bigd99999's Full Review: The Black Album [PA] by Jay-Z
I understand now...
When I reviewed The Black Album in 2003, I had not yet established myself as "somebody", and while I've always preached to all of my friends to be happy and be confident and accomplish whatever goal you wanted to accomplish without going the path that is written for you, I needed to practice that myself. At the time, I had no path, I won't lie. I knew what I wanted to do, or had an idea, but not really done anything. It wasn't until about a year ago that the circle became complete in my life. Of course there's no way for me to really understand what Jay-Z was saying on The Black Album when it dropped initially.
"Chuds will not understand ballers" is how I would say it in Big D lingo, but in normal speech what I mean is; unless you've really accomplished something and fought something and won, you will never really be considered a winner. Now this applies to everything, even the smallest accomplishment, from passing an exam, to earning a paycheck, to buying the car that YOU want, as opposed to recieving one as a gift. The Black Album is Jay-Z saying "yeah... you can make it... I did". On "Hate Me Now", Nas once said "people fear what they don't understand // hate what they can't conquer, I guess that's just a theory of man". That's damn true, and THAT my friends, is the story of Shawn Carter, as well as me. Please... allow me to elaborate...
I legitimately have a newfound connection with Jay-Z. Recently, I popped the Black Album into my CD player and simply COULD NOT stop listening to the album. It connected with me. I actually LISTENED to the lyrics very closely and realized that The Black Album isn't really about Jay-Z bragging about his jewels and cars and crap like that. I mean yeah, he does brag, but hell, wouldn't you? And he's not BAD at it either. The Black Album is Jay-Z telling us that he really made it and that he didn't follow conventional means. He had to hustle. In reality, we all have to hustle. So nevermind the fact that we didn't get the advertised "12 Songs, 12 Producers" gimmick (we got 14 songs, 10 producers), and nevermind that Jay didn't retort to the Reasonable Doubt sound like he promised in interviews; it's OKAY... because that's not in his heart anymore. To quote Nas again, "never backwards stupid here comes another classic". You're about to find out a whole lot more about me. Rate this however you want... this is MY story.
The Just Blaze produced "December 4th" is an autobiographical piece to open the album, and a more fitting song to open probably doesn't exist. Before this song, we got a few glimpses of Jay's childhood here and there, but even from his debut album, Jay focused on his teen-to-adult years and how he hustled and how he became and emcee and whatnot. This is a look even further back, narrated by Gloria Carter, Jay's mom, she details Jay growing up as we quickly segue into Jay's verse talking about his early childhood, where he admits to having good grades and an utter lack of fashion sense (a lot like me when I was real young). On the second verse, Jay-Z says talks about his father leaving him and how it affected him:
"With that disdain in my membrane
got on my pimp game, fuck the world, my defense came".
That's ME! People, when I was younger, I grew up a chunky kid who really didn't speak any English until he went to school. I learned to speak English fluently and perfectly by the time I hit 1st grade, but I was still chunky and got picked on all the time. I had my fair share of fights as a kid, but as I grew, I knew I had to raise my defenses another way if I wanted to graduate. I used to get SERIOUSLY picked on, and was always afraid of getting in trouble for fighting, so I let these people harrass me until 8th grade, when I raised my defense and completely changed the way I am. I went from humble Danny to untouchable Big D... but more on that later.
"Hustlers, we don't sleep, we rest one eye up
And a drought could define a man when the well dries up
You learn the worth of water
Without work you thirst 'til you die - YUP! "
Yeah, you gotta work hard... but more on that later.
The next song, "What More Can I Say" continues the story. A lot of the album is Jay-Z basically putting a close to his career and finding closure in his life as well. On this song, Jay-Z retorts to a lot of criticisms he's recieved, attacking those who claimed he uses too many of Notorious B.I.G.'s lines, all of the wannabe's out there (see Lil Wayne), while simultaneously divorcing himself from the "popular" acts in hip-hop. "And no I ain't get shot up a whole bunch of times // Or make up shit in a whole bunch of lines // And I ain't animated like say a Busta Rhymes". There is no doubt Jay-Z is special and here he proves he's a man of no gimmicks.
But the lines that really hit me are when Jay boldly states "look at me now", in a delivery that one COULD call cocky, and why not?
