Thursday, August 14, 2008

'Cause I Like MONEY, Bitch!



Let me take a moment out to discuss our friend, Jay Z. There are a few schools of thought when it comes to Hov and the first of which, or the one that I hear most frequently is that he is the undeniable messiah of rap and if he puts out some shit that you may feel is trash, its because you are "too simple minded to appreciate the complexit you're just a fuckin hater, HI HATER, STOP HATIN ON HOV!!" *gnarling noises, foaming at the mouth* Then there is the side that is still sour about the Great Nas - Jay Rap War of 2001 that persisted throughout the first half of the millennium according to Wikipedia (does it not tickle you that this type of shit is in something that calls itself an encyclopedia? Love it!) They feel that Nas was the undisputed victor because 'ether' is now a common colloquialism while 'super ugly' hasn't quite caught on as well, or whatever jackass rationale they have to decide that. I have my own opinions about which blows were the heaviest, and when I develop the courage to address things analytically and thoughtfully I will provide a post on it, but I think we can all agree on who came out on top financially, Sir Camel of Brooklyn doth reign supreme (sorry I been watchin Elizabeth I on HBO again and that shit is superugly, yow!).

In any case, it goes without saying that Jay-Z has been the People's Champion of hip hop for quite sometime now, and barring the way Kingdom Come put a lot of his fans to sleep there are still tons of people that still want to hear from Mr. Carter, myself included. So when that Shade 45 interview hit the net, and the news that the Blueprint 3 was on its way came out I was excited, but apprehensive, and I found some of my apprehensions were justified when I heard Dope Boy Fresh (Jockin Jay-Z).




Jockin Jay-Z (Dope Boy Fresh) - Jay-Z

So I forced myself to give this song a couple of listens because quite frankly the first time I heard it it left a sour taste in my mouth and left me with this question: Yeezy produced this? What the hell is going on boys? The beat is just not what it is in my opinion and the hook is lazy to me. The beat sounds like a watered down, poor man's version of '99 Problems'. That was a song that utilized Jay's flow over hard guitar and every verse mowed through the track in a way that made you feel like you were strapped to the front of a bus barreling through the NY in Jigga's mind, making occasional stops to show you some shit of varying importance. This song doesn't inspire any of that. It has an old school feel but a repetitive sound, and Jay does manage to flow reasonably well but its all dragged down by the beat which has no force, no surprises and ultimately leading me to hope that he doesn't let us down with this album...whenever it decides to come out. I know he's a millionaire and he's allowed to do different things if that's where the breeze takes him, but some of the verses he's tacked on to other artists songs have left me scratching my head.


Put On (Official Remix) (Feat. Jay-Z) - Young Jeezy

I mean his verse on the end of Jeezy's Put On Remix was either an inside joke or a grave misjudgement. First he talks about wanting the T-Pain vocoder on his voice but then at the last minute declares he doesn't need it and dives into a min or so of rambling moronically about putting various things in various places. Maybe I'm being harsh but I expect better considering Ye's powerhouse of a verse, maybe he should have left the 'T-Pain' as he calls it, on his voice and that would have distracted me from that ridiculous ass verse. When Kanye raps slow and deliberately it works for him because that's who he is. His rap bravado has always had an undercurrent of insecurity and sincerity. So when he enunciates its meaningful, and at the very least interesting, because the presumption is that you wouldn't really listen to him otherwise. Jay is not that. Maybe there is an insecure and vulnerable Jay that we don't know about but those themes don't play to his current stage persona so his spaced out flow on the end of this track sounds at best like mimicry and at worst like fuckin retarded garbage that I don't ever want to hear again coming from between the big ass lips of my beloved Jay-Z. In any case i'm going to keep hope alive for this Blueprint 3 and pray that Jay was just joshing when he talked about handing the throne over to Lil Weezy.

Posted by Ms. Shai at 4:37 PM  

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1 Comment:

Anonymous said...

"The beat sounds like a watered down, poor man's version of '99 Problems'." LMAO...after listening to that track, i feel like that's an accurate assessment.

August 17, 2008 at 9:02 PM  

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