It's easy to draw a parallel between rappers and athletes. They can both make millions for their abilities if they play their cards right, but their success is almost always the fleeting kind. For every Brett Favre or Rakim who defies Father Time, there are a dozen others who reach a certain age and seemingly lose their talents overnight. When Jay-Z put out his ninth album, "Kingdom Come", last year, many thought he had become a casualty of this phenomenon. Listening to the self-proclaimed "Mike Jordan of rap" was like watching Jordan during his last couple of years playing basketball, when he seemed determined to destroy his legacy by overstaying his welcome. "Kingdom Come" was a midlife crisis on CD; songs like "30's the New 20" (he's nearly 40) were downright embarrassing. Hip hop is a young man's game, and Jay was too far past his prime to stick around and try to compete. Right?
Well, apparently not. Listening to Jay's latest album, the soundtrack to Ridley Scott's new film "American Gangster", it sounds like his flow's been dipped in the fountain of youth. He undoubtedly saw the critical beating "Kingdom Come" took, and rather than merely telling us he's the best as he did on that album, on "American Gangster" he decides to show us instead.
Throughout the album, haunting strings and gorgeous vocal samples intermingle with slick basslines and gritty drums, creating a musical backdrop somewhere between Stax and Motown. As the soundtrack to a gangster movie set in 1970s Harlem, it couldn't be more appropriate. Improbably, these beats were birthed by the King of Banality himself, Puffy Combs, and his in-house production team. Some of them, like "American Dreamin", which samples Marvin Gaye's voice on the chorus, are so striking that they overpower the rapping. And that's quite an accomplishment, because "American Gangster" finds Jay back to his old self lyrically.
When he's in a zone, Jay's effortless mastery of his craft is, well, Jordanesque, and like Michael, he's able to turn every performance into an event. "Hey young world, wanna hear a story?/Close your eyes and you can pretend you're me", he suggests on the opening track, before weaving an enthralling tale about his upbringing. On "Fallin", he makes the tired point that nothing lasts forever, but his attention to detail makes you hear the song in first person; it's so vivid you feel like you're actually caught up in it. And "Success" finds Jay rapping alongside former rival Nas and besting the great MC.
Jay saves his best performance for the instant classic, "Ignorant Sh*t". Utilizing the same Isley Brothers sample his friend Biggie Smalls employed on "Big Poppa", Jay defends rap against the negative stereotypes people associate with it, while wryly admitting that uplifting messages rarely sell hip hop music. Out of hundreds of songs, it ranks as one of his best.
"American Gangster" deserves to be mentioned as one of the top ten albums of the year, in any genre. It revitalizes Jay's career, and puts his name back among rap's elite. Even if it's an aberration he will never top for the rest of his career, it stands as a towering accomplishment in the face of a slew of doubters.
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