Worst Jay-Z Album

Poll Closing Date: Monday, February 28, 2011 6:00 PM (in 3 weeks)

~VS~

Closing date is March 1

okay i fucking swear i typed in 2011-03-01, i am not that much of an idiot ¯\(°_o)/¯

tempted to vote watch the throne tbh

i don't have blueprint 3 or kingdom come and i suspect it's one of those two

i haven't heard the blueprint 2.whatever spin-offs, the r. kelly or linkin park stuff (odd radio trax aside), or unplugged.....

unplugged is pretty good

bonus track on it was cool

I've only heard American Gangster post-KC, but if we're talking about his classic run then The Blueprint 2 is the biggest grind.

tempted to vote watch the throne tbh

basically toss a coin after the black album though

^^ sadly otm, probably

Unplugged is awesome.

Unplugged is the only one I don't have. I'm wondering if I should pull out Collision Course again. Nah, probably better if I don't.

if you vote anything but Blueprint 3, i don't know what

kingdom come is at least as bad

go die

haha i had completely forgotten about the unplugged album

the roots backing on izzo is fucking ill

that album is so dope

go die

― odd taran wild'n gang killam all (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, February 2, 2011 10:39 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

haha hold on this is from the guy who mutes porn & beats off to "on to the next one" right??

hahahha

yeah i mean i rank the last 3 albums as KC > AG > BP3 but it's such subtle grades of bad that i can't really fathom saying "go die" to anyone that ranks them differently

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4098/4878514343_1a8ffc6cd0.jpg

One of my best bros went through a period (2003-2006) when Unplugged was always in his car. I don't know if I'd rank it as one of the best but it's one of his most fun.

yeah i don't really know how to place it in the pantheon of his studio albums but it is a really enjoyable live album

I think I had about three years where Unplugged was always in my car.

yeah, one of jay's best qualities is his charm & it's in full bloom on that album

I'm just gonna go ahead and say for the record that American Gangster is in no way a bad album, and y'all are some busters for casually lumping it in with Kingdom Come and Blueprint 3

eh Kingdom Come for all its faults has some Just Blaze bangers i fuck with and i kinda dig the Coldplay joint too...nothing on AG has that kind of replay value for me.

Parenthetical Grillz OTM

It is worth noting that nobody's coming to the defense of KC or BP3, but AG has supporters as well as detractors (*most of whom show up in the other threads, theoretical person reading this months from now that thinks I'm only talking about myself when I say supporters)

yeah AG definitely has its fans, i just don't know why anyone would rate it over any of his first 6 albums, unless they really haven't spent enough time with Vol 1 or Dynasty, which both murder it and are supposedly among his weaker albums.

haha hold on this is from the guy who mutes porn & beats off to "on to the next one" right??

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, February 2, 2011 10:41 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

aka "the swizz beat-off"

some dude otm -- your initial review of AG remains one of the lone beacons of truth regarding that album

Oh I wouldn't rate it ahead of any of the first 6, but its miles miles miles better than BP3 and KC.

^My take.

i like AG more than anything except the blueprint and mayyybe vol 2 on a good day

obv that is a sentimental ranking, not talking "objectively" or w/e

fyi thats a meaningless distinction

afai cant ell

can tell

not really

like, i know jay's in better form on his early stuff, he sounds lazier on AG, i like it better anyway tho

dont care enough about jay-z's bad albums to have an opinion in this poll i think

I love Unplugged...I don't get why he censored most of his lyrics tho, and then the cd gets an explicit lyric label anyway?

I would have loved to bei n the audience for Takeover or Izzo, too

He was censoring himself cause he was on tv but slipped up sometimes.

chris martin v. linkin park v. that guy who sounds like sting on bp3

LP on account of "Beach Chair" and "Forever Young" being the two worst songs he's ever done.

go die

― odd taran wild'n gang killam all (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, February 2, 2011 10:39 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

haha hold on this is from the guy who mutes porn & beats off to "on to the next one" right??

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, February 2, 2011 9:41 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

whiney is using coptic illuminati jackin' techniques....i'm telling everyone on youtube

American Gangster is the worst. Ugh.

Worse than Blueprint 3? Not a chance.

I'd rather listen to the K-Fed solo album than Blueprint 3

Worse than Blueprint 3? Not a chance.

― one pretty obvious guy in the obvious (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, February 3, 2011 5:19 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

Solely based on the fact that it's such a shameless Reasonable Doubt retread, yes. At least with BP3 he's trying to move forward as an artist.

move forward? lol that's the last thing I think when I think of BP3

BP3 is where finally Hov strikes the balance between his grown-ass man persona and his hustler persona. Kingdom Come was cloying, he just sounded old.

BP3 = "get off my lawn, the rap album"

No that's Kingdom Come. I think BP3 is mature without sacrificing fun.

how do we feel about "Roc Boys" in 2010?

Meh.

Pls note: only one of these has linkin park on it

the weakest "best single off the album" of any Jay-Z album imo (xpost)

But that's how I felt about it when it came out too.

the weakest "best single off the album" of any Jay-Z album imo (xpost)

A really good way of putting it.

I like it when I remember to play it -- in the right mood I love it -- but the memory evaporates.

Was there even any other single off of AG?

"Blue Magic" was the first single and some people liked it but for me it's like bottom 5 worst Jay tracks ever. "I Know" was 3rd and was probably a bigger radio hit than "Roc Boys" but i thought it was annoying.

I liked "Blue Magic" but thought it was just a "street single" i.e. not official.

had a vid didnt it?

Don't remember. But you're probably right.

Jay's kind of at the level where even his 'street singles' are kind of a big deal though (see also "DOA," "What More Can I Say" etc)

"Roc Boys" is the one great song he's done since he came back.

i seem to remember there being more AG stans when the album was released.

I was def one.

I remember when I found "What More Can I Say" on Kazaa and no one believed it was a real single from The Black Album.

(Not saying I was the only one, but when I came across it I was like WWHHHHAAATTT!?)

the horn loop on "roc boys" pwns fuiud

^^first time i've ever used fuiud, historians take note

the horn loop is cool but i don't like the way it and the vocals run through the whole song kind of crowding each others' space, sounds like one of those awkward blends where the DJ picks a bad vocal/beat combo

xps You were still using Kazaa in 2006?

Oh, n/m.

I thought you were talking about "Show Me What You Got".

there were a lot of fake FIRST SINGLE FROM THE BLACK ALBUMs floating around out there. one of them, "45," turned out to really be Noe, a Jay-sounding dude from Baltimore who ghostwrites for Jim Jones now

Blue Magic is dope as fuck and i'll never understand why ppl dont like it

awkward halting unquantized drums and general 07 era Neptunes wackness, weird unnatural Jay sounding like his voice stuck in his throat

I'd rather listen to the K-Fed solo album than Blueprint 3

― i pl0p bombs like hiroshima (San Te), Thursday, February 3, 2011 7:26 PM (1 hour ago)

i dunno i prefer the k-fed group albums

the horn loop is cool but i don't like the way it and the vocals run through the whole song kind of crowding each others' space,

That's what I noticed with each play: no breathing room. It's such a sassy horn part though, and irresistible when coupled with Kanye's we-in-da-houses; but Kanye's interjections are better timed than Jay-Z's rap.

general 07 era Neptunes dopeness

'03 era Neptunes and Hova = not so dope

"Change Clothes" is my least favorite first single; it kinda reeks.

yeah, dipshit R&B neptunes is barf, but Blue Magic is like fake Clipse, so

i just listened to Blueprint 2 for the first time since it came out!

I couldn't believe a lil baby Kanye got a verse two years before College Dropout

(2:25)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbNPAC9ScQU

He even says MONSTER in it!

Blue Magic is fake Hell Hath, though, not fake Lord Willin. Neptunes have had their moments since 2002 but pretty much every time they've been on a Jay album since "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)" has been a disaster imo.

wrong again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ontWj9U1OjY

i will agree that Excuse Me Miss/Change Clothes/whatever is garbage tho

i can't see youtubes on the computer i'm on right now so i have no idea what that is

N**** Please off Blueprint 2 produced by the nepz

ha yeah I actually "Excuse Me Miss."

i can't see youtubes on the computer i'm on right now so i have no idea what that is

A closeup of Jay's tats.

"Excuse Me Miss" is aight. "Fuck All Nite" is awesome tho.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vomCtyqa1NY

haha i was just about to rep for "Fuck All Nite." when i first got the album i had the same kind of "this is hilariously goofy...wait it's actually kind of dope" reaction i had listening to Vol 3 and hearing "Big Pimpin'" for the first time, although obviously the latter is way better.

