I am a huge Jay-Z fan, but even I was quite disappointed
with his latest offering, Magna Carta... Holy Grail. Although Jay-Z surrounds
himself with the best talent money can buy - producers include Timbaland and
Pharrell Williams; guest performers range from Justin Timberlake (mimicking
Adam Levine, for some reason), and Mrs. Carter, Beyoncé – this is his most
disappointing disc since 2009’s Kingdom Come. But money can't buy you genuine
artistic inspiration. It may be a slick-sounding album, from the Afrobeat
rhythms of "BBC" to the Nintendo-inspired warbles and popping
metallic percussion on "Tom Ford." But Jay-Z's flow is stunted, his
rhymes exceptionally superficial. It's hard to feel much pity for "woes of
fame" opener "Holy Grail" when Jay-Z follows it with
"Picasso Baby," rhyming about wanting a trillion bucks and a wife
that makes love like a prostitute. Surprisingly, The Great Gatsby director Baz
Luhrmann liked the disc. He told MTV.com, "I heard some remarkable pieces
from this new album early on but what is really exceptional about the whole
work is its diversity. It's not so much that Jay plays by the rules, he just
makes them up as he goes along. The pundits will of course pund but Jay just
continues to move creatively and unexpectedly above and beyond it all." Mmm...sorry Buz, but this is not a good disc.
I am a huge Jay-Z fan, but even I was quite disappointed
with his latest offering, Magna Carta... Holy Grail. Although Jay-Z surrounds
himself with the best talent money can buy - producers include Timbaland and
Pharrell Williams; guest performers range from Justin Timberlake (mimicking
Adam Levine, for some reason), and Mrs. Carter, Beyoncé – this is his most
disappointing disc since 2009’s Kingdom Come. But money can't buy you genuine
artistic inspiration. It may be a slick-sounding album, from the Afrobeat
rhythms of "BBC" to the Nintendo-inspired warbles and popping
metallic percussion on "Tom Ford." But Jay-Z's flow is stunted, his
rhymes exceptionally superficial. It's hard to feel much pity for "woes of
fame" opener "Holy Grail" when Jay-Z follows it with
"Picasso Baby," rhyming about wanting a trillion bucks and a wife
that makes love like a prostitute. Surprisingly, The Great Gatsby director Baz
Luhrmann liked the disc. He told MTV.com, "I heard some remarkable pieces
from this new album early on but what is really exceptional about the whole
work is its diversity. It's not so much that Jay plays by the rules, he just
makes them up as he goes along. The pundits will of course pund but Jay just
continues to move creatively and unexpectedly above and beyond it all." Mmm...sorry Buz, but this is not a good disc.
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