Take the chorus lines from single “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” for example: As if the fact that his vocal triumphs weren’t enough, The Black Album features some of Jay-Z’s best lyrical moments. If anyone could have doubted what his is still capable of doing, I’d be willing to wager quite a bit that they’re eating crow after hearing The Black Album. Jay-Z’s rhymes are tight, and constant he never misses a beat. You can almost feel it in the swaggering, yet commanding tone of his voice. He’s the king of the hip-hop world, and he knows it. Jay-Z’s delivery remains as strong as ever.
DANGER MOUSE JAY Z METALLICA BLACK ALBUM DOWNLOAD FREE HOW TO
The Black Album is still a refreshingly consistent album, and should serve as an example on how to make a 21st century mainstream hip-hop album. Sure, some songs are better than others, but every album has it’s ups and downs, even masterpieces. The record delivers quality from end-to-end, with little or no faltering. This, however, is not the case with The Black Album. “99 Problems” is one of the strongest hip-hop songs of recent times, and it proves that Jay-Z can still hang with the best of them.īut how does the rest of the album stand up? It’s been an unfortunate trend in recent years for rappers to build their albums around two or three extremely powerful songs, while essentially using all the other tracks as filler. Not only does Jay-Z give “99 Problems” a whole new hard rock-esque makeover, he also applies it to himself, and hits the nail right on the head.
I'm from rags to ritches niggas I ain't dumb Or understand the intelligence that Jay-Z has So advertisers can give 'em more cash for ads, f*ckers They don't play my hits well I don't give a sh*t so I got beef with radio if i don't play they show If you don't like my lyrics you can press fast forward I'm like f*ck critics you can kiss my whole asshole You'd be celebrating the minute you was havin' dough I'm from the hood stupid, what type of facts are those Rap critics they say he's "Money Cash Hoes" So, I’d say that it’s a fair assumption to state that Jay-Z is the smartest man in rap.Īctually, he describes himself rather well in his interpretation of Ice-T’s “99 Problems”:įoes that wanna make sure my casket's closed With this new record, “Jigga” seemed to have discovered the perfect balance between his gangsta rap past, and his pop-laden present. One year later, though, he was back on top of the world, having just released The Black Album. Once again, Jay-Z as a rapper became a severe underdog. The album’s main critiscms stemmed from it’s extremely pop-oriented feel, and rapid departure from Jay-Z’s much heavier earlier works. However, as appealing as The Blueprint was to some, it’s follow-up, 2002‘s The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse was quite the opposite. Widely considered to be his strongest album, The Blueprint achieved impressive commercial success, and even managed to grab a spot on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. And so, critics and fans alike were shocked when he released The Blueprint in 2001. However, despite all this success, many people believed that by the turn of the century Jay-Z as a musical artist was down and out. Carter probably realized that not everyone has a long-winded run in the music business, and thus, became a veritable entrepreneur, securing his own financial freedom and influence, as well as launching the careers of some of the most successful artists to hit the scene in the last few years. I mean, for Carter to rise from humble rap beginnings under his stage name of Jay-Z, to becoming the President of Def Jam records and CEO of Roc-A-Fella Records, is pretty damn impressive. Actually, he’s quite possibly the smartest man in the hip-hop industry, bar none. Shawn Corey Carter is one of the smartest men in the hip-hop business.