Jay-Z - 'Magna Carta Holy Grail'
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How does he want that lane when...
1. There was no single for this album...
2. The first thing you hear in this album is Justin Timberlake...
...Just stop, cuh... -
Lol, 53%, 39% or 14%...they're all still F's. Maybe I'm being too critical or ignoring the "tier" system but that's how I like to see it. Assessing albums individually instead of comparing them to the artist's previous work.
8 decent to great songs on an album outta 14 tracks = 53% listenable album = F grade
The first 7 or so tracks on BP3 are pretty decent to great...then the album falls off a cliff completey (except for Already Home). I say mid-tier for a half and half album.lazypakman wrote: »As far as solo Jay-Z albums go...
? Tier (in no order)
Reasonable Doubt
The Blueprint
The Black Album
American Gangster
Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life
Magna Carta Holy Grail
Mid Tier (in no order)
Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter
In My Lifetime, Vol. 1
The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse
The Blueprint 3
Garbage Tier (in no order)
Kingdom Come
The Dynasty: Roc La Familia
That's a 3 hot albums every 10 years average.
? "no-signing". I looked over my post again, I don't see no problems? Where did I go wrong?
put bp3 and and vol.1 down and bump dynasty up and your good.
vol.1 is a pretty forgettable album for most parts,aside from a couple of tracks ('you must love me','streets is watching' and a couple of others)who can say they still bump that on the regular with the rest of the catalogue?it was decent at the time and I wouldn't say its garbage but its his worst ageing album,a lot of it sounds really ? corny now.
bp3 was just ? .first time I actually felt embarrassed for hov.he tried to be all things to all people and it didn't work.I don't know what kind of blueprint he thought he was setting up with that album but the ? should have been destroyed before it was ever built.
dynasty has some of his best work on it,there's no way it should be classed as garbage,'this can't be life' is a classic,just for faces verse alone.and 'i just want to love you' is arguably his best club track aside with 'big pimpin'.yeah there's some ? on there but the production is mostly nice.
the rest I pretty much agree with,aside from this.i usually let albums of this magnitude digest for a while to see how it holds up.i think within a catalogue this deep that's how every hip hop listener should evaluate albums.
Bottom tier material
But you have to then compare BP3 to the other F Grade albums. Kingdom Come and The Dynasty do not have 8 listenable tracks. Compared to those albums, suddently BP3 becomes a C- . This ? only works on a curve.
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Is ? really tryna amp that Juvenile line? Scust.
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Y'all already know what it dooooo!!
Reeeeeeevieeeeewwws
Three outta 4 stars in LA times ...
Sayin they ? wit Dat Magna Carta ... Cos that ? bangs in the whip!
DaaaaaaaYYYYYUUUMM
It's possible to pare down the gist of "Magna Carta Holy Grail," the 12th solo studio album from New York rapper/businessman/new dad Jay-Z, to three simple words uttered in a track called "Tom Ford."
"I'm so special," declares the rapper, 43, and anyone who stayed up late Wednesday night to hear the record, issued first through a computer app available only to owners of a particular brand of smartphone, isn't in a position to argue. He's the man who can sell a million records with a minion's flip of a switch.
In addition to his wife being Beyoncé, what kind of "so special" is the man born Shawn Carter, exactly? Oh, he could go on and on. "It's Bordeauxs and Burgundies," he explains (dismissing Riesling in the process), while a minimal rhythm snaps around him. He later adds that he's the type of guy who'll spend "all my euros on tuxes and weird clothes — I party with
Jay-Z partying with weirdos is always a good thing, especially if said sonic freak is Timbaland, a producer responsible for some of the best beats of the past two decades. The team is best known for an early Jay-Z classic, "Big Pimpin'," among others, but they had a falling out a few years ago. They've reconciled and harnessed this creative juice to construct some truly cool tracks — while lyrically traveling the world.