"God forgive me for my brash delivery
But I remember vividly what these streets did to me
So picture me lettin these clowns nitpick at me
Paint me like a pickany "
Remember what I was saying earlier about mean kids picking on me? Jay is speaking that very message to with just these bars. Jay-Z asks for forgiveness because at times he can sound like a cocky bastard, but that's because he's a product of his enviorment, like every human being. Jay HAS to be who he is because he made it past all of that, while so many others failed. I can definitely relate to that, and I'm sure lots of folks reading this can. Jay-Z has another line where he states he's "The Martha Stewart, that's far from Jewish // Far from a Harvard student, just had the balls to do it ". That summarizes everything.
All my life I've been told that I have to go to school and become a doctor, a lawyer, a police officer, or something over saturated like that. Well like Jay, I'm far from a Harvard student, but I also had the balls. Did I go to college for 4-8 years like everybody else? No. Did i have to take out a fortune in student loans? No. Ladies and Gentlemen, I went to a technical school for nine months in 2005, graduated with a 4.0 GPA, and hustled for a job, and am now making in the high five figures. I'm not one to talk garbage about my income, because it's nobody's business, but the point is, I made it. I followed NO PATH but my own, and that's what Jay did. You can call it luck, I call it HUSTLE. How can I NOT love The Black Album?
Then there's "Encore", Jay's goodbye track. Produced by Kanye West, he laces a beautiful sample of John Holt's "I Will", with a simply riveting trumpet sample. Some would argue this could've been the last song on the album, and with one reason. Jay-Z basically asks the world "what are you going to do without me". Granted a lot of this was voided with the release of Kingdom Come, these were Jigga's feelings at the time. The song what I call a "party track with soul", as Kanye is known to concoct.
"Change Clothes" is just a single (the lead single), but it's hot. A lot of people crap on it, and I will admit at times the lyrics are a tad bit too simple, maybe a little materialistic, but the Neptunes bring a nice, liquidy piece of production, a nice contradiction from their typically loud, obnoxious synthesized beats. It's just a shame that Pharrell actually thinks he can sing and seemingly puts himself in EVERY Neptunes track. The song follows the same formula as most Jay singles: a hot, radio-friendly beat while Jay talks about no particular topic and essentially freestyles the track.
Speaking of synthesizers, Timbaland's "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" is a track that at one point, you could find fault with, but once you become a success, it becomes YOUR anthem. The term "dirt off your shoulder" essentially means that throughout life, you're going to have people try bring you down (typically called "haters"), and people try to steal from you both literally and figuretively, and you're going to have jealousy follow you everywhere you go. Do you let it get to you? NO WAY... just brush it off and wipe away the haters. Don't worry about anybody else, because YOU are a success. On the outside, "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" is just another mainstream single, but inside it's an inspirational "rags to riches" tale, which is what the Black Album is about. Timbaland's commercial-funk style brings that radio appeal while Jay brings the brash and cocky rhymes.
This is followed by what many consider 9th Wonder's biggest exposure yet (though others think it's his work with Destiny's Child), "Threat", a song that was unfairly hated on by me, but now is a track that I bump regularly. 9th takes R. Kelly's "A Woman's Threat", ups the bass about ten times, and makes the track a legitimate banger. A lot of folks see this as just a mere gangsta/mafioso track, and yes, it could be, but to me, it means much more. Once I became the person who I became in High School and went through the metamorphosis of "shy kid" to "crazy kid", I legitimately just stopped caring, not only about my grades for a time, but my attitude. I WAS the class clown at HHS (well one of them), and I soon grew a pair of balls that nobody could touch. I mean yeah, you think I'm cocky now? I'm MATURED now! Back then, I was crazy. I mean, if anybody said ONE THING to disrespect me, I'd pick a fight with them, and either physically or verbally scold them. I had friends. That my friends is what "Threat" is about. Jay says "don't fuck with me", not just through his lyrics, but he literally states that on the song. Jay's flow is godlike on the track and it's also got little Dave Chapelle interludes in between verses. But what catches my eye the most are his metaphors:
"y'all niggas is targets...
Y'all garages for bullets, please don't make me park it
in your upper level, valet a couple strays from the 38 special,
nigga, God bless you"
Jay-Z once asked "do you fools listen to music or do you just skim through it"... "Threat", among other songs on the album, illustrate that point.
