2. Thank You
3. D.O.A (Death of Auto-tune)
4. Run This Town
5. Empire State of Mind
6. Real As It Gets
7. On To The Next One
8. Off That
9. A Star Is Born
10. Venus Vs Mars
11. Already Home
12. Hate
13. Reminder
14. So Ambitious
15. Young Forever
Walks into the room with slight limp in the hippity hop style, takes off earphones and turns on the laptop, takes a drink of Sukie and pours some out for the homies.
Ok so I said that this would be the last chance for me and Jay-Z but before I get into the nitty gritty of it all ill give you a bit of background to when it started. I first heard Jay on Trevor Nelson’s the Lick on MTV many moons ago, these were the days of Blink 182, Limp Bizkit, nails getting painted (on guys) and the world was ablaze with Foo Fighters and Green Day mania, well not for me, I was starry eyed and listening to Biggie, 2Pac, and yes I was a bit of a whigga. Anyway I wasn’t too fussed on ‘Hard knock life’ as the Annie sample didn’t really do it for me but I was hooked none the less as he was rhyming about being on the streets, hustling, very much what I was doing on the mean streets of Finaghy back in the noughties, I could relate. I went to Our Price, yes Our Price and got the album and from then on I became a big fan. Several albums later he was still doing the business and all was rosy in the Jay-Z garden until along came the Limelight, The Strokes and the Kings of Leon, Jay was disregarded like the career of Mace, who??, exactly. Don’t get me wrong I havent completely stayed away from hip hop there have been some shining lights in there with Clipse, The Cool Kids and Sway but I havent hit the heady days of then. Jay had a return to form with the Black Album with ‘bangers’ such as ‘Dirt of your shoulder’, ‘Encore’ and ‘Change Clothes’ even being mixed by Dangermouse to make the grey album with Jay’s raps and the Beatles White Album behind but still I havent flinched so this was the album to decide if I would keep on with him or look back with fondness and my massive size xxl Fubu top.
Jay is famous for his rapping style which involves the music already being recorded and him walking into the recording studio and just saying his lines, not written down, just as he stands. Now I applaud him for this but still take five minutes and at least write something down, even Biggie in his heyday had to use a pen and paper and his lyrics are classics, Super Nintendo, Sega, Genesis, when I was dead broke man I couldn’t picture this. I think comparing the two this is were Jay falls down and why he isn’t really as highly regarded as Biggie or 2Pac. One of my main gripes is the constant talking about how much money he has or what they drink or what clothes they wear, fair enough these people are millionaires and will not be rapping about the political situation in Burma or the Trident missile system but seriously it gets a bit dull after a while if you’ve heard the word Rolex in a song about 20 times, they might aswell just call their songs ‘Product Placement’. Ok so im getting off point but I think its true that people prefer to hear about growing up, making their way through and getting signed, the best example is Kayne West’s ‘Last Call’ when he describes how he was sending demo tapes out and almost making it only to be knocked back time and time again then signing to Rockafella after nearly being evicted. After all these ideas were bouncing about my head I finally managed to listen to Blueprint 3 and so….
Before I listened to the album I was familiar with the track, ‘Empire State of Mind’ which has Alicia Keys on the chorus singing something about New York, I wasn’t too sure as the words are indecipherable but New York is mentioned quite a bit, not bad by all accounts for the first single. From the beginning of the album I have a list in my head what is usually mentioned, Lexus, Money, Brooklyn and a lot of Uh Uh Uh Yeahs (due to the non writing down lyrics I imagine) The first five songs have me checking them all off with ease and then the second half of the album, well its 15 songs long so I was barely through it but it had the same effect. In the album there are a lot of featurings which as anyone knows plays havoc with your itunes, yes go into get info and put them all into one artist. The featurings in this case are Rihanna, Kayne West and Kid Cudi who are pretty good in their songs but at this stage there is nothing jumping out at me. I listened to this album while walking home and I got distracted by the park so I think that’s an indication of the lasting impact. Anyway overall its ok, not great but not too bad, I think its one which I doubt ill be visiting again. Maybe Jay-Z is just good for those songs which fill a dancefloor and he lacks a bit of substance, in fairness after ten albums id be running out of things to say! I don’t think ill avoid his next album but my interest is just not what it once was, and yes I still have that Fubu top, its good for winters ill have you know.
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