Jay-Z

Editor's Review:

When Jay-Z released this anticipated album, HipHopSite.com's Matt Conway remarked, "all the cries of 'geronimo' you have been hearing lately are from the legions that are jumping off the Jay-Z bandwagon after hearing The Blueprint 2." At the very least, Jay-Z is guilty - as so many other rap artists have been - of releasing a double album that could have and probably should have been a single album. But Conway had a point. Jay-Z has been the mainstream artist that it was okay for the underground rap fans to be down with (maybe's Jigga's beef with Nas was vicariously cathartic to all the old school Nas fans who have felt cheated since Illmatic), and for good reason. He chooses beats that are undeniably funky and works with MCs whose skills accent rather than outshine. But it seems as though the Jigga man's momentum is slowing down.
The real curse of The Blueprint 2: The Gift and The Curse is The Gift disc. It's full of rehashed beats and tired lyrical lines - countless references to Beyonce Knowles, a barely warmed over Dre beat from "The Watcher" and even a tribute to Biggie that lifts one of BIG's own raps and lays it over a sappy beat. The Curse disc is more tolerable, but even the bangers (and there are two or three particularly dope tracks) are bookended by stuff that's decidedly not stellar, or just downright annoying (like the Lenny Kravitz track). Jigga man hasn't lost his touch, but it's apparent that he's believing his own hype a little too much.
- Philip Bole
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Record Label Roc-A-Fella Records Released December 2002

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