"Moment of Clarity" is another classic introspective piece. Production-wise, Eminem recycles his melody from Nas "The Cross" (which had just come out a year prior), for the beat. It's a decent beat, but it's Jay's retrospective, personal lyrics that REALLY make the song special. Jay-Z covers every single topic, starting with his feelings on his father's passing, noting that he never really knew him, and had to pretend to be sad because they didn't have a connection. It's true. When you have a distant cousin pass away that you've never met, you won't get as emotional as if you lost, say, your mother, who you lived with your whole life. Jay speaks the truth here. But I digress, Hov' continues and forgives his father, then goes on to talk about his childhood, then quickly goes into his career, which winds up being the most interesting part of the song, and dare I say, the album.
"I dumbed down for my audience to double my dollars
They criticized me for it yet they all yell "HOLLA!"
If skills sold, truth be told, I'd probably be...
lyrically, Talib Kweli
Truthfully I wanna rhyme like Common Sense
'But I did five mill' - I ain't been rhymin like Common since
When your cents got that much in common
And you been hustlin since, your inception
Fuck perception go with what makes sense".
It's blatantly obvious that every review quotes this line, but most don't know what the hell Jay means by it. It's simple: once Jay-Z dropped Vol 1. In My Lifetime and Vol 2. Hard Knock Life, he was criticized as a sell-out. Jay states on here that had he remained the "lyrical emcee" that he was on his debut album, there's no way he'd be as financially successful as he became off songs like "Big Pimpin". It's hard to deny that fact, because he went five times platinum when he was jiggy. Jay states that if lyrics sold, he wouldn't have changed his style, but news flash: lyrics don't sell, beats and hooks do. The last three bars sum up that Jay-Z's been hustling his whole life (which is what Reasonable Doubt was about), and once he saw an opportunity to make tons of money, he jumped on it. Can't really hate on him for that despite the fact that his jiggy albums were, for the most part, trash. These are the kinds of lyrics found on The Black Album, and you too can discover them if you'd just LISTEN. I didn't... and now I did, and I'm happy for it.
"99 Problems" is the fourth single off the album (following "Encore"), produced by legendary Def Jam figurehead Rick Rubin, who's worked with everybody from Johnny Cash to Run-DMC. I like "99 Problems" a lot because Jay covers a mixture of topics, from his critical backlash, to studio gangsta rappers, to racial profiling; Jay sums it all up. The one line that sticks out in my head is: "If you grew up with holes in your zapatoes // You'd celebrate the minute you was havin dough ". That's damn skippy.
Just Blaze's "Public Service Announcement" is braggadocious Jay-Z at his best. It's about as hot as you can get from Hov straying away from the storytelling and just spitting, although there is a tad bit of witty introspection about commercial rap on the second verse, as Jay compares himself to the majority of the cats who just talk the talk. Jay's punchlines are fire on here, from "not D.O.C. But similar to them letters, 'No One Can Do it Better'" to "Nigga I get mine - 'By Any Means' on whenever there's a drought // Get your 'umbrellas' out because, that's when I 'brainstorm'". What really makes this song an all-time classic in my eyes though is Just Blaze's production. He takes Little Boy Blues' "Seed of Love", with it's Earth-shattering organ composition, adds some drums, and makes it as epic as it gets.
"Justify My Thug", in my opinion, is the weakest song on the album, but it's not really whack perse. The only problem with the track is really that it lacks intangibles; the rhymes are average, DJ Quik's production is far from riveting, and the song is essentially just a weaker version of "Threat". However, as usual, there are some lines that speak to me, one of which being a when Jay speaks on his pride, something I myself have been accused of having too much of. Once again, it's a product of what I went through as a kid.
"Death before dishonor and I tell you what else
I tighten my belt 'fore I beg for help
Foolish pride is what held me together through the years
I wasn't felt which is why I ain't never played myself"
I'm the type of person who really doesn't ask for help too often. Sean Carter may be my soulmate, no homo.
