Jay-Z and Kanye released their much anticipated collaboration album today. You can read my track-by-track review after the jump.
The album goes straight in with the Frank Ocean featuring 'No Church In The Wind' set to the back drop of a Kanye West and 88 Keys produced beat. Ocean sings “What’s a king to a God? / what’s a God to a non-believer?” before Jay-Z enters the fray with some thought provoking lyrics. This is followed by Kanye with his now traditional 808's type singing and rapping. A good solid opener to the album, but nothing to get to excited about.
Track two features Beyonce and is titled 'Lift Off,' I have to say she steals the show on this one with the epic chorus, singing “We gonna take it to the moon / Take it to the stars / How many people you know can take it this far / So many stars / We about to take this whole thing to Mars.' This one is much more of an anthem featuring some heavy synths.
For me 'Ni**as in Paris,' the southern styled track is one of the weakest on the album. The production on this just sounds lazy and uninteresting, this is until the last minute where the beat turns Dubstep with a nice piano riff to go along with it. If the song was like this the whole way through for me it would be a great improvement.
So onto 'Otis' the recently released single. Definitely one of the highlights on the album, the way Ye' flipped Otis Reddings 'Try A Little Tenderness' on this track makes it what it is, a real 'College Dropout' type beat. Jay-Z and Ye' trade verse throughout on a much more old-school type record.
Next up comes The Neptunes produced 'Gotta Have It.' This was one of the tracks I was really looking forward to on the album (being a huge Neptunes fan) but to be honest it really fails to deliver. Not one element of the production on this reminds me of The Neptunes sound and the track is completely different from any previous Jay-Z/Neptunes collaborations
'New Day' samples Nina Simone's 'Feeling Good.' Ye and Jay pen the track for their fictional unborn sons. Ye raps “And I’ll never let my son have an ego / He’ll be nice to everyone, wherev-
er we go / I mean I might even make ‘em be Republican / So everybody know he love white people.” Jay says “And if the day comes I only see him on the weekend / I just pray we was in love on the night that we conceived him / Promise to never leave him even if his mama tweakin’ / Cause my dad left me and I promise never repeat him.” This is a real heartfelt track, one of which you wouldn't expect from the two.
The Elly Jackson (La Roux) featured 'That's My Bitch' was the first track to be heard from the album at the beginning of the year. Jackson sings “I’ve been waiting for a long, long time / Just to get off and throw my hands up high / And live my life, and live my life / Just to get off and throw my hands up high ” over some 80's esque type synths and the ever popular 'Apache' break. Another solid track on the album with some good rhymes from both rappers.
Swizz Beatz produced cut 'Welcome To The Jungle' sees both rappers questioning things that have happened in their life. Jay raps “My uncle died / My Daddy did too / Paralysed by the pain / I can barely move / My nephew gone / My heart is torn / Sometimes I look to the sky / Ask why I was born / My faith in God / Every day is hard / Every night is worse / That’s why I pray so hard,” Ye follows this with “Why I pray so hard / This is crazy God / Just when I thought I had everything / I lost it all / So que sera / Get a case of Syrah / Let it chase the pain / Before it goes too far.”
When I heard that 'Who Gon Stop Me' contained a sample of Flux Pavilion's 'I Can't Stop' I struggled to contain myself. Flux is one of my favourite Dubstep producers and I have to say the track doesn't disappointment, for me it is the best track on the album. This song would sound absolutely huge on a big system and features both rappers going in hard.
'Murder to Excellence' samples The Indiggo twins 'La La La' and the sample is instrumental to the sound of this track, with the vocal sample playing throughout the whole song. The track celebrates the two still being alive when it could have been so different, Jay-Z raps “I arrived on the day Fred / Hampton died / Real ni**as just multiply / And they say 21 I was supposed to die / So I’m out here celebratin’ my post demise.”
Another stand out track for me is the second Frank Ocean feature 'Made In America.' Ocean shows why he is such hot property at the moment (not many people got the chance to feature on this album, Ocean made it onto two tracks!) Although its another example of the rags to riches story we've heard many times from rappers, I just love the soulful chorus, “Sweet King Martin [Luther King, Jr.], sweet Queen Coretta [Scott King] / Sweet brother Malcolm [X], sweet Queen Betty [Shabazz] / Sweet Mother Mary, sweet father Joseph / Sweet Jesus, we made it in America / Sweet Baby Jesus.”
Sampling Cassius 'I Love You So,' 'Why I Love You' is a fitting final track to a solid album. The track features Ye and Jay trading verse in between the Mr Hudson song chorus.
If I am honest I would have to say this album didn't quite live up to my expectations of what it could have been. Don't get me wrong there are some good songs on the album, but on a whole I don't think its quite what it could have been. Considering these are two of, if not 'the' two best rappers in Hip-Hop at this moment in time, I feel they haven't delivered a classic when they had the opportunity to do so. I love Ye's 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,' I love nearly everything Jay's releases, but at the moment I don't quite love this............yet.
Best Tracks – 'Who Gon Stop Me,' 'That's My Bitch,' 'Made In America' and 'Otis.'
Stay Away From – 'Gotta Have It' and 'Ni**as in Paris.'
Overall - 6/10
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