Okay, forget that shit I said about this being one of my favorite JAY-Z albums. The final verse from Jay was nice, but it wasn’t enough to save this song. Basically, it has the same problem as the hook. Even if he was a good singer it’d be wack because the melody is terrible in the first place, and it doesn’t fit over this production at all. I don’t know why the fuck he was doing that half assed singing shit that Drake likes to do so much. The worst part of it was the delivery tho. Uuuugh… That verse was not good… Nothing about that verse was good. Oh my fucking God this hook is unbearable. What the fuck kinda line is that? That’d be like if I was talking to a girl named Elizabeth and I was like “Elizabeth, if we had a daughter guess what I’d name her? Elizabeth Marsh.” These are borderline struggle bars honestly. They said you’d murk me by the time I was 21 / That shit disturbed me, but you never hurt me / Hello Brooklyn, if we had a daughter / Guess what I’m a call her Brooklyn Carter. Actually… This song is actually pretty fuckin’ bad so far. It’s not really the most original concept, but he’s doing a decent job with it. He’s using a woman as a metaphor for Brooklyn. Any rapper with a really tight flow would sound good on it. The beat itself is kinda cool, but it’s not really the kinda beat I wanna hear Jay rap over. Royce Da 5’9″ interpolated it in his Control remix and actually made it sound dope, but it just sounds awkward over this beat. Ugh… I’m not feelin’ this hook from Wayne at all. I’m only two tracks in tho, so maybe it just has a lackluster start. Jay’s flow on this album has been pretty underwhelming so far in my opinion. It’s definitely not something I feel strongly enough to penalize the song for. It’s kinda weird, but I can get used to it. ![]() I can’t tell if he’s trying to make it sound lighter since the protagonist is supposed to be younger or what. I didn’t mention this before, but so far Jay’s voice sounds kinda weird to me on this album. He’s singing “American dreamin’.” JAY-Z trying to sing is a traumatizing phenomenon. It’s not bad enough to ruin the song, but goddamn. He’s starting from the beginning with this track he couldn’t go to college, and he needs money, so he’s about to sell more coke than a rich white upper class family could ever dream of indulging in. I have a weakness for strong narratives in music. This might just end up being my favorite JAY-Z album. It’s really just a verbal mural depicting the lifestyle of the protagonist. ![]() There’s just a Spoken Word break from Beyoncé between each verse. It just seems so different from what I’m used to hearing from Jay. ![]() It’s nice to hear him actually focus on a specific topic other than his wealth/charisma for once. Okay, I can already tell this is gonna be awesome… The beat’s pretty dope. It’s just a movie sample over a dope beat. There’s not really any reason for me to talk about this. Hmm… Why do I feel like this isn’t the first time I’ve listened to a track that involved Idris Elba on this site? I wish I could remember whose album it was on… Whatever it doesn’t matter. Track 1: Intro (Performed by Idris Elba) I’ve heard nothing but great things about this album, so I think I’m gonna enjoy this. I don’t know much about it other than the fact that it’s a concept album and that it was inspired by a movie of the same name. From what I’ve heard, this is one of Jay’s best albums, but I always forget that it exists. In the preamble to my review of The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, I referred to it as “one of two JAY-Z albums that people never really seem to talk about.” This is the other album I had in mind when I said that. This album was released on November 6th in the year of our Lord 2007.
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