The Jig Ain’t Up

Jay-Z dropped American Gangster last week – the film inspiring the album was just released in France two days ago – and what to say about it? Jermaine Hall, the king of King, told me young’uns aren’t any more impressed with the record than last year’s mature (for hiphop) comeback Kingdom Come; it’s the thirtysomethings who vividly remember the Reasonable Doubt days of the mid-90s that feel it most. Ironic, given that Kingdom Come was meant to appeal to listeners more Jigga’s age. Turns out oldheads prefer the Gangster shit.

Jay decided not to offer the music diced up as 99¢ songs on iTunes, to underscore the importance of hearing the whole thing as an uninterrupted work of art. (The decision recalls Prince’s Lovesexy CD, maddeningly programmed as a single track for a forced single-listening experience.) Well, my brother Kyle hit me off for free through a transatlantic AOL IM file transfer. For such a hustler, Jay’s obviously missing the boat if he thinks mandatory album purchasing will raise sales. If I wanted “Blue Magic” that badly, fuck iTunes, I’d just go over to eMule.

How is American Gangster? I was pleasantly surprised by all the 70s-soulful Puffy production, I thought he quietly retired from the boards to sell cologne. The Neptunes-produced “Blue Magic” is much better than that forgettable lead single from Kingdom Come: it breathes like Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” and the En Vogue hook from “Hold On” is just great. There’s a few pointed disses toward the whole Don Imus-sparked rap-lyric controversy; the greatest rapper alive finally addressed hiphop’s hot-button issue of 2007, though it’s got nothing to do with Jay’s supposed inspiration, American Gangster the film. There’s nothing as stellar here as “99 Problems,” but the record is still better than The Black Album. This is Jigga’s best since The Blueprint.

“[T]hat’s what I’m supposed to be doing—whether it’s accepted by everybody or not. I’m supposed to be pushing the envelope and trying new things,” Jay told Elliott Wilson at good-ol’ XXL magazine recently, discussing Kingdom Come. American Gangster is still a better album, but I agree with Jay on that point, and I’m glad that’s how he feels about it. (And for the record, “Beach Chair,” the Kingdom Come collaboration with Coldplay’s Chris Martin, is not horrible at all; on first listen, I thought Martin’s production was Dr. Dre.) As decent as American Gangster is, we’ve still heard it all before. I’m getting far more repeated listening out of Saul Williams’s The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, with the Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails production. Hiphop needs to take more chances and the audience needs to grow the fuck up a little.

Jay-Z on Charlie Rose: