Nobody Cares, But I Heard a "New Jay-Z album in November" Rumor

Jeez, man, he's retired. He's clearly renounced the media spotlight.

And I would like to start the rumor here that Boss Hova is his radical shift to bossa nova and tropicali recording.

new producer "stan" getzz

I've heard this rumor as well... I'm excited to see what he has to offer. Kingdom Come was a mixed bag, but it definitely had some great songs on it ("Oh My God," "The Prelude," "Trouble," "Beach Chair," etc.), and he's been dropping some excellent guest verses as of late, so who knows. Hopefully he has better beat-selection this time around.

I hear he's working with Toomp as well as the usual suspects ('Ye, Just Blaze, 9th....)

Okay, nahright has just confirmed it, new album called American Gangster, new song dropping tomorrow.

droppin'. sweet.

Part of the initial rumor I heard was that he's trying to throwback to the old Roc era and do posse cuts with Bleek and Beanie and get all the good old producers, which could be cool. I can only picture this being any good if he went in with the specific mission of making up for Kingdom Come and trying to right all its wrongs, though.

OK I just read that the first song leaking tomorrow is w/ Pharrell, I'm almost ready to say fuck this based on that alone.

fwiw, according to "the YN"

Update: The song is called “Blue Magic.” When you see the flick like I did this afternoon, it will all make sense.

Update 2: The streets are saying said song sounds 80’s-like and Rakim-ish. We shall see.

i don't want to have to watch denzel movies to tie up my jay-z songs, thanks.

this reeks to me of jay getting pissed about people leaving the king of rap (or whatever) up to whoever won the 50/kanye battle.

i hope this isn't some rushed shit.

dude recorded some of his best albums in 10 minutes, let him rush if he wants.

every minute you spend thinking about this beefterrible new jigga album is a minute you could spend listening to first family 4 life

-- and what, Friday, September 14, 2007 7:02 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Link

someday i will have my "cats in the cradle" moment with lil' fame.

-- M@tt He1ges0n, Friday, September 14, 2007 7:10 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Link

And I would like to start the rumor here that Boss Hova is his radical shift to bossa nova and tropicali recording.

Haha, I read the title as Bossa Hova at the top of this thread.

"Yo Astrud, Yo Bebel, one time one time"

mop's first album is so good, 2nd after only warriorz i think

maybe I'm stupid for not understanding M@tt's reference but i keep cracking up at the mental image of him and Lil Fame having a father/son bondig moment.

and the mash out posse and the silver spoon
li'l fame on first family for life
when ya comin home son i don't know when
we'll get together then
you know well have a good time then

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnn0BysYfVM

^^^tell me this isn't one of the most badass rap vids ever

wonder if this will be on it

Okay, nahright has just confirmed it, new album called American Gangster, new song dropping tomorrow.

-- The Brainwasher, Thursday, 20 September 2007 01:58 (9 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Bet he stayed up all night thinking of that title!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/arts/music/20jayz.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1190270220-1+StYQeEgzFoAB2CBqVSgA

it's nice that he seems excited. al otm, let him bang it out before he gets all self-conscious and depressed again.

also otm re pharrell single, however.

Let's see how optimistic you all are when the tracklist leaks and it has seven guest choruses from Lily Allen.

“I’m not even joking with you,” he said, laughing. “It’s out-of-body experiences at this point.”

this made me psyched

i could see how the inspired by the move angle might lessen the weight of the crown and tap that creative engery

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bNd8BVHJPo

handle ur bizness

This is the genesis of a nemesis
Mother America’s not witnessed since
the Harlem Renaissance
birthed black businesses.

pretty hot

ugh i hate reading lyrics from rap songs i haven't heard yet, makes them seem shitty even if they're good.

why are you posting shitty jigga raps on the MOP nostalgia thread

first track, "Blue Magic"

http://www.zshare.net/audio/3761600731c750/

hurry up and tell me it sucks, guys. i can't listen to it til I get off work.

I actually really like this. Besides the Pharrell chorus...

"Blame Reagan for makin me into a monster/ Blame Oliver North and Iran-Contra/ I ran contraband that they sponsored/ Before this rhyming stuff we was in concert"

"DA wanna indict me/ 'Cuz fishscale's in my veins like a pieces"

I'm feeling nostalgic for "Show Me What You Got" already.

that's more like it.

hahaha this is terrible

was this recorded in the limo on his way to work one morning?

What's so "terrible" about it?

i mean it sounds like a demo but it's a radio rip so let's give it a chance.

wow one dude too clipse hype to heart

*one dude took

hov hath no fury

fail.

"What's so "terrible" about it?"

The production.
And the lyrics/vocals.

That pretty much covers it.

wow one dude took clipse hype to heart

-- deej, Friday, September 21, 2007 3:58 AM

what does this mean

this isnt that bad

i mean the bar is set low but its not like unlistenable

beat is not bad at all, better jay verse than anything on kingdom come. like a B, B+.

wow one dude took clipse hype to heart

-- deej, Friday, September 21, 2007 3:58 AM

what does this mean

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, September 20, 2007 11:24 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

it sounds like jay reads pfork

the a-trak trickle-down effect.

i can see where the rakim comparisons are coming in: he sounds like he's been awake for 3 days. where the fuck is his rhythm though?

haven't sat down with the lyrics yet.

the beat is tolerable.

yankee hotel foxtrap amirite

Jay does read Pitchfork!

"Jay[-Z], his whole thing is "Don't embarrass me," ?uest says of his boss. "'I want an art record. Don't come in here with no Hot 97 bullshit. I want that shit to be dope in your hearts first.' He's like, 'I don't want to look like a nut saying this is a group with artistic integrity and the next thing you know [the website] Pitchfork is giving you guys a 2.8. That's going to make me look bad.'"

I actually think the beat on this song is OK, better than anything I heard off that Clipse album at least, if I hadn't known it was Pharrell and he wasn't on the hook I wouldn't have guessed it was him.

o_O

yeah i like this okay...way better than anything i've heard of his recently in terms of rhymes.

Jay's Rakim impression is only slightly less cringe-worthy than Nas's Edward G. Robinson impression.

haha oh come on you don't even believe that

I remember reading that ?uestlove quote, was it the Rolling Stone with Jay-Z on the cover? Something like that. Pitchfork gave that Roots record a 7.7. It was pretty good, haven't listened to it in months, though.

the quote was in Scratch magazine (RIP). it was really weird how the Pitchfork review repeated a bunch of similiar quotes about what Jay expected of the record without referencing <i>that</i> one.

"The album is lyrically heavy. There’s no shortage of double entendres abound, and I didn’t even catch a few metaphors until we were on our 5th or 6th listen and Jay started pausing songs on some "you heard what I said?!" shit.

Yeah, he does that too." - nah right

"Working with producers like Bad Boy's Hit Men team, Jermaine Dupri and longtime collaborator Just Blaze, Gangster is lush with a live band sound that echoes the deep soul and funk sounds of the film, as on the electrifying banger "Roc Boys" and fierce lyrical workout "No Hook."" - hurricane fennessey

"Even in that incomplete state, though, American Gangster already sounded like a Jay-Z fan's dream come true. The beats are dominated by warm, powerful soul samples, even more so than on Jay's 2001 classic The Blueprint; the lyrics outlining a street hustler's mentality are by turns as clever, as incisive, as gritty, as moving as any in his catalogue. The album is in part a reaction to the lyrical vapidity of hits like Mims' "This Is Why I'm Hot," he said: "When the guy says 'I could make a mil' saying nothing on the track,' you know you've reached a bad place." - popwatch

the quote was in Scratch magazine

Ah yeah, that was it. Scratch folded already?

Yeah, the new issue is the last. :(

"Roc Boys" produced by Puffy & The Hitmen:

http://www.zshare.net/audio/4137995846f20a/

holy shit.

