Sorry for the late reply (I bought the record the day it came out; I just don't have a computer anymore); I just wanted to get my two cents in on the album. I figure it's probably easiest for me just to do a track by track review:
1. "The Prelude" (5/5) - Jay's best intro since "The Blueprint". It's unmistakably an intro, but it can stand on it's own two feet as a dope song. I dunno, there isn't much more to say about this song than it's everything that's always made him great.
2. "Oh My God" (4/5) - The main beat itself is tight (if a little annoying), but it's the parts where Blaze switches it up, and Jay's flow throughout the song, that really make it worth listening to.
3. "Kingdom Come" (5/5) - Again, I can't say much on this - this is pretty much perfection. It's interesting how all signs seem to point to Jay using this as a single, though, as I can't imagine the mainstream digging this too hard. But the fact that this is the title track almost leads me to believe Blaze and Jay were messing around with this in the studio one day and decided to make a whole album from there ... which is fine; this song is worth of making an album for.
4. "Show Me What You Got" (4/5) - This song is really dependent on my mood .... in some moods, those horns are just annoying as hell. And Jay's bragging just isn't quite as likeable as it usually is. It's quite possible that this would get left out of a Jay-Z singles collection and nobody would care ... but it's still a pretty dope song on its own merit.
5. "Lost One" (4.5/5) - You know, I wanted to dislike this one at first, as Jay's obviously done this type of song alot before, and done it alot better, and Dre is certainly capable of better than this beat ... but I can't deny it; it's an effective song. I can picture the video to this one already - a very visceral song.
6. "Do U Wanna Ride" (4/5) - I would've trimmed it by about a verse, but otherwise it's dope and very atmospheric.
7. "30 Something" (5/5) - Oddly enough, probably my favorite song on the album. It's just a slightly modified version of Dre's "Outta Control" beat (listen closely; it's true), but it's just airy and breezy production, and it's perfectly suited for Jay just to talk about whatever. So it doesn't hurt that Jay delivers one of his best performances of the album here. PS: I wish my computer was working; I know I could recreate this in FL so well!
8. "I Made It" (5/5) - If the previous track isn't the album's best, than this is. The only real problem here is that, like the album's opener, it's an amazing track, yes, but it also sounds exactly like a lost track from "The Blueprint". Nearly all the songs on "The Black Album" could be traced back to one of Jay's older albums, but that was fine, since it was supposed to be a career wrap-up. If this is a new start in Jay's career, maybe he should try something new? Regardless, it's an amazing song.
9. "Anything" (5/5) - I knew, even before seeing this thread, that I'd be in the vast minority on this, but I really like this song. Yeah, it's nothing new for Jay, but really, where are the "fun" songs on this album? I love the bounce to this track, and the part where Jay spells out Usher Raymond's name ala Usher's debut album ... man, I was trippin' when I first heard that. A nice end to a great three-song run here.
10. "Hollywood" (1/5) - And here's where the album completely falls off and never comes back ... seriously, what is this? Jay and Beyonce should stop making songs together, as it seems like each time they do it's getting worse and worse (and I loved "Crazy In Love"). This is just a mess, though. If I could buy a version of the album without this track, I would.
11. "Trouble" (2/5) - Wow ... it's sad when, in the same year, both Timbaland and Dre have broken down and used Lil Jon's synth presets. At least most of the rest of the instrumentation on this song is classic Dre. This song is growing on me with each listen, though, so the score for this one might change ...
12. "Dig a Hole" (0/5) - Seriously - what is this?! Swizz had been riding a string of great songs coming into this year, capped off with Beyonce's "Check On It". But then he had that horrible song on TI's album, and now this disaster. The greatest rap of all-time from Jay couldn't save this.
13. "Minority Report" (1/5) - Another song to prove Dre just doesn't have it anymore ... even his best songs on here aren't amazing; they're just effective. This song isn't amazing or effective, though ... it's just straight-up boring. Good sample choice; bad execution. And while Jay certainly has made subtle use of politics in his raps before (to great effect), leave this stuff to Chuck D, dude.
14. "Beach Chair" (1/5) - "My 1st Song" on the Black Album is probably my favorite album closer to any record, ever. So needless to say, I had really high expectations for the final song of "Kingdome Come". While it isn't a great song, "Beach Chair" is perhaps the album's most telling. Jay has recently been making several lines about his age in his verses; how he's reaching the middle ages and would prefer a pair of crisp jeans and polo fleeces to a throwback jersey. Incidentally, he gets the assistence of the singer of every middle-aged white person's favorite band, Coldplay to produce this song. And the prevelant beach chair metaphor of this song could probably only truly mean something the middle aged ... if not retirees. So this all poses a unique question - are most people not really "getting" "Kingdome Come"? Most people are treating it as just another Jay album which, on the surface, it is. But if you look a bit closer, maybe it's more than that. Jay is getting older and, coincidentally, most of his fanbase is too. How much longer can he make rap music for teenagers? Rap music for adults is something that has rarely been tried, and even more rarely succeeded, but if anyone could make it work, it'd definetely be Jay-Z. "Kingdome Come" isn't a remarkable change of pace for Jay-Z, and this song isn't the one to launch a new era, but I'm really interested to see what adult rap music (done right) could really sound like ...
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