Jigga what!

[Llamas]

I just picked up Kingdom Come today, and just spent a while reading reviews on allmusic.com of all of Jay Z's albums. I know there are quite a few Jay Z fans here, or people who wanna check him out more... he's definitely the only mainstream MTV rapper that I've ever really really enjoyed. I like Eminem, too, but more on a surface level. Plus Jay Z is far more talented, and has more amazing albums.

The thing is, I didn't like rap most of my life. I was one of those people who wrote it all off as women hating drug and violence glorifying garbage. Then someone showed me the lyrics to "Meet the Parents"... I had to look up the song, and I've been a fan since.

I think he's got an amazingly unique style, very creative rhymes and flow, and he's so incredibly sincere in his lyrics, even when he's just bragging. I feel like I can almost always take him seriously, and he proves over and over that he's lived quite a life and experienced a lot.

Anyway, I'm interested in discussing his albums and progression. Someone said in the Music Request thread that "Reasonable Doubt" is easily his best. I own 6 of his albums (Reasonable Doubt, Vol 3, Blueprint 2.1, Black Album, Kingdom Come, American Gangster), and have mp3s of a couple others (The Blueprint, The Dynasty)... I guess Blueprint 2.1 is a shortened down version of The Blueprint 2. Picked the best songs or something?

But I definitely dig The Black Album the most. I think his flow is amazing on this album, and his lyrics are so incredibly diverse and personal. The only song on the album I don't like is "Change Clothes". It's very, very solid. I just LOVE Dec 4th, What more can I say, Encore, Dirt off your shoulder, moment of clarity, 99 problems, and justify my thug...
Following that album, I really enjoy both The Blueprint and American Gangster. I seem to prefer his albums that have the least featured artists.
I used to really like Blueprint 2.1 and Kingdom Come when I first heard them, but I quickly ended up disliking all but a few songs on them.
His other albums I'm not too big on, but they're still good. I have yet to check out In My Lifetime vol 1, vol 2 Hardknock Life, and the second disc of Blueprint 2. The only one I'm dying to hear is In My Lifetime, though.

Thoughts? Opinions? Beliefs?

[Aight Then]

Jay-Z, in my opinion, is the greatest musical artist of all time. The best lyrics, the best flow, the best charisma; he's like the ultimate representation of rap, and music in general.

I can't decide if his best album is The Blueprint, or The Black Album, because they are both fantastic. The albums before (Volume 1 etc.) aren't as good, because that when he was trying to deal with appealing to both the streets and the charts at the same time, and a lot of it just fell flat. There are some good songs on those albums, though. (Imaginary Player, Dead Presidents etc.) I wouldn't recommend the albums, though I really like vol. 3. Actually, you might as well just get all of them if you can get them for free. Around the Blueprint, that is when he started to master his own craft and get the great producers (Kanye, Just Blaze.) and started to make his flow perfect.

I was actually really disappointed when he came out of retirement for Kingdom Come, because I loved "My 1st Song" so much. It was just the perfect ending to a career, and The Black Album was an incredible album. I don't think Kingdom Come is that great, to be honest. American Gangster is pretty good, though.

My favorite songs of his are "U Don't Know" and "The Blueprint 2". Both of these songs have pretty much the best beat I've ever heard, and Jay is just crazy on U Don't Know. I like the Blueprint 2 because instead of all-out attacking Nas, he explores the emotions that came up from being dissed so hard. And the beat is just out of this world. I think Jay-Z is really good at conveying different emotions and being human and likable. I also like "Soon You'll Understand" for the same reasons.

So, yeah, amazing artist. A true legend.

[astonmartin]

Top 10 Favorite Songs (at least right now)

Thomas Falke "Revolution On The Dance Floor"
Groove Cutter "My Shooter"
Control One "Just A Little Bit"
Ian Carey "Redlight"
Kevin Weg "Dead Radio"
CIRC "Destroy She Said"
CIRC "Revolution Song"
Tristan Garner "Give Love"
Icebreaker International "Port of Rotterdam"
Enya "Orinoco Flow":)


I tend to find pretty obscure stuff this way.: I search around on iTunes for compliation series that I feel have good selections, and then just buy whole compilations... recently I've been spending way too much money on this series -- http://electricnation2010.com/tracks:D