough 30 something isn't really hitting me that hard. Hollywood...horrible.

 

All in all, I like 6 songs on the bootleg and hate 7. Thats not a good run.

 

Minority report, dig a hole, trouble, and that song with chris martin are all incredibly hot though.

[Annabelle 0]

minority report is really hokey.

[The Man in Blak 0]

"Kingdom Come" just came across my Launchcast. This song is really fucking terrible.