Loved Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt but his 2nd album came off as Puff Daddy bull shit and I always viewed him through the prism of someone trying to straddle the streets and pop-hop. A lot of great songs that did both heavy radio play but respect in the barber shops. But I always felt he tried too hard and it came across in his music. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of his music but give me Nasty Nas all day.
Everything he did from RD to the dynasty album was money for me. Don’t look back as fondly on the black album as most but it’s still dope. 4:44, American Gangster WTT all dope Nas got like 3 albums to put on any list (one being likely the GOAT rap album I’ll give you that) and he tried that puffy shit too (and failed super hard). I love em both. Never got why heads get too nerdy for Jay. Blueprint and RD never miss a day
Two dope albums. To me, every dope ass Nas song is just better then anything Jay has dropped. Jay has more radio friendly and catchy songs but if we’re picking best songs to best songs, Nas is that dude. Plus, social commentary has always been really important to me in rap and Jay just tip toes around it. He’s never aggressively addressed anything about social awareness in his music and it’s always bothered me. Kendrick Lamar has proven you can successfully do both.
I mean it’s fair if you need social commentary to be the star then I get it. Nas Imo is the better lyricist and the more fulfilling listen but jay is the more clever and slick wordsmith of the two. Song to Song I’d take Jay but I’d have a hard time trading illmatic in even for jays entire catalogue. Jay has also become probably one of the most socially aware voices in the game at this point as well. Check this Jay Elec joint out if you haven’t yet and his verse on What’s Free is phenomenal.
Also if it isn’t already obvious I’m a big Jay Z fan. Jay/kenny/3k is essentially my holy trinity. May act a little stanish over those three so apologies haha
2 of those 3 are on my evolving Mt. Rushmore. Seeing 3K on tour in a small venue when ATLiens dropped changed me.
Everything I’ve read about Jay says he’s socially active and aware (for the most part). It was just jarring to me when I was younger....RD dropped my senior year in high school and I raced to buy every Jay album. Maybe I was just a young angry black man and we weren’t on the same militant wavelength
I owe so much to Outkast in general for broadening my musical horizon at such an early age. When Jonny Cash died I saw an interview with 3k where he praised his music. Went out and bought a cash greatest hits album and fell in love.
Abso fucking lutely. I saw an interview with Big Boi and 3K and they were talking about they’re music collection and it was eclectic. I grew up around a diversity of music genres and they made me feel like I wasn’t a weirdo.
So many people do. My issues with it stem from the arena rap angle he took with the lead singles and I despised that timeline in rap. Once you get into the album tho there are some stellar tracks
been going back and revisiting my favorite albums to make a top ten list out of boredom. not sure it would be on there, maybe an honorable mention, but the Minstrel Show is soooo good. and it's aged better than a others I might've preferred at the time
Jay Elec is absolutely the star of this masterpiece of an album. There’s no mopping on either side of this. Joe Budden can fuck off
Sometimes I was held down by the gravity of my pen Sometimes I was held down by the gravity of my sin Sometimes, like Santiago, at crucial points of my novel My only logical option was to transform into the wind jay elec drops jewels like this all over every single track on this album. Just because Jay Z is featured so heavily and decided to bring his A game to match what Elec was putting down takes nothing away from either. Iron sharpening iron. The shit is mesmerizing
I’ll say it. Waiting so long for the mythical Jay Elec to drop an album that ends up being a lot of features(/has Jay one a lot of stuff) is funny.
yeah, really good. will be interesting to see if it holds up over time, but I like it a good bit so far. Sonically, it sounds exactly like you'd expect. Some of the samples are great. They're both locked in lyrically...my first takeaway was "wow, Jay-Z sounds engaged" Wouldn't be surprised if Young Guru played a big role in this, too. He's kind of like Jay-Z's good conscience or at least lends a very positive ear and influence. My lone quibble is the hook on Flux Capacitor is sloppy. It might err on mood music for me, but it's very good
I know hes not everyones cup of tea but the new Drake album leaked https://www.dropbox.com/sh/r3sxvtem...Drake Leak 2020?dl=0&subfolder_nav_tracking=1
Earthgang just posted on the hiphopheads subreddit that Spillage Village is releasing an album now because of the quarantine. An album full of JID, Earthgang, and 6lack is an album for me TrustyPatches you can get your JID fix you've been needing
Every review of A Written Testimony seems to focus on everything but the music. I don’t know how rap music can ever find it’s way to it’s proper place in music if it always had to compete with so many weird guidelines
I enjoyed some of the production on the album that came from the main producer for the music in uncut gems but outside of that I agree. Real underwhelming but yet all I see are rave reviews. I could just be looking in the wrong places
I genuinely think he can be the next Kanye West. I feel like he's going to create new trends and sounds way before others and it will be weird at first but in a few years everybody will get it. So much potential
It’s pissing me off. Everyone is looking for every reason on earth to felate Abel while simultaneously holding Jay Elec to some odd standard that more times than not has nothing to do with music. I’m about to start deleting apps
I think JohnLocke is potentially correct. His talent is absurd and I believe his sound will grow on people, but what may hold him back is his raw and aggressive nature. Don’t think that’ll ever go away, but we have seen Denzel go more mainstream without sacrificing personality. His live performances, though, are borderline metal-like.
Oh 9/10 times I’m cool with what peggi does and I enjoy it. This particular track tho I think is bad.
No doubt. Dude is as polarizing as it gets. People will love him and people will hate him. I'm hoping to see some bigger collaborations soon. He's gaining enough steam now to get mixed in with some heavy hitters
Fair enough. Granted, first listen last night was after 16 hrs of working from home, several beers and built up Covid anxiety. Was just happy for some new music. This was obviously done in conjunction with Bald! So, I’m excited to see what else he releases in the coming weeks.