Fuck, that's good! The horns! The clever line-switching! The no chorus-no guests! Genius!

this is nice

^

liked 'roc boys' better when it was called 'go crazy'

-- Jordan Sargent, Wednesday, October 10, 2007 10:04 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

Roc Boys is boring.

can't believe y'all didn't learn your lesson from the last album

It's great, but I'm a sucker for any beat with brass like that.

The last album didn't have two good advance tracks.

xpost

neither does this one

i_disagree.gif

"Kingdom Come" and "Show Me What You Got" >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "Roc Boys" and "Blue Magic"

wrong

alex in baltimore....u mad......u so mad

TRACKLIST:

1. Intro
2. Pray
3. American Dreamin’
4. Hello Brooklyn 2.0 feat. Lil Wayne
5. No Hook
6. Roc Boys (And The Winner Is)…
7. Sweet
8. I Know
9. Party Life
10. Ignorant Sh*t feat. Beanie Sigel
11. Say Hello
12. Success feat. Nas
13. Fallin’ feat. Bilal
BONUS TRACKS
14. Blue Magic
15. American Gangster

can't believe y'all didn't learn your lesson from the last album

-- milo z, Friday, 12 October 2007 00:54 (4 days ago) Bookmark Link

I don't know.

Last album I was looking forward to it but then I hated all of the leaked songs and the album.

This album I wasn't looking forward to it until I heard the leaked songs and now I am.

So its pretty much the opposite.

ALSO, Bad Boy's Hitmen are back?

That's awesome to me, they put out classic beats back in the day...

At the same time maybe my expectations were so low that I was pleasantly surprised.

Either way, this new stuff seems better than KC to me.

But older Jay-Z is better than this easily...

So, my expectations aren't too crazy for this album but it sounds like it could be okay...

Snippets (of all the songs) sound crazy...

http://www.7digital.com/artists/jay-z/american-gangster/

Blue Magic is pretty bad.

crazy in a good way???

It sounds crazy, like crazy good...

At least I think so, sheit the links right there man see for yourself...

ok wow these do sound reeeeeally good. "success" and "fallin'" esp.

Hearing the double-time shit on the title track is a thrill, and some of this sounds great, but I wanna hear it all before I let myself get excited.

"Success" has a great beat, but Jay-Z's lines are snoozer (plus "I got an appetite for destruction/and you're the small fry"????!?!)

saw a hummer booming aint no love today... fuck yeah

great tune

Jay-Z's lines are snoozer (plus "I got an appetite for destruction/and you're the small fry"????!?!)

just stuck on the title track... "who in the f know / how to be success-ful / need a personal jesus / i'm in depeche mode"

You dudes is noodles, I got more ziti to bake
You dudes is cake
I keep two biscuits on the waist,
Razorblades under the tongue,
I will eat ya face.
Appetite for destruction, I am starvin today
Got a money hungry lawyer that'll eat the case
And thats just food for thought,
Don't let it go to waste
Nigga, bite the bullet until you stuffin ya face

I kinda like the conceit of "Pray," which is basically the same scene from the second verse of "99 Problems" but with him worried and nervous instead of brash.

"Google Earth Nas I got flats on other continents"

Does anyone know who the horn players were on his Letterman performance?

this is pretty good. better than i expected.

I'm a little surprised at all the praise its gotten for its lyrical inventiveness. There's definitely some old-Hov hotness on about half, but the rest he just seems to be lounging lyrically.

"I Know" is my least favorite musically, but lyrically it's real nice.

I wish Wayne hadn't phoned in his verse on "Hello Brooklyn."

I love "American Dreamin." Nas is fire on "Success." "No Hook" is pretty alright.

Really dig that the title track is on some "closing credits" upbeat shit. It might actually be my favorite track.

I think I also want "Hello Brooklyn" to be a bonus track and the title track to *close out the album* after "Fallin."

Obviously all the bonus track/album track distinctions are a little silly since we're all gonna shuffle shit up anyways, but dude won't sell it on iTunes cause he wants it digested as a whole, right? Make "Brooklyn" & "Ignorant Shit" bonus tracks, tack title on the end, and you've got a slick 12 track record.

