Artist: Jay Z
Album: Magna Carta Holy Grail
Released: July 4, 2013
The numbers are on the scoreboard. Ask Samsung. Even though Billboard cried foul, well fuck it. Money talks and you know Hova speaks that fluent. Whether he’s managing ball players or just balling out in the Hamptons, you know to always expect ocean’s 11 from the originator of the R-O-C.
Yeah, Jigga man is kinda the Godfather of this rap shit, and not in the sense of a founding father, but more like Marlon Brando. Remember to ask for favors on Blue Ivy’s wedding day. Sean Carter will definitely make you an offer you can’t refuse, just ask Galaxy 4 owners.
Magna Carta Holy Grail is a level up from Watch The Throne, sonically and visually albeit there’s no Yeezus tag team type feature. Put MC|HG in rotation with Ye’s new project and you’d get that full effect. But from the jump, Jay pops that Ace of Spades like the Great Gatsby. There’s no Reasonable Doubt that you should expect anything but freshness from Marcy’s own. This shit right here is cinematic.
Justin Timberlake is the first voice you hear on the record’s title track, lamenting sour puss jezebels who will take the food right off your plate and still act boojie. But Jay’s cup runneth over so that “Holy Grail” stays tipping. He might be a n*gga in Paris even though he ain’t French, but still… Jay ain’t worried about nothing. And it’s banger after banger as far as this album is concerned. They won’t all knock in the club, but it seems Jay would rather have his album played in the Louvre alongside avant-garde portraits that sell for hundreds of thousands as opposed to on the strip where wanna be ballers trick off their rent money on bottles of Ciroc. It’s all fireworks on the 4th as far as you should be concerned tho. Go buy yourself a Picasso original.
“FuckWithMeYouKnowIgotIt” has Miami’s own Ricky Rozay hopping out his Bugatti alongside Jay to paint pictures of the lavish life. “Oceans” is a Frank Ocean duet with a chorus about ivory elephant tusks, black mercedes benzes and white tuxedos off the gold coast of Africa. This album is a celebration of the lavish life. Magna Carta Holy Grail has all the trimmings of big money but it also finds Jay-Z reflecting on his kingdom, of course you get the memoirs of a millionaire that rose from out the trap, but you also get the reflections of a new found father and a man trying to maintain his relationship with his wife while still being one of the best players that ever did it.
“Don’t be good my nigga
Be great
After that government cheese
We eating steak
After the projects
Now we on estates
I from the bottom
I know y’all can relate
Fuck up the world
Let’s fuck up this world”
“Me and destiny got a date
Martin had a dream
Hov gotta team
My chain already heavy
Don’t let me get a ring
Parades down Flatbush
Confetti on my fur
Turn right on Red Hook
Niggas heavy on the curve
See most of my niggas died early twenties or late teens
I’m just trying to come from under the thumb of this regime
1% of a billion is more then niggas even seen
Still they wanna act like it’s an everyday thing
Clean”
– Jay-Z on F.U.T.W.
Expect to hear this shit for the rest of the summer and well past Labor Day. You won’t see me dipped in Roc-A-Wear all day but I can’t front, the way Jay released this project is revolutionary. It’s a big thing for independence day, and I don’t mean like how Will Smith did it in the summertime. The branding on this shit… That’s big deniro. Lyrically, you know what to expect from Jay by now, he might not be rhyming like Common Sense, but it’s only common sense to know Jay’s pen game is platinum plus. And sonically, this album is pushing the boundaries in a similar way to the way Kanye did. It’s not all trance synths, trap drums and boom bap, well… maybe it’s a good combination of all that. Hip Hop can’t be stuck in 1994 forever. Shout out to Rick Rubin. And you know it was refreshing to hear B.I.G. sneak into the layers on “Jay-Z Blue.”
– you know ya man’s @DropJewelz.
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