Originally posted by red g jacks
oh i aint catch offense im just lettin you know, that it shouldnt come as a suprise that i think jay-z made the best album this century (rap wise).i mean its not like it's a clear cut choice. there are other candidates to me.
50 cent's get rich or die tryin is up there to me. know he gets a lot of hate but this is just a good album **** the haters far as im concerned. cannibal ox cold vein ranks up there if only for production value alone. not to overlook the lyrcism involved though. snoops newest album blue carpet treatment was dope as **** to me. pretty much tops anything he's put his name on since doggystyle. t.i. - king get's a maybe at best, i play it a lot and i think t.i. has got some skills but deep down i know this album cannot **** w american gangster.
a lot of people don't like jay-z, it's the inevitable result of mass appeal and popularity. i'm not callin you a hater though just sayin i know so many people dont like him. he isn't my personal favorite (snoop is) i just think he has the most skill. he says things i dont catch the first time around, i'll know it sounds dope but i wont really get what it means, then on the 2nd,3rd,4th listen i'll pay closer attention and be like ohh shit.
it's not all about being poetic or deep to me, first things first you gotta make your music SOUND dope to even make it worth anything beyond a neat little poem, then if you can manage to put some thought into your lyrics to make them fluid yet not predictable, intelligent yet coherent and understandable then that's what i call going the extra mile in rap. takin the time to make your lyrics more complex than your average fan will grasp, without making them feel stupid. jay-z could just say commere ***** lemme rub on yo ass and do the same numbers in the charts but he chooses to make it sound like that kinda music, with more to it beneath the surface that most of his fans will walk right past without even noticing. that's what i like about him. he's egotistical as **** and obsessed with money yet doesnt throw a hissy fit over being overlooked (see: kanye west).
annyone who feels jigga's got nothing to say i'd suggest listening to "ignorant shit" of his newest cd. listen close to the 2nd verse. to me thats about as good as rap gets nowadays. but... like you said to each his own.
Hmm. That's interesting. You make a better case than most of his fans. I like Jay-Z, and I love Reasonable Doubt. However, I don't think he's anything more than a pretty decent MC with a charismatic delivery and some excellent beat selections. That track you mentioned, exactly why I don't rate the typical ''GOAT'' MCs (i.e. Nas, Jay, Pac, Biggie) all that much. They aren't saying anything new. They maybe saying shit in different ways, but whenever I hear new stuff from them, I can't help but feel a sense of de ja vu.
As much as many ''true'' hip-hop fans will say it's nerdy, backpacker, white or whatever, ''God's Bathroom Floor'' by Atmosphere is for me, the best piece of lyricisim in hip-hop history. Original, empathetic, brutally honest, touching, beautifully crafted, brilliantly phrased...to me it's poetry, whilst Jay is just ''rap''. I suppose it's really all down to what an individual person can relate to the most, but even from a technical standpoint, I think Slug trounces most of these so-called classic MCs on this track.