Jay Z - Magna Carta Holy Grail

baddebt

the track with rick ross is hideous

Boom_Bap

After another listen, the last 3 tracks are probably the strongest set of consecutive tracks.

Blue is nice, nice little switch up in the beat and delivery were J shows off some of his ability.

La Familia has some stuff that I really dont like in it, he does the whole rap-pause-rap-pause thing that is taking over rap, the only person that does that well is Kendrick on Money Trees. But when he gets to proper rapping on the second half it works really well.

Nickels & Dimes is a nice breezy beat, and I suspect there are Pan Pipes involved, and Jay fits it perfectly without getting out of afformentioned coast mode. There are some nice reverse drums as well which are a lovely touch.



I am not digging the BBC track on repeated listens either. Going to take a break from this album for a while, need to listen to something with some major stonk after this.

baddebt

first listen of the full album done ,
average at best imo , Heaven is a great track , Nickel and dimes is decent , but thats about it for me ,

will not be anywhere near my album of the year , which thus far is Papoose Nacirema dream (for those that are interested).

jonneymendoza

on my 3rd listen and i am liking it more and more. the beats are simply amazing and the rap and rhyme from JayZ is brilliant.

Album of the year so far along with 20/20 experience

Boom_Bap

baddebt wrote: »

first listen of the full album done ,
average at best imo , Heaven is a great track , Nickel and dimes is decent , but thats about it for me ,

will not be anywhere near my album of the year , which thus far is Papoose Nacirema dream (for those that are interested).

I still need to check out that Papoose album in full.

My album of the year still hasnt changed ->Alexander Spit - A Breathtaking Trip To The Otherside

jonneymendoza wrote: »

on my 3rd listen and i am liking it more and more. the beats are simply amazing and the rap and rhyme from JayZ is brilliant.

Album of the year so far along with 20/20 experience

I'm actually delighted that people are saying things like this about the album. Sometimes I am too much of an over-opionated hip hop snob and I jump in too deep and scrutinise an album rather that just listen to the album for what it is.

Andy_rse

Boom_Bap wrote: »

And why is Verses only 54 seconds long....so much potential on that one

I haven't heard the album yet but I guarantee that that will be my favourite beat from the snippets that I was looking forward to hearing, always happens!

evil_seed

Boom_Bap wrote: »

And why is Verses only 54 seconds long....

It's an interlude, no?

Boom_Bap

evil_seed wrote: »

It's an interlude, no?

There are no intros/outros/interludes on the album, well none that are billed as that on the tracklist.
And it doesnt sound like an interlude with proper beat, rapping, pause for hook, a second verse, then stop.

briggy

Just downloaded the album there. Only listened to BBC and it's actually a great song can't wait to listen to the full album properly later on

BangBeater

Picasso Baby - Jay Z raps about how he has lots and lots of money. Original concept. Haven't heard something like this before! Beat is meh.

Holy Grail - A song about how fame fecks him over yet he still keeps going back. Would that be because this fame provides a very substantial income for ol Jay Z? Ah the question of this song has been answered!

Tom Ford - Nice beat here. "I don't pop molly, I rock Tom Ford" - Well that's essentially the song. He wears expensive Tom Ford suits and doesn't take ecstacy.

****WithMeYouKnowIGotIt - I think Rick Ross is fairly overrated and his verse here doesn't seek to improve this opinion to say the least. Jay-z's spitting here is pretty standard using a few Italian references to spice it up - "El Padrino, in the villa in Venice sipping vino/Not bad for a Mulliano, y'all know like we know, I got it". Beat is one of the better ones I think.

Oceans - Jay Z has made millions from albums/shows/clothes/teams/appearances,etc,etc so why does he keep referencing back to the days of dealing drugs which occurred about 15+ years ago and many many classic earlier songs have dealt with this issue. "Dope boy still smelling like cocaina".

Somewhereinamerica - "Feds still lurking/They see I'm still putting work in/Cause somewhere in America/Miley Cyrus is still twerkin" - That makes no sense.

Crown - "I ball so hard on ESPN/See my name come across on CNN" - Brutal.