If you watched Fade to Black, the documentary film about the making of this album, you'd know "Lucifer" was originally a song Kanye West made for himself, but Jay liked it so much that he took it. To be honest though, Jay rehashes the "Threat" and "Justify My Thug" subject matter for the first half of the song, basically threatening his enemies and attacking studio gangstas. Difference is, the lyrics are ten times better and the production is upped, as Mr. West camples Max Romeo's "I Chase The Devil" with some carribean effects. The third verse however, takes a twist, where Jay-Z actually shows an incredible amount of depth when he talks about how his buddy Bobalob was gunned down, how it affects him to this day, and Jay's thirst for vengeance, summing everything he's been talking about previously on the aforementioned tracks and this one, into one big ball. The Black Album is basically just another journalistic chapter into Jigga's mind.
"I got dreams, of holdin a nine milla, to Bob's killer
Askin him "why" as my eyes fill up
These days I can't wake up with a dry pillow
Gone but not forgotten, homes I still feel you"
Pharrell said on Fade to Black that he felt that he wasn't around to craft his own version of "The World Is Yours" or "Dead Presidents", so he feels he had his opportunity to do so with "Allure". This song is described in the film by Pharrell himself as a tribute to the final few moments of Al Pacino's Carlito's Way, where Carlito questions his continuation of the hustle game. Indeed, "Allure" is Jay-Z struggling to exit the rap game without wanting to return. The song IS movie-like, and the production is smooth and soulful, but it's a tad bit on the boring side. I always find myself skipping this track or ignoring it. It's not bad, its just not neccessary, although the concept IS appreciated, perhaps the execution needed fine-tuning.
The end of Jay-Z's solo career was supposed to be "My First Song", but that turned out not to be the case. With that said, a more fitting ending does not exist. Opening with a sample from Notorious B.I.G. from an interview where the slain rapper speaks about "staying hungry" and we soon segue into an incredible Los Angeles Negroes sample where Jay-Z quickly comes full circle, dismantling the mic. Hov talks about how where he started, how far he came, and reflects on what he plans to do now that he's retired (needless to say, that didn't last). He even retorts to the triple-cadence flow that he started with, as a nice omage to the folks who have been there from day one. Without a doubt, the final chorus of the song sums everything up in perfect detail.
"It's my life - it's my pain and my struggle
The song that I sing to you it's my ev-e-ry-THING
Treat my first like my last, and my last like my first
And my thirst is the same as - when I CAME
It's my joy and my tears and the laughter it brings
to me - It's my ev-e-ry-THING
Treat my first like my last, and my last like my first
And my thirst like the first song I SANG"
That speaks volumes to me because that's MY story. My story has been written. I came from nothing, and while I wasn't dirt poor, I had two parents who took care of me and loved me and allowed me to be who I am. Yes, naturally when I was little they wanted me to follow that "path" we talked about earlier, but once they saw how happy I was carving out my own legacy, they were fine with it. I went to college for 9 months and finished with three certifications, something that takes some people 2 years to do. I got a job now that I love and own my own Limited Liability Corporation as an independent contractor. I went from not having date number one to dating some chicks that others would kill to fool around with that would NEVER look at a dude like me before. Yeah, you can sit there and call it me being cocky, but it's all the truth. I did it. All you need is fortitude, confidence, and courage.
That right there sums up what The Black Album is about: accomplishment. You COULD state that perhaps the fact that Jay really didn't retire could've killed some of the allure of the album and the impact of the lyrics, but to me, that's a miniscule detail. The Black Album says "I made it... you can make it to... don't let anybody tell you differently" and it hits me because my attitude as well as Jay's is "middle finger to the law nigga, grippin by balls", meaning screw what society wants you to be, and screw what people want you to do: Just do you...
And if you can't respect that... your whole perspective is whack...
Track List & Rating
1. Interlude (NOT RATED)
2. December 4th (*****)
3. What More Can I Say? (******)
4. Encore (*****)
5. Change Clothes and Go f/ Pharrell Williams (****)
6. Dirt off Your Shoulder (*****)
7. Threat (*****)
8. Moment of Clarity (*****)
9. 99 Problems (*****)
10. Public Service Announcement (******)
11. Justify my Thug (***)
12. Lucifer (****)
13. Allure f/ Pharrell Williams (****)
14. My 1st Song (******)
The Black Album, Jay-Z s tenth and final solo disc, features tracks by Pharrell and Dr. Dre. Cross promotional tie-ins to the disc include the simulta...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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