Is T.I. on that last track? I listened to it streaming this morning and didn't notice him at all (though the beat is great).

the pop culture references that nearly every review is citing— britney, depeche mode, etc.— are almost common-esque in their corniness.

i've gotta agree w/ hoos mostly here. seems like a waste of a lot of great beats. all this praise about jay's lyrics had me wondering if i hadn't been listening hard enough but i still haven't found anything great— god forbid anything like late 90s/early 2000s jay— here.

i think the nas verse is my favorite verse on the whole damn thing. i like "fallin'" a lot. idk.

I wish Wayne hadn't phoned in his verse on "Hello Brooklyn." 2007.

wayne said that it was a track he recorded years ago (maybe a left over carter II joint) and that jay heard it and told him he wanted it. i guess it's possible that wayne never recorded a new verse so we now know why he never released it. my timeline may be a little screwy there cuz all that singing/warbling he does is kind of a pretty recent development for him so maybe it was from earlier this year or something.

I wish Wayne hadn't phoned in his verse on "Hello Brooklyn." 2007.

drought3.jpeg

it's been like, what, 9 months since that dropped? and only half of it is actually great. i don't think i've played since early summer.

T.I. was listed as a guest on the title track back when iTunes first announced a tracklist, but he's not on the album or any other released version of the song (which might be my favorite cut on the whole CD).

his vocals as a whole are pretty weak throughout the album, sounds like sloppy first takes on everything. i wrote this somewhere else today, but American Gangster is a better album than Kingdom Come by a much slimmer margin than it's being made out to be.

I was gonna say, I'll give you "phoned in summer/fall/winter" (lol), but I still play D3 on the regular. Made a 1-disc of that too.

i kinda love that the entire radiohead announcement/hype/release/excitement/comedown cycle happened during the wait for this to leak.

threads "jordan sargent" does not want to see revived:

1. lil wayne- da drought 3

everything up until "roc boys" is a complete mess imo, then the album kind of picks up after that. the last 4 songs (last 2 + bonus tracks) are the best stretch i think. i even like "blue magic" at the end. it sounds really knotty and nice after all the bluster of the beats preceding it.

I agree almost completely. Opening stretch is dead weight, gets way better towards the end.

it's not front-loaded, but i really like "american dreamin." and "hello brooklyn" too -- wayne sounds so cheerful.

it's been like, what, 9 months since that dropped?

Oh come on, man. I know we've all got blog-level attention spans these days, but you're discrediting dude cause he hasn't put out a nice mixtape in "9 whole months!"? I know you're trying to avoid looking like you ride Weezy's Lil Wayne, but keep some perspective.

i'm pretty open about my lil wayne fandom, but if he had been quiet since DD3 i wouldn't be salty at all. but he's released like 30 or 40 more songs since then and maybe 1/10th of them are genuinely good.

not to mention they are all tracks from his supposed "opus," so i'm in my right mind to ask dude to step it up.

jay on the charlie rose show (!)

Unweighted sales for "American Gangster" through the close of business yesterday from the Building Chart's panel of reporters stood at 179,000. That's the third largest figure seen on the Wednesday Building Chart since SoundScan began compiling it in September. Jay-Z trails only the first-day numbers for Kanye West's "Graduation" (437,000) and 50 Cent's "Curtis" (310,000).

Jay-Z's last album, 2006's "Kingdom Come," opened atop The Billboard 200 last fall with 680,000.

I'm kinda miffed that the Just Blaze track is probably my favorite. It's like "dammit, I really wanted to get off dude's nuts for an album!"

i'm pretty open about my lil wayne fandom, but if he had been quiet since DD3 i wouldn't be salty at all. but he's released like 30 or 40 more songs since then and maybe 1/10th of them are genuinely good.

I do agree dude needs to know when to fall back. Don't agree that flood of bad output = phoned-in year. Quality went downhill because of too much effort, not lack thereof.

not to mention they are all tracks from his supposed "opus," so i'm in my right mind to ask dude to step it up.