Heaven - Essentially he's saying as in last line "Only God could judge us, mother****er". Boring, boring chorus and a more boring beat.

Part II (On The Run) - A more modern Bonnie and Clyde. Quality beat. Beyonce sings and fits in very well in this song. Jay Z sounds smooth over the beat.

BBC - Nas sounds like he is being held back here.

La Familia - Ahhhh... Yawn.

Okay, so clearly I dislike this album. But in no way am I being biased from some kind of anti hip hop angle. I like Jay Z. My 2 fav albums are Reasonable Doubt and The BP. I have seen him live twice and enjoyed both times. I would go see him again.

People say Jay Z remains relevant in this day and age musically. I think he has had a very good marketing team in recent years and being with Beyonce has helped him no end. He is a very successful businessman as well. He knows how to sell his image. The music has remained the same however in recent times much like this album.

jonneymendoza

BangBeater, we can be here all day nip picking rappers lyrics. its all opinions.

A shame u did not enjoy the album. give it more listens it may grow. i hated Kendrics album after first listen. then it became my album of last year

Not Jay Z's biggest fan, but looking forward to listening to this.

Masked Man

Somewhereinamerica - "Feds still lurking/They see I'm still putting work in/Cause somewhere in America/Miley Cyrus is still twerkin" - That makes no sense.

How does this not make sense?

TheBza

evil_seed

what's the point of posting Ether?

TheBza

evil_seed wrote: »

what's the point of posting Ether?

0:02 - 0:03

mufcboy1999

Very very meh imho. Im a fairly big Jay fan myself but in fairness he's horrible on a few of them, id put bp3 above this and that was fairly cat too.

Its not as hard on the ears as yeezus but its fairly boring all the same, 2 stinkers imo from two of the biggest rappers out there. The track with ross is my favourite, ye ross is at nothing like seriously nothing but taking the track for what it is which imo is a bit of a banger/beat wise.

J.cole has just sh*tted all over both his boss and label mate, the underdog has clearly won there's no competition his album is the best this year for me so far followed by cudi's effort.

jonneymendoza

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

Very very meh imho. Im a fairly big Jay fan myself but in fairness he's horrible on a few of them, id put bp3 above this and that was fairly cat too.

Its not as hard on the ears as yeezus but its fairly boring all the same, 2 stinkers imo from two of the biggest rappers out there. The track with ross is my favourite, ye ross is at nothing like seriously nothing but taking the track for what it is which imo is a bit of a banger/beat wise.

J.cole has just sh*tted all over both his boss and label mate, the underdog has clearly won there's no competition his album is the best this year for me so far followed by cudi's effort.

i stopped reading when you said the rick ross tune is the best :pac:

everyone else feels the same how rick ross is utter trash and ruined that song

mufcboy1999

You don't think that beat is nice ? Ross is a horrible rapper and I hate the chap but he's got one or two bangers to his name fraud or no fraud.

jonneymendoza

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

You don't think that beat is nice ? Ross is a horrible rapper and I hate the chap but he's got one or two bangers to his name fraud or no fraud.

what bangers are they lol because from what i have heard from rick ross. he is rubbish. Yea the beats good of course but he ruined the song.

Might as well get Chris brown to rap on that beat instead lol

mufcboy1999

jonneymendoza wrote: »

what bangers are they lol because from what i have heard from rick ross. he is rubbish. Yea the beats good of course but he ruined the song.

Might as well get Chris brown to rap on that beat instead lol

Bmf ft styles p is a nice example. Like I said I think he's a terrible rapper and a clown in general but honestly you can't say he ruined this song , jay is equally bad on it as he is most of the album.

He's not the same rapper as he was reasonable doubt/blueprint era his recent efforts have been cat and he was carried on WTT by kanye IMHO.

TheBza

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

He's not the same rapper as he was reasonable doubt/blueprint era his recent efforts have been cat and he was carried on WTT by kanye IMHO.

I guess when you have bucket loads of money, you run out of content to say, regardless he's laughing to the bank.

BangBeater

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

Bmf ft styles p is a nice example. Like I said I think he's a terrible rapper and a clown in general but honestly you can't say he ruined this song , jay is equally bad on it as he is most of the album.

