Ranging from the Cake-sampling guitar strum of "Guns and Roses" (produced by Heavy D?!!) to the Hugo Williams connection's dark, squirt-bass stomper "Nigga Please" to Kanye West's anthemic chopped EWF sampling firestorm "As One", Jay attempts to please everyone and very nearly succeeds.
It's a tale of death, parental absence and drug dealing that spirals into a face-off between father and son, spun into a metaphor for the intense need for a solid patriarchal bond.Īs a premier rapper in the commercial spotlight, Carter's got a way of leveling his albums out with a wide variety of beats. He begins with the family that created a thug and slowly shifts into the life that thug creates for himself as a result of his fractured upbringing. A powerful testament to Shawn Carter's underrated storytelling abilities, "Meet the Parents" unveils a delicate tapestry of modern black archetypes and the flaws with the African-American family structure. Whether he's engaged in lucid conversation with Biggie ("A Dream"), contemplating the nature of his maturation in regards to relationships ("Excuse Me Miss", "Fuck All Nite"), his ever-present public issues ("I Did It My Way", "Diamond is Forever") or discussing the nature of his upbringing ("Some How Some Way"), even Jay's most exhausted subjects sound invigoratingly fresh. He's straight showing off on "Hovi Baby": somehow flowing effortlessly over Just Blaze's ridiculous 5/4 future-cop production, Jay's lyrics sound as if they were made on the will of God, with himself as the conduit and his voice as the fluid, talking about "chasin' the hi-hat all over the track" to the point that "the snare is scared of the air in here."Įqually thrilling is the varied subject matter Hova touches on. Jay weaves his way through every imaginable style and flavor with unyielding expertise- from the natural repetition of "A Dream" to the extreme assonance of "The Bounce" to the classic cocky confidence of "2 Many Hoes"- driving home clear evidence that his top-tier emcee ranking is deserved, and that few could be as entitled. There's no deep concept or surrounding purpose behind this record: it's just pure confidence.
IT WAS ALL A DREAM JAY Z BLUEPRINT 2 SERIES
On his mid-to-late 90s Volume trilogy, Jay had steadily lost track of his confident street corner philosophy, but a series of battles led him to re-evaluate his career, resulting in the landmark album of his career: the prequel to this two-disc blowout was an inarguable masterwork of beautiful soul-struck production and serrated bling 'n' sting street rhymes sharp enough to eclipse even the heralded, barbs on 1996's world-memorized classic Reasonable Doubt.
Jay-Z has chosen his own route: The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse lobbies for a position on top of the commercial hip-hop market. For Biggie and Tupac, it led to grisly deaths. For the Wu-Tang Clan and Michael Jackson, it led to exponential career declines. The double album can mean a number of things for an artist.
0 kommentar(er)