-- J0rdan S., Thursday, November 8, 2007 10:52 PM

indeed, indeed.

cant believe a thread heavy with jordan sargent contains the desire to 'get off dudes nuts' in a post not by him

Although to be fair I won't argue that dude's been putting himself into the craft to the same degree all year. But his work ethic suggests that the decline is due to lack of quality control. If he was just lazy, wouldn't he slow the output?

But then again, maybe he doesn't know any better way to capitalize on a hype cycle?

xpost

I think Wayne just needs to realize on an occasional Wednesday that he's probably too faded to record 8 more songs that night and just save those verses for the Thursday session.

The more I really listen to this the more I like it. "Pray" is really vivid, cinematic shit.

that's because it's about a MOVIE

*zang'd*

For once, I have a positive thing to say about Jay-Z

He has chosen not to release this for download at all, also to release any singles from it, claiming it is supposed to listened to in its entirety rather than as single tracks.

Of course Jay-Z is unlistenable regardless, but I like how he fights for the album as an entire thing.

That seems really reactionary to me. All of the tracks are probably already scattered individually across hundreds of mp3 blogs by now.

Well, the album as an entire thing is a newer invention than the single, so it must be the single that is reactionary.

I meant to say that trying to force people to listen to your record in a certain way is kind of a fruitless endeavor.

But I agree with what you said re: the decision not to release any singles.

this charlie rose interview is pretty good. embarrassment to insight ratio much lower than expected.

"Blue Magic" is available for download as a single so I have no idea what a wise man once said don't argue with Geir you're talking about.

a wise man once said don't argue with Geir

People from a distance can't tell who is who

Get the bozack.

OK as much as I dislike the goofy "I know I shouldna did that" shit on "Fallin," the 2nd & 3rd verses are fire.

I like this album.

oh "Fallin" is definitely one of the best songs on there.

so disappointed by the nu-Hitmen shit, finally came to the conclusion that I dislike pretty much every beat they did except "Roc Boys" (which I don't even like that much). bring back Chucky Thompson and Amen-Ra!

lol "fallin vs. beach chair"

I have no idea who produced what other than the Neptunes, who have this great failure of never being able to blend into their surroundings.

I kinda hate how out of place "Hello Brooklyn" is.

"success" is kinda outta place too, but it's my fav beat. i actually like basically every beat on here. my big problem is w/ jay.

lol

Jesus. This is depressing. Hasn't he retired twice now? He should have stopped after that album of Danger Mouse remixes. Go out on a high note.

Have you heard this album? It's good.

I kinda hate how out of place "Hello Brooklyn" is.

place or no place, I just don't like it. I think it's the Beasties Boys sample that does it. Two tenths of a second into the song, I'm already at some limp-ass party in 1995 where they can't think of anything better to play than Paul's Boutique. No no no.

hoos what u loling at?

I'm loling at your point that your only problem with the album is the star!

bcuz it's impossible that a rapper could have an album of mostly good beats and not rap well over them?

I'm not arguing with you dude, I'm just loling!

Battle of the wits, this.

sorry i thought the lol was you implying that it was a ridiculous argument or something.

He should have stopped after that album of Danger Mouse remixes. Go out on a high note.

-- esophagus, Saturday, November 17, 2007 6:34 PM (Saturday, November 17, 2007 6:34 PM) Bookmark Link

I'm trying to figure out exactly which ILM rap goon he's baiting here and the closest answer I can come to is "all of them".

Jesus. This is depressing.

they can't think of anything better to play than Paul's Boutique

that would be because there is nothing better than Paul's Boutique.

(plz note i do not actually believe this)

not as depressing as you filling out a libble invite form xpost.

HA touche.

http://img03.picoodle.com/img/img03/5/11/18/f_lolzm_cdeda62.png

Ha

is success j blaze? it's weird and disjointed to me, but not in a good way...it's like i keep expecting it to loop and then it keeps blaring on...but not in a oh that's unique but just like that sounds goofy as hell.

it's No I.D.

it definitely sounds kinda off and fucked up, but that's what I like about it really. plus Jay sounding more like old school Jigga than he does on the whole rest of the album. the Nas verse sounds kinda anticlimactic and tacked on, whole song would've come together better if they put him between the 2 Jay verses.

it definitely sounds kinda off and fucked up

aka very No I.D. i think

lol @ Breihan thinking "I Know" = flaccid loverman song

Tuomas Breihan.

every rap thread on ilm this week clowning/hating/dicksucking breihan = mad boring

-- and what, Thursday, November 1, 2007 8:05 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Link

That was three weeks ago. We took a fortnight's vacation and now it's back to work.

strikethrough week, replace with month/year/whatever

too late for no breihan november, i suppose

Next year, Al.