He's not the same rapper as he was reasonable doubt/blueprint era his recent efforts have been cat and he was carried on WTT by kanye IMHO.

Yeah as I said what I think above... Jay-Z is multi platinum and all that jazz, but in my opinion all anyone needs to have a Jay-Z collection should be RD and the BP... 2 very very fine albums. All the rest is kinda repetitive and boring. Again, I enjoyed WTT and enjoyed the show they put on in Dublin last year.

Seriously lads, this is Jay Z to me...

And he doesn't play half enough of this stuff in recent times...

His reason?

"I dumbed down for my audience to double my dollars
They criticized me for it, yet they all yell "holla" "

:pac:

mufcboy1999

TheBza wrote: »

I guess when you have bucket loads of money, you run out of content to say, regardless he's laughing to the bank.

Very true.

Jigga comes In top 5 Forbes every year, he's a marketing genius but musically he's not what he was at all.

Bobby Baccala

I dunno why or how people are finding so many negatives in this album, take it for what it is, a nice album with some mellow tunes and a couple of bangers, no point in comparing this to reasonable doubt because he's not the man he was 17/18 years ago.

Personally I really enjoyed this album, anybody calling Kanyes better is clowning themselves because listening back on it today was a struggle, horrible production and the fact that he rushed the lyrics is evident, "swagili"?? Seriously? Fùck that. kanyes one of my favourites but unlike a lot of people here I can admit when one of my favourite artists has just released a load of bollocks.

FrankLamar

Only good songs are Picasso Baby, Tom Ford and Oceans. The end of the album it gets very poor

Andy_rse

After giving it the once over I think it's pretty good, nothing groundbreaking or a game changer and he doesnt seem to have much to say but overall I like it.

What exactly is the point of Rick Ross? Seriously wtf?

HATCHET IRL

Andy_rse wrote: »

What exactly is the point of Rick Ross? Seriously wtf?

maybe because money talks and he speaks fluent

Jimmy Iovine

HATCHET IRL wrote: »

maybe because money talks and he speaks fluent

Ha.

Andy_rse

He takes up a lot of time on that track and says fu*k all!

Snowc

Not sure what to make of it yet,listened lastnight but was high on cheese so will try tommorow and see again what i think.i did like nas track first listen

Brad768

I actually like the album as a whole.
Holy Grail- When that beat kicks in, ooff
Oceans- Love this song. Packed with Jay's double meanings
Tom Ford- Reminds me of a grime track that escapes me right now. Love the beat

jonneymendoza

Andy_rse wrote: »

He takes up a lot of time on that track and says fu*k all!

Yea he says two words every 2mins in that track.

"im high"......... pause for 2mins "get high"........... pause anotehr 2mins, rinse repeat :pac:

floggg

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

I dunno why or how people are finding so many negatives in this album, take it for what it is, a nice album with some mellow tunes and a couple of bangers, no point in comparing this to reasonable doubt because he's not the man he was 17/18 years ago.

Personally I really enjoyed this album, anybody calling Kanyes better is clowning themselves because listening back on it today was a struggle, horrible production and the fact that he rushed the lyrics is evident, "swagili"?? Seriously? Fùck that. kanyes one of my favourites but unlike a lot of people here I can admit when one of my favourite artists has just released a load of bollocks.

Am I the only one who like the swaghili line? It's witty in a corny way.

Kanye has never been that great lyrically, and often runs a fine line between witty and corny.

And more often than not, it's not what he is saying that resonates but how he says it.

And I think the lack of lyrical genius is now biggie on Yeezus - the beats were always going to be more interesting.

Still to listen to Jay-Z. Waiting for the non-Samsung release.

I don't expect much new - at this stage he is more about pushing the Jay-Z brand than flexing musically.

But if you take him for what he is now, he's still one of the best made for radio rappers out there.

The cheif stands alone

Somewhere in America has a great sample, I don't think he was really too worried about the lyrics, Heaven I thought was a good track, I know the album is a bit tacky all the REM, Nirvana, Miley Cyrus plugs and all. But this could be like 808 and Heartbreaks for me, Hated it and then realized a few months later that it was an unbelievable record. I really don't think so though.

