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The Jigga man once said “N***** want my old sh*t, buy my old album”.
Monday 22nd July 2013 | Aaron
8th July rapper Jay-Z released his 12th studio album Magna Carta Holy Grail. MCHG will be seen as a game changer in music. But not because of Hov’s lyrical content or a production super team which included producers; Swizz Beatz, Timbaland and Pharrell Williams. But because of the marketing campaign “New Rules”. Jay-Z struck a deal with Samsung to sell ONE MILLION copies to Samsung, who would give the first million Samsung users a chance to get the album first via the Magna Carta Holy Grail app for free on 4th July. The app included exclusive MGHG production videos, lyrics and the early album release.
Being one of those lucky millions, I had the pleasure of listening to MCHG before the majority of the world and it was a pleasure! 16 tracks, six features and Jay’s first UK number one will make you believe that this is the Holy Grail of the summer, and it could very well be. The album starts with an incredible feature from Justin Timberlake on ‘Holy Grail’ where both Jay-Z and JT tell a story on their affair with fame and the ups and downs of being a celebrity has had on different careers. The features on MCHG add to the calibre of the album, in addition to JT, Jay-Z has installed his wife Beyonce, “God’s Son” Nas, Frank Ocean, Travis Scott and Rick Ross. Jay-Z and Beyonce describe their imperfect love story on ‘Part II (On the Run)’. This arguable could be described as their 2013 version of ‘Bonnie and Clyde’. Jay-Z and Nas collaborate on ‘BBC’, and what shocked me more was that this track did not have the lyrical explosion you expect from these two hip hop legends but more of a feel good track to nod your head to. Rozay features on ‘F*ckwithmeyouknowigotit’ which can be played in the club with the rest of the new school hip hop and still has Jay’s classic lyrical flow, punch lines and clever metaphors to describe their wealth and living life at its leisure. The collaboration with Frank Ocean on ‘Oceans’ paints a picture of the slave trade and the progression of black America.
As the album goes on you can see why the Jigga man once said “N***** want my old sh*t, buy my old album”. By no stretch of the imagination is this a bad album, however, this is not a Reasonable Doubt, Blueprint or Black Album. But it is a story of what his life is now, where he came from and a reflection on the past. From listening to the album you can see Jay-Z has transformed from the Brooklyn hustler to a dad, a husband and world class business man. ‘Jay Z Blu’ tells the story of his love for his daughter, how he struggled without a father and the pressures of being a father for the first time. Whereas ‘Picasso’ tells the story of Jay-Z being able to fulfil his child-hood dream of owning a Picasso painting, but no longer sees the significance of owning the painting because he can attain so much more as the self proclaimed king of hip hop.
One thing which has not changed is Jay-Z still flaunts his power in hip hop and business attributes. By starting ‘Crown’ with the lyrics “You in the presence of a king, scratch that you in the presence of a God”, and going on to mock Scott Boras, a high profile baseball agent who was fired by Robinson Cano, second baseman for the New York Yankees in a move which saw him sign for Jay-Z’s “Roc Nation sports agency”.
With the religious connotations of the album, Jay-Z does use ‘Heaven’ to simulate listeners to question everything around them. Even addressing the continuous accusations he is in the “illuminati”.
Magna Carta Holy Grail, deserves to be number one as a package, however, as a rap album, lyrical this does not touch any of Jay-Z’s top albums but it is still a solid effort. From listening to MCHG you can hear the intricacy of the production and can understand why Jay-Z assembled the skills of Swizz Beatz, Pharrell Williams and Timbaland (who are arguable some of the best hip hop producers) to create the Holy Grail we call Magna Carta. This is another addition to the Jay-Z collection to solidify his claims to why he is the best rapper to grace the mic and I would highly recommend you listen and study this album.
Aaron Wright