It's like Pharrell decided to completely give up on fighting his latent urge to make porn music and Jay just rolled with it.

i watched Despicable Me the other night and it was a nice movie but it was so distracting that the score was constant bad idea jeans Pharrell shit

"Change Clothes" is my least favorite first single; it kinda reeks.

― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, February 3, 2011 7:03 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark

I will ride for "Change Clothes" any day. I love it. It's just straight-up fun, and Jay kills it.

the horn loop is cool but i don't like the way it and the vocals run through the whole song kind of crowding each others' space,

That's what I noticed with each play: no breathing room. It's such a sassy horn part though, and irresistible when coupled with Kanye's we-in-da-houses; but Kanye's interjections are better timed than Jay-Z's rap.

― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, February 3, 2011 7:02 PM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark

This is OTM, though.

ship is wrong about "roc boys" which is great, best song he's done since he's been back, as rev said

"blue magic" is okay -- it's not very special, it's also not very compelling

lol that sentence at the end doesn't make sense, w/e

lol @ whiney calling the neptunes dope in 2007 -- if you take out 'hell hath no fury' (which i don't even like that much) they didn't even produce 5 good songs b/e 06-08

you're borderline tyler, the creator

I totally fw "f*** all nite" and "n***a please"

the latter being on that tight-loose-tight neps 2002 vibe that people recognize w/r/t "Nothin" but don't want to acknowledge here for reasons unknown to me.

they didn't even produce 5 good songs b/e 06-08

― J0rdan S., Thursday, February 3, 2011 11:20 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you accidentally posted a teriyaki boyz song

i accidentally posted a dope teriyaki boyz song

hhaha

They did produce a handful of dope songs in that period, not that you'd ever know it from Whiney's post.

you didn't even post the one good fam-lay song

I totally fw "f*** all nite" and "n***a please"

the latter being on that tight-loose-tight neps 2002 vibe that people recognize w/r/t "Nothin" but don't want to acknowledge here for reasons unknown to me.

― Tim F, Thursday, February 3, 2011 11:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

well, i don't really fuck with "Nothin'" so i'm at least consistent in that regard.

you could totally fill a CD with dope Neptunes productions from '03 forward but you'd have to really cherry-pick and almost completely avoid singles.

i should say '04 or '05, lot of undeniable jams still in '03 and people besides me love "Drop It Like It's Hot"

^not liking "Drop It Like It's Hot" and "Nothin" but cosigning B.O.B. vs Rivers Cuomo raping rap's corpse

what

some dude

yean no i know -- i was just confused reading it at first cuz of the "vs" but n/m

al wtf

Blueprint III, I fully believe that American Gangster was his jumping point because it was so epic. I have yet to hear Hova put out something lately that lives up to the greatness of Blue Magic or Roc Boys.

^not liking "Drop It Like It's Hot" and "Nothin" but cosigning B.O.B. vs Rivers Cuomo raping rap's corpse

― odd taran wild'n gang killam all (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, February 4, 2011 12:05 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark

"Drop" and "Nothin" are OK, just nowhere near my favorite Neptunes hits. when did liking "Nothin' On You" turn into an assumption that I like "Magic" (which I hate)?

like, seriously, the "every opinion I disagree with circles back to unrelated ad hominems about B.o.B" thing is really tiresome

like, your top 10 singles of 2010 are 60% garbage imo and i never bring that up, but you gotta harp on my 35th favorite single of 2010 over and over?

it's kinda hilarious too considering whiney's second favorite song of the year is a boring piano rap song w/ some annoying singing

http://www.overclock.net/attachments/software-news/117607d1248648910-cnet-palm-re-enables-itunes-syncing-oh_snap.gif

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

1996 Reasonable Doubt 3
2001 The Blueprint 2

gtfo all of u

one of the reasonable doubt votes is me trolling bc there were too many jay z polls that week

flopson OTM

yeah i feel bad that starting one damn thread about a relatively slept on Jay record created a domino effect of way too many threads about him.

it's also pretty stupid that 3 people voted for an album that doesn't exist yet. and the Linkin Park thing prolly shouldn't have been an option, it's not really an album and it's a pretty harmless goofy little record.