Masked Man

This seems as good a place as any.

Dead Presidents 3

FrankLamar

Masked Man wrote: »

This seems as good a place as any.

Dead Presidents 3

This is better than most on MCHG

mufcboy1999

Samsung purchase 1 million copies of this album to make it platinum in 1 day.. Possibly the worst album Iv ever listened to behind the carter 3 to do a milli.

It's rumoured albums bought via iTunes and cd versions done between 250 and 400k which is still fairly impressive but I find it a bit misleading , jay just had possible the biggest communication company in the world buy his albums that's worse than birdman buying trunk loads of his artists albums.

Bobby Baccala

The RIAA aren't letting it go platinum mufc, but he's still sold a million and a half records

Boom_Bap

I thought that they changed the rules after intially saying the first million dont count.

floggg

mufcboy1999 wrote: »

Samsung purchase 1 million copies of this album to make it platinum in 1 day.. Possibly the worst album Iv ever listened to behind the carter 3 to do a milli.

It's rumoured albums bought via iTunes and cd versions done between 250 and 400k which is still fairly impressive but I find it a bit misleading , jay just had possible the biggest communication company in the world buy his albums that's worse than birdman buying trunk loads of his artists albums.

How? The Samsung purchased aren't recognised for sound scan (US chart) purposes.

And he had high profile ads at the NBA finals to brag about it so its not like he's being anything but upfront about.

I don't think there is any doubt in anybody's mind about what's happening. He doesn't even get chart recognition of the Samsung sales.

Misleading would be if he kept it on the hush and let people think he sold them in the normal course.

And they are impressive numbers for an album that was already given away free to 1 million people.

floggg

Boom_Bap wrote: »

I thought that they changed the rules after intially saying the first million dont count.

I think the rule chance was just to disapply a 30 day waiting period for recognition of digital sales - as they can't be returned too easily.

It made sense for physical sales so you couldn't buy them in a music store, chart, and then return the CDs for a refund.

Masked Man

The cheif stands alone

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

The RIAA aren't letting it go platinum mufc, but he's still sold a million and a half records

It's amazing cause it sounds like he wrote, recorded and released this record in about 10 minutes, It really feels unfinished to me.. Or possibly I'm still hung up on the lyrics being so *searching for the correct words* predictable, lazy, unoriginal. Still fair play to him I wish I could bully companies into buying my album.

Masked Man

lol at the thought of Jay-Z bullying Samsung into doing anything. Their global marketing cost ($4bn) is about a quarter of what record sales were last year. The $20m they threw at Roc Nation is a drop in the ocean and looking like a decent investment.

jonneymendoza

must have replayed this album 20 times. still amazing

jonneymendoza

The cheif stands alone wrote: »

It's amazing cause it sounds like he wrote, recorded and released this record in about 10 minutes, It really feels unfinished to me.. Or possibly I'm still hung up on the lyrics being so *searching for the correct words* predictable, lazy, unoriginal. Still fair play to him I wish I could bully companies into buying my album.

he did the album in 2 weeks tops

jonneymendoza

You played a part in “Versus” [from Magna Carta Holy Grail] as well, right?
Yeah yeah, just a little bit. Well, get the next album, you might hear it as a real song the next time. I’m givin’ a little hint: that’s what those [tracks] are, just little hints. He has so many great tracks, he couldn’t just put them all on there, so we were like, this is what we’ll do, we’ll just give them a little hint. So later when they hear it again, they’ll be like, “Oh ****, this is what it’s supposed to be,” you know what I mean? So he’s a clever guy.

Versus could appear as a full song on the next album

http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2013/07/j-roc-talks-working-with-justin-timberlake-and-jay-z-says-versus-will-come-out-as-a-full-track/

That_Guy

Quite liking the album.

F.U.T.W, SomewhereinAmerica and Heaven are my favourite tracks on the album.

Absolutely love his delivery in Jay Z Blue towards the end of the album.

That song with Beyonce.... I'm not too sure what to make of it. I like the kinda 70's vibe to it but why are they essentially giving themselves tributes to how how great their relationship is? :pac:

NinjaK

listening to it now, great album:)