"Parades down Flatbush, confetti in my fur," raps Jay-Z on "F.U.T.W.," a lyrically disposable but aurally pleasing jam about winning, destiny and many other tropes he's tossed over two decades as a professional. On "Oceans," produced by Pharrell, Jay-Z and Frank Ocean roll on a yacht off the coast of Africa while pondering the lives of the ancestors who centuries ago traveled the same water on a tortuous route to America. On "Beach Is Better," he spends nearly $100,000 during a day along the sea.
Throughout "MCHG," beats jiggle with synthetic energy courtesy of the master of genre. Combined and at their best, as on "BBC" and "Heaven," the producer and rapper move with the coordination of expert magicians juggling Champagne bottles and knives.
They sample Biggie Smalls' grunt on "Jay-Z Blue," and its effect is spine-tingling. Justin Timberlake cameos and quotes Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the opening track. Jay-Z cites a line of R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion" on "Heaven," begins the awesome "Versus" with a line from A Tribe Called Quest. He samples Faye Dunaway's "No wire hangers ever!" meltdown from the film "Mommie Dearest."
Like former protege Kanye West, Jay-Z shouts out the haunting song "Strange Fruit" on his new work. But unlike West, who samples the song about a lynching for a rant mostly about predatory women, Jay references "Strange Fruit" with respect to the power of its symbolism.
The lyricist also juggles names: Over a 16-song album that could have been cut to a dozen, Jay namedrops Julius Caesar, Pablo Picasso, Lucky Luciano, Mark Rothko, Billie Holiday, Jean-Michel Basquiat (and his graffiti alter-ego SAMO), Kurt Cobain, Michael Jackson and the "Mona Lisa." He rhymes "Leonardo da Vinci flows" with "Riccardo Tisci Givenchy clothes."
But to what end? Other than to amaze us with his opulence, good fortune and undeniable skills, the answer is elusive. Despite its name, "Magna Carta Holy Grail" seems unconcerned with delving too deeply into either the democracy or the faith that the two objects symbolize.
For example, when he says, "Welcome to the magnum opus, the Magna Carta," he's implicitly connecting a foundational document of democracy to his new work (and making a play on his last name). But that's the only reference he makes to the pamphlet's history.
And the grail in English mythology was the chalice belonging to Jesus Christ's uncle, Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph, along with Nicodemus, took Christ's body down from the cross. In one version of the myth, Joseph and his chalice relocate to Great Britain.
For Jay-Z, this object, one rich with history and metaphor, is nothing but a fancy cup, one notable only because it's the Most Awesome Cup in the World, and only he can drink from it.
"Magna Carta Holy Grail" certainly is shimmering, heavy and at times sonically stunning, and Jay-Z can toss a brilliant metaphor like it's nothing.
But a true masterpiece harnesses intellect and adventure to push forward not only musically but also thematically. Which is to say, sure, call it a Picasso — but just don't compare it to "Guernica." -
I'm about to listen to this one last time and the gym and give my 48 hour thoughts.
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Jay kept it too safe on this album.
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I'm about to listen to this one last time and the gym and give my 48 hour thoughts.
buff ? stand up I see @KillaCham and @PimpMVP
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A1000MILES wrote: »How does he want that lane when...
1. There was no single for this album...
2. The first thing you hear in this album is Justin Timberlake...
...Just stop, cuh...
Crown, fukwitme, Beach is better r all in clearly in that lane.
And La Familia, my goodness u can even tell thats his playful version of a chief keef song. B4 u say he from chi we clearly know where that style come from -
Some of u ? have no idea what a southern beat is
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8 decent to great songs on an album outta 14 tracks = 53% listenable album = F grade
The first 7 or so tracks on BP3 are pretty decent to great...then the album falls off a cliff completey (except for Already Home). I say mid-tier for a half and half album.lazypakman wrote: »As far as solo Jay-Z albums go...
? Tier (in no order)
Reasonable Doubt
The Blueprint
The Black Album
American Gangster
Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life
Magna Carta Holy Grail
Mid Tier (in no order)
Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter
In My Lifetime, Vol. 1
The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse
The Blueprint 3
Garbage Tier (in no order)
Kingdom Come
The Dynasty: Roc La Familia
That's a 3 hot albums every 10 years average.
