Jay-Z has been promising The Black Album  for some time. He has been touting it as his retirement album and it was slated to be the prequel to Reasonable Doubt. This album is not good enough for the man who claims to be the "best who ever did it" to bow out on. It is also not the prequel to any of his past albums. This album sounds very retro, it sounds like what a hip-hop album may have sounded like if the genre existed in the 60's. That is something that I love about an album that I have only grown to like.

The production comes from a myriad of producers including regulars like the Neptunes, Just Blaze and Kanye West. Primo is the only person missing in the beat department. In truth the production outshines the lyrics by a long shot. more..

Jay-Z has been promising The Black Album  for some time. He has been touting it as his retirement album and it was slated to be the prequel to Reasonable Doubt. This album is not good enough for the man who claims to be the "best who ever did it" to bow out on. It is also not the prequel to any of his past albums. This album sounds very retro, it sounds like what a hip-hop album may have sounded like if the genre existed in the 60's. That is something that I love about an album that I have only grown to like.

The production comes from a myriad of producers including regulars like the Neptunes, Just Blaze and Kanye West. Primo is the only person missing in the beat department. In truth the production outshines the lyrics by a long shot.

On "December 4" Jay gets help rehashing the tales of his childhood from his mother Gloria Carter. She opens the song talking about the birth of her son Shawn and throughout gives little stories and anecdotes about Young Hov as a child. One of my own personal favorites on this album is "Moment of Clarity." Over an average Eminem beat, Jay rhymes about not rhyming like he used to because it doesn't sell. He says, "I dumb down for my audience to double my dollars / they criticize me for it but they all yell holla / if skills sold, truth be told / I'd probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli/ truthfully, I want to rhyme like Common Sense / but I did 5 mil, I ain't been rhyming like common since."

That's as honest he's ever been about his commercialism and becoming an overnight pop sensation. Those few lines say everything that I've been saying about Hov since he sold 5 mil. I respect that he said it and proved to the world that I am not crazy or just a Jay-Z hater. For the record, I'm neither.

Another favorite is "Allure", where Jay chronicles the allure of the drug game that kept him hustling even when he wanted to retire. "99 Problems" which was produced by Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin sounds like a rock song and uses lots of guitar and drums. It's sounds similar to Run DMC in the 80's. It's very different for Hov and he somehow made it work. Like the production, the topics on this work are all over the place. Jay touches on everything from the illest chick in the game wearing his chain to comparing himself to G Rap in his prime, which I found to be a bit ambitious. On "Lucifer" he even makes references to God and religion, which is rare for Jigga.

On this album Hov continues to tell tales of shooting people and selling drugs as though these were things he did just the other day and not some ten, odd years ago. He also continuously makes references to not being appreciated until he's gone. I felt that he was saying, "You didn't love me enough when I was here, but you'll miss me when I'm gone." Damn near the entire album, very pre-school.

By no stretch of the imagination is this Jay's best work, but it's still a good album. Lyrically, he's the same Jay he's been for the past few years and the production--as usual, is on point. On "Threat" Jay almost takes us back to 1996 with the lyricism. The production by little the underground 9th wonder and Jay's flow make the perfect marriage.

The weakest song on this album is a DJ Quik produced remake of Madonna's "Justify My Love," appropriately retitled "Justify My Thug". This song is the worst piece of crap I've heard from Jay in a long time.

Overall Jigga fans will be happy and non-Jay fans will not be thoroughly impressed. Is the retirement thing just a marketing ploy? Let's hope so, because Jay can surely do better than this. He did make references to being like Jordan and coming back to the game if someone challenges or inspires him. His relevance to the game of hip-hop can never be denied and this album is proof that Jay still has a lot of rhyming in him. I hope he's not done with making music, because if he is, this was not the way to go out. I am waiting for him to re-up and come out with "The Blacker Album." - Keshawnta J.

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