TheApocalypse;6013845 said:
usmarin3;6013722 said:
I suggest niggas bump this album on a good system or leave your basement and go to a club. No way is this album average, unless you were looking for something else (RD or BP sound). The album knocks, heard it in a couple of bars last night.
I'm guilty of this. It's not the hardcore hiphop album we'd hear from someone like Nas or Cole, but it definitely has its highlights. I just sometimes wish Jay would just flow without the gimmicks, you know just spit like he did on RD or even TBA. Especially over these dope beats he got this time around. His word play combined with his traditional flow? This album would have been universally classic as soon as it dropped. No question. Even the commercial crowd would dig it, just off the beats alone.
I'll be the first to admit Jay-z isn't as great of ''raw'' lyricist as he was back in the day, but he is a ''way'' better artist now than he is ever been. To me for what he lost in lyrics and wordplay he gain in constructing songs and opening up content wise, 15 years ago Jay wouldn't talk about fears being a father or shit like that. I think heads need to get over that Reasonable Doubt box they try to put dude in, because it's clear he's evolved pass that era.
Jay still drop those subtle lines here and there, he just doesn't stack those double entendres like he use to now that he is focusing on trying to express an emotion through the songs.