I should call Tom and be like "just letting you know, I'm banning discussion of you on ILM. Nothing personal, but you've got more threads than the Arctic Monkeys now."

On second thought, maybe Breihan threads beat the alternative.

he's the only one who actually likes american gangster though right?

^ rong dude

i'm sayin

mainstream press playing capt. save-a-jay is one of the more mind-boggling things to happen this year tbh. he's basically rap's springsteen.

anybody following any of these remix projects? i'm giving a handful of them a shot. never thought i'd say there was 'too much marvin gaye' in anything, but people are totally overusing dude as a sample source on these shits.

mick boogie's "brooklyn soul" has some nice shit on it. the "no hook" is really lush. "roc boys" is a little stiff, but kinda cool electro-soul type shit. "fallin" is a fuckin mess. samples "heard it through the grapevine," which is kinda cool, but it's all tension and no resolution. title track completely shifts the rhythm, puts the accent on the 1/3. gives the whole thing a different kind of momentum.

or on his way to being rap's springsteen at least. if we're using metacritic ratings, this thing is like mid-70s at best. not even the best roc record of the year!!

is it possible that you don't like it, and that lots of other people do ie are not "pretending" to like it for the sake of dude's rep?

no.

http://www.collectorsconnection.com/imagesh1/41a218.jpg

http://www.hometracked.com/wp-content/uploads/forehead-slap.jpg

i mean obv i'm not saying rob sheffield and tom breihan and cokemachineglow dude gathered around and conspired to save jay's rep, but i think maybe people were hoping this was going to be really great and it turned out to be just okay/good (as opposed to i guess the universally accepted shittiness of kingdom come) and you know when you listen to a record a lot of times in a short period of time (i.e. time between release date and review dedlines w/ no promos) you can convince yourself you like something a lot more than you do esp. when you're looking at it in a hyper-vaccum.

I agree that it's benefiting from a lot of "relative to Kingdom Come", but I think you're being a bit too quick to call bullshit on people.

the springsteen comparison is a good one--ppl are giving him a lot of leeway for having been one of the greats, not to mention the jay persona is as powerful and easy to write 800 bullshit words about as the boss persona

jay over ghost beats/ghost over jay beats

http://www.ohword.com/images/782.jpg

^^^^^ fire

i dl-d that today but will prb never listen :(

why not?

i heard the "success" one and i thought the ghost version almost universally murdered the AG one and it's my fave song on the album!! (well maybe roc boys actually which i used to hate)

still not totally sold on this being classic or anything.

but damn you really can't argue with those horns in "roc boys".

the video makes me sad in a way though. i thought about that after reading that snap thread article about tanking rap sales. it feels like sort of an irish wake for the bling era. esp. the old heads jay, nas, and puffy standing in for biggie. like there will never be three dudes like that again really...now it's all going to be niche market stuff. it seems like there won't be a real giant again.

Bling's just gone small-scale, that's all.

yeah but i fear the next generation will never have it's own 15 million dollar ma$e videos :(

ummmmmmmm

sheeeeit.

lol @ "dj clue -- i am legend!"

b-

but really ffs jay

beats the fuck outta "Blue Magic" at least

cant believe a thread heavy with jordan sargent contains the desire to 'get off dudes nuts' in a post not by him

-- and what, Thursday, November 8, 2007 11:28 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Link

i lol'd

this is a good thread and this album still sucks

anyway i was originally looking for the "best jay-z album" poll-- that does exist right?

u still rong bro

i think we did one and vol 2 won or something

jigga album poll