Anyone else as surprised as me by this album? This is the album that Kingdom Come should've been. A lot of incredibly good lines from Jay, and the most shocking part: Very few commerical sounding tracks. This is probably the closest Jay has gotten back to being "Reasonable Doubt" Jay in a while. I personally love it more than some of his most recent albums. Thoughts?
It's alright. I've only listened to it once, but I thought it was alright for the most part. It's definitely different for him, as far as what I've previously heard goes.
I mean it's not his best work, but it's good to see Jay focusing more on his old lyrical content instead of "Big Pimpin" and "Show Me What Ya Got". Sure there's some bitches and hoes lines on this album, but significantly less than on previous albums.
Sick album. Jay is one of my favorite rappers so of course I'm going to like it. Favorite Songs: Roc Boys, American Gangster, American Dreamin', Hello Brooklyn 2.0.
I thought Hello Brooklyn was the only true mis-step on this CD. It just ruined the album's pacing. I now have it removed from the tracklist when I play the CD. It sounds WAY better without it. Sorry it's one of your favorite tracks. I can't stand Lil Wayne.
Really? I love that song. It's different but I just love the flow of that song and Lil Wayne's hook is a great addition. The CD as a whole is classic Jay. It's a huge improvement from Kingdom Come.
I've listened to the CD a few more times. It's probably the best Jay's been in years. If you aren't a big Jay fan you probably wont appreciate it because it's not very 'commercial' but that's what makes this album classic Jay. He's finally back to the Reasonable Doubt era. I love Roc Boys. Such an awesome flow from Jay.
I'm thinking the one track that seems out of place is Ignorant Shit. It sounds so ridiculously Black Album it's not even funny. But aside from that, I love this album. Probably one of my favorite lines is from Blue Magic: Can’t you tell that I came from the dope game Blame Reagan for making me into a monster Blame Oliver North and Iran-Contra I ran contraband that they sponsored If you look at the last two lines, it ends and starts with the same words. Iran-Contra I ran contraband... Fuckin' genius.
Although this album is meant to mirror some of the scenes of the movie, it's not actually sponsored by the film nor the film's official soundtrack. Basically Jay saw an advance version of the movie, and it made him flashback to his early years and the shit that he used to go through before he made it big. That's why this album has no 'big pimpin' or 'give it to me' type tracks. While Ignorant Shit is pure 'Black Album', this is a flashback to the days of old Jay-Z before he started worrying about dumbing down his lyrics to make big bucks. Infact, "Ignorant Shit" is Jay bitching about how he has to make Big Pimpin type tracks or else everyone thinks he's 'fell off' and is no longer relevant.
I've been listening to Jay my whole life, and it's safe to say I would never accuse Jay of "dumbing down" his lyrics to make the big bucks. While the subject matter may be "meh", lyrcially it's a good song. Even if that's the case, Jay was already rich to begin with, and I'm pretty sure he is the richest man in hip-hop right now. And one more thing. Though this is a really great album, it is NOWHERE NEAR Reasonable Doubt. That album, for sure, is one of the greatest rap albums ever made. Even better than Nas' "Illmatic".
I haven't been able to buy the album yet, but once I have enough money, I'm definitely going out and picking it up. I'm going to download a song off of it from iTunes, so in your opinion guys, what is the best single song on the album?