To fully appreciate the quality here check the choral and sepulchral keyboard voices on ‘Diamonds Is Forever’ (“I can’t justify genocide/but I was born in the city where the skinny niggas die”) or the heart rending real-life scenarios of ‘Meet The Parents’ – which starts in a cemetery and almost ends in fratricide. By the time ‘Some People Hate’ drops in, sixteen songs later, Jay claims he feels like Tupac did circa ‘All Eyes On Me’ and ‘Me Against The World’. ‘A Dream’ finds Jay-Z as he seeks advice from BIG’s spirit about the haters. Two major ghosts loom everywhere: the late Notorious BIG and Tupac Shakur. ‘The Blueprint 2’ has state of the art club tracks, introspective ditties, violent face-offs and ghetto truths ripped from memory, tweaked sound-wise by Timbaland, The Neptunes, Dr Dre and Just Blaze amongst others. Jay-Z has upped the commercial rap ante once again. Aren’t double LPs for grandiose mofos who’ve lost sight of what the people want? Not this one. So what does Jay-Z do? Channel all the angst, anger, revenge fantasies and celebrations of a ‘bling-bling’ lifestyle into his fifth LP, a twenty-five track double album.Īlarm bells ring. He’s faced jealousy, envy, haters, gold-diggers and high-profile court cases. His position at the top of the hip-hop game is constantly being threatened. Yet, the self-made multi-millionaire born plain Shawn Carter feels a sense of dread and disquiet. He’s gone from hustling drugs in Brooklyn’s no-go zones to a penthouse on the Hudson River, and breathlessly ostentatious displays of wealth. Strike a balance between good and evil and you’ll find Jay-Z.
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