? "no-signing". I looked over my post again, I don't see no problems? Where did I go wrong?
put bp3 and and vol.1 down and bump dynasty up and your good.
vol.1 is a pretty forgettable album for most parts,aside from a couple of tracks ('you must love me','streets is watching' and a couple of others)who can say they still bump that on the regular with the rest of the catalogue?it was decent at the time and I wouldn't say its garbage but its his worst ageing album,a lot of it sounds really ? corny now.
bp3 was just ? .first time I actually felt embarrassed for hov.he tried to be all things to all people and it didn't work.I don't know what kind of blueprint he thought he was setting up with that album but the ? should have been destroyed before it was ever built.
dynasty has some of his best work on it,there's no way it should be classed as garbage,'this can't be life' is a classic,just for faces verse alone.and 'i just want to love you' is arguably his best club track aside with 'big pimpin'.yeah there's some ? on there but the production is mostly nice.
the rest I pretty much agree with,aside from this.i usually let albums of this magnitude digest for a while to see how it holds up.i think within a catalogue this deep that's how every hip hop listener should evaluate albums.
Bottom tier material
15 -
A1000MILES wrote: »How does he want that lane when...
1. There was no single for this album...
2. The first thing you hear in this album is Justin Timberlake...
...Just stop, cuh...
Crown, fukwitme, Beach is better r all in clearly in that lane.
And La Familia, my goodness u can even tell thats his playful version of a chief keef song. B4 u say he from chi we clearly know where that style come from
So, he's trying to merge into the ? south lane by having 4 songs out of 16 being in that lane? Interesting. -
thread gone diamond
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? these fools only southern beats are on the album is fuckwitmeyouknowigotit and the beat made by mike will made it
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BP1
Black Album
RD
Vol. 2
The Dynasty
AG
Vol 1
MCHG
Vol. 3
BP2
KC
BP3
My ranking of Jay-Z albums. MCHG isn't that bad after my 2nd listen, a few duds but still a solid album with great production -
I'm about to listen to this one last time and the gym and give my 48 hour thoughts.
buff ? stand up I see @KillaCham and @PimpMVP
dont forget me Cham -
This album is easily Jays 4th best album
BP>RD>BA>MCHG>Vol 1 and so on.
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The user and all related content has been deleted.
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His fourth?
Really? -
I see it's a bunch of ''why aren't there any NY sounding beats'' ? up here, Boom Bap is ? dead, get over it.
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My ? his fourth best?
It's that premature?
And to make it worse you put Vol. 1 and MCHG over AG.
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This might be smartest album. The dichotomy of where he came from to the position he's in now has never been as apparent. He's also never articulated it as well and as entertainingly as he did. He tried to articulate it on Kc but it wasn't entertaining enough. He was more entertaining on bp3 but after the first half of the album he didn't articulate it well enough. Like I said he found a good balance on this album. As well as expressing the underlying theme of album that no matter how many millions u have ur still a ? to white people and this is a time to shift the dynamics of power in our favor. But thats metaphysical ? that would take all day to get into.
His flow is choppy in the beginning of the album tho and he isnt quite the lyricist he was but its still more than serviceable and above average from that standpoint. He's becoming better at song structure as he gets older tho and that offsets some of the deficiencies in his lyrics and flow. -
Head of the fami-LEE! El papinooo
Been saying that ? all day -
I was hype to knock that Beach Is Better on the bench press....I'm about to listen to this one last time and the gym and give my 48 hour thoughts.
buff ? stand up I see @KillaCham and @PimpMVP
......but my ? why dat ? only lasted HALF A SET!?!?? -
You only like that song cause you Spanish lolRubato Garcia wrote: »Head of the famiLEE! El papinooo
Been saying that ? all day -
Nah I'm 100% black. But I do favor Spanish as a language
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