Jay Z turned 46 today, and at first glance, you might not be able to tell. Like his frequent collaborators, Pharrell and Nas, Hov seems to be drinking profusely from the fountain of youth. Today we’ve already discussed the importance of his 6th album, The Blueprint, which spawned the careers of Kanye West and Just Blaze, and set the tone for the rest of his career with a medley of soul-sampling anthems, introspective reflections and laser beams subliminally sent at his then foe, Nasir Jones. Since then, Hov’s rapping style has evolved and vacillated ad nauseum. On The Blueprint 2, he went for a more commercial aesthetic. On The Blueprint 3, he experimented with sounds, from Rick Rubin‘s mash-up technique to 9th Wonder‘s brooding soundscape. American Gangster found Hov in Blueprint form, using few words to say a lot, and Blueprint 3 was much like its predecessor in its aim for commercial prowess, except it accomplished it more effectively than its predecessor. Hov’s most recent release, Magna Carta, was criticized excessively for its over-the-top mentions of wealth and status, but not lauded enough for the lyrical potency it was composed with.
N*ggas asked if I was God
F*ck I’m gonna say, ‘no’?
You’ve already seen me turn a man to a G.O.A.T.
You already know what I can do with the coke
Drop it in the water make it disappear
Made it reappear
I had that b*tch on a rope
If Hov said that on The Black Album, or even Kingdom Come, folks would geek. The man to a “goat” metaphor is golden, and the soap-on-a-rope imagery the final couplet conjures is icing on the cake. However, the Basquiat references and “n*ggas couldn’t walk in my daughter’s socks” lines that pepper Shawn Carter’s post-2011 work have diluted his prolificness.
Still, what people often don’t realize, is that Jay Z is still a ridiculously good rapper. There are artists that broke onto the scene in 2008 that already sound dated. They’re on their fourth or fifth album and it sounds as if they’re on their final leg. Their labels are throwing the Jason Derulo and Chris Brown features at them now, hoping to salvage what they’d hoped would be a much longer career.
Somehow, 19 years after his debut, and many more since he first picked up a microphone, Jay Z can still spill a verse from his mental pen rivaling that of the day’s featured lyricist. Ask Jay Electronica. His opening verse on his and Jay Z’s remix of Drake‘s “We Made It,” was an easy verse of the year contender. There was no way Jay, corporate jet flyer and festival curator, could get in the trenches with the guy that ate some of Just Blaze‘s best instrumentals for brunch, could he?
Or did you forget who first used to devour Just Blaze instrumentals.
I could black out at any given moment
Y’all hella jealous of my melatonin
I could black out at any given moment
I’m God, G is the seventh letter made
So when my arms and feet get shackled I still get paid
All praises due
I’m ready to chase the Yakub back in the cave
These are the last days but do I seem fazed?
Showed up to the last supper in some brand new Js
Ouch.
That was just over a year ago. It might be time to quit writing Jay Z off. Surely, in the two years since he last released an album Hov has been in the studio, and it won’t be soon before long that we get the product of those sessions. Set your disdain for his affinity to brand-name drop aside and realize that we’re watching the final leg of what’s been an illustrious career not exhaustingly like Kobe’s farewell tour, but triumphantly, like Mariano.
