Jay-Z: KINGDOM CAME?
Look, Jay-Z's subject matter was always garbage (or at least has been for the last 4 or so albums). The point here is not his topics, because before this, all he used to only talk about how everybody hates him and he's made it, and see what happens when he know longer exists and aint no love blah, blah, blah...
Nonetheless, i always loved big Jigga.
With Kingdom Come Jay was in a Lose/lose situation, because if he spoke of his struggles everyone would have said that he's lying and he's rich and he aint real etc.
So that he was real and simply spoke about his 'now' reality, I applaud him.
Therein lies the problem...
Musically, this album is as good as the Black Album. But my WORST fears were realised. It happened when I got word that Jigga had Gwyneth Paltrow singing the chorus to "Song Cry" at Royal Albert Hall.
I was THE ONLY one who complained. I understand the Chris Martin connect, but when you have his actress wife singing another song on the same night... you are merely just saying "Look at me and my new friends".
I said this to everyone and Jigga then mentions it on his album!
Fifty Cent said; "If money hasn't changed you, then you haven't made enough".
Well Jay-Z has made enough and guess what folks... he's changed.
It's not the lifestyle I'm talking about, because for that i will just quote Arnold The Governor;
"Anyone who says money changes you is a liar. I feel exactly the same way with 90 million dollars as I did when I had 50 million dollars".
He was joking but I get his point... Jay-Z has been mega rich for a mighty long time, AND he's been dating Beyonce for years. Yet his art was unquestionable.
You know what's changed folks?
HIS FLOW>>>
"Show Me What You Got" has to be one of Just Blaze's greatest musical bangers... yet take yourself back to the first time you heard it.
I thought... "What the hell...??" What BANGING beat has Jay-Z never slaughtered/absolutely pulverised? This was a first.
A banging Just Blaze beat with Jigga equals "You Don't Know", "PSA".
It shouldn't be a... a... a grower!!!
Throughout the whole album Jay-Z's flow just isn't Liiquid Nitrogen.
It just... is. i mean, he sounds like Jigga, talks like Jigga, even rhymes like Jigga, but Iceberg Slim is dead.
And it's this simple; whatever it was that Jay-Z had around him that kept his "flow futuristic", is gone. Be it Dame, Biggs, competion with rivals, you name it... it has vanished.
it never mattered what Jigga was talking about. Flow-wise, he was always on top of his game.
Hate to sound cliche' but Jigga's problem is that he has lost the eye Rocky... The eye of the tiger. And he is supposed to lose it at some point. You can't remain hungry forever. And probably he needs this kind of critical backlash in order for him to go back to the gym.
But we should all stop questioning his subject matter- as if he was saying something profound on The Black Album.
Here me out;
I remember the soldiers finding Saddam in Iraq, at that same time Alicia Keys released her version of 'NY State Of Mind' feat. Nas and The R.
Nas rapped something to the effect of;
"I'm pain, like Saddam Hussein, watching news clips of his dead son's remains..."
I can't remember what it was exactly but it was to that effect.
Around the same time, jigga was released; "What More Can i Say?".
Which showed me EXACTLY how much he was actually 'saying' in the first place. So subject matter wise, at least now he's rhyming about Hurricane Katrina!
To repeat, the problem here is 'Your Boy Young's flow.
I will conclude by imploring you not to consider this a scathing review.
For in the climate of Lil' Scrappy (& all the Lil's, including Weezy) and Young Joc (& all the Young's, including Jeezy) , I still give this album 9/10.
But in the realm of Jay-Hova, it's a mere 5.
Pour out a lil' liqour for good ol' Iceberg... and hope that his Kingdom Came.
I think Quest is on point with what he's said about Jay's flow. Take that Nas track "Black Republican" for instance on Nas' soon to be released, "Hip-Hop Is Dead". Normally, Jay -Z would have swung on this track like a high schooler playing tee ball against nine year olds. But he gets murdered by Nas on the track. The lyrical expanse between to two that is exemplified on the track is tremendous. I don't know what the hell Jay-Z is talking about and his effort level is like soggy donut flow.
My beef isn't even with his subject matter - It's with his effort. Being a grown ass man myself, I'm into subject mater beyond gats and grams. Bitch slappin' and kilos don't appeal to a sophisticated man like myself, however one can detail jet setting without sounding like a later day Rockefeller, the robber baron type I mean. He seems either bored stiff or so content with life that it doesn't matter what he does, it'll all come out swell. Cheers!
The offering "Anything" is a compromise. He seems so concerned with NOT dissing women (to quote his new buddy Nas) that "tip drill" track morphes into a dedication to housewife hoes living out their fantasy's to be pole dancers. He throws in a cursory shout out to Magic City, Sue's Rendezvous, etc. but the track is a cop out. He's been reading the press on himself way too much.
I commend him for cuts like "Dig A Hole" "Kingdom Come" and "Lost Ones". Jay seemingly had an idea going in that "I'm going to air these clowns out", but beyond that, with maybe the exception of "Minority Report", I don't get that any thought other than "Let's just finish this album" went into the project.
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