- A whole lot of people like Jay-Z. And they like him a lot. He sold out the Garden in four minutes. They screamed the whole show, knew all the words to every song (including everything from the Black Album, which had come out less than two weeks before the concert), and threw up their hands at any opportunity.
- Jay-Z has had one hell of a career. It's hard to believe how many huge hits (and I'm talking popular mainstream hits, not just hip-hop hits) he's had. "Can't Knock the Hustle," "Can I Get A," "Hard Knock Life," "Nigga What, Nigga Who," "Big Pimpin," "I Just Wanna Love U (Give it to Me)," "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)," "Crazy in Love," "Dirt Off Your Shoulder," "Encore," and "99 Problems." And those are just the ones he played in the concert! I mean, his longevity and prolificity are pretty astonishing--he's been the #1 guy in hip-hop (sorry, Dre, Snoop, Eminem) for most of a decade.
- Jay-Z is a really good rapper. He has such unusual flow. It's not that he raps quickly (although he can) or that he has a languid style like, say, Snoop Dogg (although he can)--it's that he can switch tempos, intentionally drop rhymes off-beat, go from cliché gang-banging brags to honest introspection in 2 lines, be irreverent and funny, and do it all in a way that seems organically-connected to the music. Which leads directly to...
- Jay-Z is a really good song-writer.You can see this process at work in "Fade to Black." He doesn't write his music, nor does he pretend to--all he does is recruit the best producers in the business and push them to do their best work for him (except Eminem, who is a shitty producer and couldn't come up with anything that doesn't sound exactly like his 8 Mile songs). He'll listen to three or four hooks from, say Timbaland, and will reject all but one of them (you see him turning down at least one or two that sound awesome before his eyes suddenly light up when he hears what will become "Dirt Off Your Shoulder"). And then, once they've done that, he gets started on the words. It's fascinating to watch him do this--he just sits, listening, and then his lips start moving. He writes the songs in his head, a verse at a time, and records them immediately. Rick Rubin, who produced "99 Problems" and is certifiably insane, says in the documentary that he's never seen anything like it (although Jay-Z learned it from Notorious B.I.G., his one-time mentor). It's pretty impressive seeing these songs spring full-grown from Jay-Z's head.
- Jay-Z is not retiring. Just since the Black Album, his supposed swan-song album, came out in 2003, he's come out with a duet album (and tour) with R. Kelly, as well as "Collision Course," a gimmicky (though enjoyable) "mash-up" album made in concert with Linkin Park. This guy loves drama and intrigue, and the Black Album was a part of that--expect a followup sometime in the not-too-distant future.
| | rich tasty courage (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small} calamityjake) wrote, |
You coulda been anywhere in the world, but you're here with me. I appreciate that.
I watched "Fade to Black," the documentary about Jay-Z's sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden. It's about 70% concert footage (featuring tons of cameos, including a pretty awesome performance of "Crazy in Love" with Beyoncé and the Tina Turner Dancers) and 30% a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Black Album. I took a few things from watching it:
July 15 2005, 14:03:03 UTC 6 years ago
July 15 2005, 14:34:00 UTC 6 years ago
July 15 2005, 14:50:59 UTC 6 years ago
I thought, "If he were employed in a restaurant, or any other way, and doing the equivalent of this, he'd be fired."
He didn't sing. He danced a TON, but sang along, on occasion, to the background music. I think he expected the audience to sing the main parts of his songs, as he kept saying, "I can't HEAR you!," but they didn't sing loud enough to suffice. Totally bad, the-singer-didn't-sing-at-all performance.
July 15 2005, 15:41:54 UTC 6 years ago
July 15 2005, 16:13:32 UTC 6 years ago
And it may be rough because there is no true market for good dancers. I wonder about the fame promised those who will soon participate in reality show competitions like "So You Think You Can Dance?"...
Alla that may play a role in Usher's messed up concert priorities :)
July 15 2005, 15:33:33 UTC 6 years ago
July 15 2005, 15:40:54 UTC 6 years ago
Jay-Z, to me, is everything Puff Daddy wants to be--an incredible rags-to-riches success on every level of the industry (Puff Daddy can't rap, sadly).
July 15 2005, 16:01:20 UTC 6 years ago
July 15 2005, 18:53:52 UTC 6 years ago
Anonymous
July 15 2005, 20:06:39 UTC 6 years ago
And yet.
It's hard for one to say they dislike Jay-Z's flow: one of his most amazing talents is the ability to switch cadence, style and delivery. If you've followed him from Reasonable Doubt to present day (which isn't to be expected, considering your less-than-stellar review) you'd know that, really, his style lies precisely in the absence of a concrete style. Aside from the shit you hear in his radio-releases (which, for the most part, are his weaker songs), his style can go really anywhere from the tongue-twisters of Bone Thugs to the laid-back meanderings of, say, Mace or Fabolous. Also, as a testament to this fact, he ghostwrites for other rappers. I don't think any names have ever been officially released, but I do know that Foxy Brown is one that has come up countless times before.July 15 2005, 20:21:37 UTC 6 years ago
Re: And yet.
Oh ok. Well in any case, I'm just not that impressed.July 15 2005, 21:53:03 UTC 6 years ago
July 16 2005, 04:07:37 UTC 6 years ago
Anonymous
July 19 2005, 21:24:25 UTC 6 years ago
In the case of Biggie Smalls murder and Jay-Z's career launching, well, there's obviously more than a casual connection between the two. But that criticism is better lobbied against one of Biggie's closest "friends," Sean Combs. Aside from paying homage to his mentor in generally respectful ways, Jay-Z didn't shamelessly purge the back-catalogue of Biggie's lyrics and beats the way Combs did. Or, for that matter, record multiple hyperbolic ballads and court pile-driving media exposure to run a city marathon in the name of the deceased.
The most accurate claim that can be made, in this case, is that had Tupac or Biggie not passed away, Jay-Z wouldn't be enjoying the proverbial hip-hop laurel wreath.