A lot of rappers claim to be the King, but Jay-Z and Kanye West have the success and popularity to at least provide some evidence for the claim. It’s a ridiculous claim, especially with Eminem still making records, but it’s also a metaphorical one. Bragging and boasting is embedded in the history of rap. If you can’t pay homage to your own skills, you can always focus on your money and the affluent lifestyle it affords you.
“I only like green faces,” West says in response to claims that he’s racist. Listening to such highbrow lines during one of America’s worst economic declines provides some cool dream-chasing escapism, but it’s not all bragging and boasting. There’s also an underlying theme on this album that seems to promote humanitarianism when it comes to the group of people Kanye West once said George Bush doesn’t care about.
Jay-Z hasn’t made a good album in almost a decade, but instead of being pulled up by the monster he created; Kanye West only produces one song on his own; the album comes across as an underwhelming follow-up to his Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Too many of the beats rely on familiar samples. Most of the breaks; the hooks and bridges often used to time-stretch songs that have only two verses; are mundane.
Not even Jay-Z’s sexy wife is able to Lift Off on a song in which neither rapper raps. Kanye West sings instead. Or is he crying? Jay-Z provides a mere four bars. Such little contribution makes it sound like a Beyoncé demo song she’s only come-up with the chorus for. What’s out of this world is the ending, where the generic beat changes into something enchanting. If only the whole song sounded like that.
A similar thing happens at the end of Niggas In Paris in which Jay-Z continues to borrow bars from his dead comrade; The Notorious BIG; as a Soulja Boy type of thumper beat is replaced by Kanye West zoning-out to holy chords over a rhythmic static track. It’s innovative moments like that I wish there were more of. Instead we get Swizz Beatz, stupid James Brown samples and the dreaded rebirth of Autotune.
my rating : 3 of 5
2011