Rick Ross allows the beat to breathe, or maybe it’s the other way around.
It opens with a long intro from the late Pimp C, talking about the necessity to wear so much jewelry. “FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt” (Featuring Rick Ross)īefore we go any further, this song is great. It sure sounds like a single, and maybe it is a single, but it’s hard to tell when the only promotion is the idea that there’s promotion.Ĥ. “I don’t pop molly, I rock Tom Ford.” Are the two mutually exclusive? Over a beat constructed out of machine gun sprays, Nintendo themes and bottle blows, Jay-Z appropriates MIA’s flow from “Bad Girls” and raps things like, “Guns on ya Tumblrs… Fuck hashtags and retweets, ni–a / 140 characters in these streets, ni–a.” Who is Jay’s social media person? An uncredited Beyoncé whisper-coos to close the track. Nice to hear Jay with some fire in his voice.
#Holy grail intermission full
Ugh, it takes one verse for Jay to compare himself to Basquiat (“I am the new Jean Michel”) and bring up Warhol for a guy who claims to spend so much time at MoMA, why does always name the same names? But regardless, this is all burying the lede, because after a brief intermission, Jay goes full throttle at the mudslingers and Fox News talking heads: “I never stuck my cock in Fox’s box” “Ni–as even talk about your baby crazy,” which makes him want to “Come through with ‘Ye mask on, Spray everything like SAMO.” Such a great couplet.
The beat sounds like lasers have been shot through Schroeder’s piano from Peanuts. I haven’t heard a Jay-Z mixtape track in years, so this brings back memories. In case people (namely, Jay-Z) are unfamiliar, Cobain was the guy who was on the cover of Rolling Stone wearing a shirt that said, “Corporate magazines still suck.” I still can’t believe that Kurt Cobain’s lyrics are being released through a Samsung app. Jay once again brings up MC Hammer’s finances, forgetting what happened the first time he did that. The album opens up with what sounds like a Justin Timberlake version of a Coldplay song before shifting into a stuttering beatbox of an instrumental by Timbaland and The-Dream, annoyed about the price of fame. “Holy Grail” (Featuring Justin Timberlake) When Kanye is heaving bombs from across the court, you can’t clap so loud when Jay lobs lay-ups.That’s not to say it’s not good – it is – sometimes you just want to see some sweat.Ĭheck out our track-by-track review of Jay-Z’s “Magna Carta Holy Grail.”ġ. And while it’s unfair to measure Jay against others, we’re living in a world where Yeezus has risen, and it feels like Jay’s dipping a toe rather than fully diving in. Jay’s trying to be a lot of things to all people, as one does when as big as he is. It’s in the same vein as “Watch The Throne,” where there’s much talk of revolution, of race and class, but – while they championed Occupy Wall Street in Occupy All Streets shirts – now, these words have been co-opted by a giant phone company. He’s surrounded by friends, in the commercials and on the tracks: there’s Beyoncé, Pharrell Williams, Swizz Beatz, Nas, Rick Ross, Frank Ocean, Timbaland and Justin Timberlake.
As an album, though, it tends to be safe. Jay-Z’s New Blueprint: The Billboard Cover StoryĪs an event, it’s good, it’s great, it’s disappointing and back again. Beyoncé Unveils Full List of Renaissance Tour Credits
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