OVERALL RATING:
After a hiatus from the self-proclaimed and referred to by fans as, Jay Hova, enter American Gangster. Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter returns, minus the presidential accolades, iced-out references, and over hyped messiah quotes, with probably his strongest attempt yet. This collection of song brings forth inspiration from the highly – anticipated Ridley Scott directed “American Gangster”. Although the innovative Black album previously was not a fan favorite by man devout fans we see classic Jay-Z within several tracks. The overall feel of the album is reminiscent to selections from Reasonable Doubt and Volume One.
The thirteen track album includes the first Pharrell Williams featured song “Blue Magic” as a bonus track alongside the sample laden track “American Gangster”. Yet at first glance there is usual Rocafella command ante’s of Chi-town’s Kanye West, the Broad Street Bully himself Beanie Sigel, as well as the Queensbridge street disciple Nasir Jones, along with Skateboard P and young money himself, Lil’ Wayne. Despite the asperity of features the first voice you ironically hear is Beyonces’ as one of the strongest tracks, “Pray” is an open dialogue between Jay-Z and his audience. Here we see a beautiful ensemble of music draped over a heartbeat like baseline. Beyonce’s angelic voice is a perfect compliment to the beat her soft whispers set the mood for young Hov to tell of a story of struggle and oppression. So from this we go to “American Dreamin” where a sample playing “Oh no I never gave up….”. Here is where the American Gangster references start to set in where he states basic hood problems. If one reoccurring theme that we see is struggle and the often oversaturated cliché of “getting out of the hood” set. The fourth track is probably the most anticipated song as the Big D produced track “Brooklyn 2.0” is very different. With the consistency of the thumping base-line and the variously placed Beastie Boy’s sample we see Lil’ Wayne singing on the hook and trying to pull off his best Andre 3000 impression. Although personally I think Andre would have pulled it off more fluidly Wayne does a fairly decent job. This track wasn’t meant for Jay-Z at first and was going to appear on Waynes album “The Carter 3”, as well as being produced almost 3 years ago.
The next song starts out with a sample directly from the movie and has “No Hook”. Deviating from the average format of the 16 bar rapper’s form we see a very reflective Shawn taking us back with: “Poor Me/ Dad was gone, finally got my Dad back/ Liver Bad/ he wouldn’t live long/ Snatch back/ guidance I never had that/ streets was my second home/ welcomed me with open arms/ provided a place to crash at/ a place to study math at/ matter fact I learnt it all/ learnt it all/ this music is where I bury the ashes at” . Throughout the song there is a consistence reluctance to conform to the “rich” status that he eludes to the public. The very next track “Roc Boys(And the Winner is)” is enriched with horns that express the essence of the hustler. Kanye West lends his efforts to the hook with various “We In the Housse Housssse” sprinkled throughout. A blaxploitation sampled congo laced track title “Sweet” provides the perfect canvas for Hov for another “Good Life” mentality expressed. Pharrell Williams brings every part of the next song as there is speculation to the deviation from the “struggle” with the song “I Know”. This synth-heavy song is more happy and breaks the monotony of the struggle-esque songs and sounds very much like “Change Clothes” conveniently also produced by Pharrell Williams. Number Nine provides a slower and quite possibly the weakest track with “Party Life”, in all honestly without the sample behind his vocals this could be one of his worse tracks. Next is the Philly native Beanie Sigel featured “Ignorant Shit”, this track leaked a few years ago and is still a great example of the cohesiveness of the Rocafella, as well it boasts a commonly used sample of the Isleys (I don’t need to tell you which one, buy the copy and support good music).
Photo Edit by PDA.Say Hello is another horn driven track accompanied with choir “Oooohs” within the background, this is the average braggadocios Hovie that we currently notice more often with the chorus being the obvious concept(Hi Hater’s). Finally we see track twelve as an organ smother classic with Jay-Z bring an obvious B.I.G quote into conception as well as the classic Nas, need I say more. My favorite track is by far the piano induced track “Fallin’”, where the words “fallin’” is sampled within different octaves is hypnotically repeated throughout. This track is conceptually talking about the hardships of a once king or top dog falling from grace. The next two songs are considered “Bonus Tracks” yet one is the single produced by Pharrell “Blue Magic”, where we see Hov bringing back the struggle, this concept is followed throughout the last track “American Gangster” as well.
Overall a strong effort by the God Young Hov, so “what more can I say”, thanks for the “encore”, we finally see Hovie’s Home.
