un-mute.com

With his second exhumation from retirement, the self-proclaimed (and publicly supported) god-emcee, Jay-Z, is back with his much anticipated concept album, American Gangster. The album, as most know, was inspired by the movie starring Denzel Washington, and Russell Crowe, which also shares the same title. It also was a chance for Jay-Z to return to a place he hasn’t been in years; a familiar kitchen, with pots burning on the stove, cooking an all too familiar narcotic. Some would argue, that crack music, is a narcotic in itself, and that Jay, by maturing, and moving farther from the stove in recent albums, has broken the addiction people used to have for his. Some even say that he just isn’t good anymore, and that the babies he’s spawned have grown into superior figures. But after listening to American Gangster, I think the babies may be humbled, once more.

The album intro is done by television gangster, actor, Idris Elba, giving a monologue about the definition of a gangster. It gives the classic, “beginning of the movie” effect that Jay used so well in his debut album, Reasonable Doubt. With lines like, “An American way created by the white/ mastered by the Black and absorbed by the fiends/ taxed by the government, charted by Forbes,” to set the stage, American Gangster begins in typical Jay-Z fashion - epically.

From there, the bass and snare come in, underneath a woman’s voice quoting a verse from the Bible. Then, seamlessly the distinct voice of Jay-Z is heard. First line: “Mind state of a gangster from the 40’s/ meets the business mind of Motown’s Berry Gordy.” The song is called Pray, a song, that paints a picture of a man whose environment and upbringing has bred ruthlessness. A man so far gone, his only option is prayer. Jigga’s lyricism is clever, clear, potent, smart and above all, cool, as he states “This is the genesis of a nemesis/ mother America’s not witnessed since/ the Harlem Renaissance birthed Black businesses.” The drum drives the song, and Jay rides the rhythm effortlessly creating a beautifully blended catalyst for head noddage.

Then the young mans itch of being a gangster, heard on Pray, is taken up a notch on the following song, American Dreamin’ where he discusses dreaming of selling drugs. He mentions the notion of his mother wanting him to go to Harvard, and how far-fetched that seems when starvation sets in. Hello Brooklyn, is an ode and love song, naturally, to Jay-Z’s birthplace, and pride and joy, Brooklyn, New York. Lil Wayne accompanies him on this one, but not with the usual Weezy flow, instead it’s more of a singing he’s doing, which some (the Wayne stans) will love and some will be extremely irritated by.

One of the shining moments is on No Hook, a song where Jay, takes some time to display an honesty similar to that on songs like Moment of Clarity from the Black Album, as well as well as Lost Ones from Kingdom Come. He conversationally describes the talk with his mother about being a gangster, when he says “Stay outta trouble/ mama said as mama sighed/ her fear that her youngest son/ would be a victim of homicide/ but I gotta get you outta here mama or I’m a die.” And the chorus, as honest as the verses, is, well, “I don’t need no hook for this shit” which of course, is a great hook (he did it much better than Murphy Lee, I promise.)

The low point of the album comes on the ninth track, Party Life. The song is cool, laid back groove one would play, perhaps in a Cadillac, wearing a three piece suit. It’s a pinky ring, feather in fedora, silk ascot song. Jay-Z who could easily pull this off without trying, decides to try, which ruins it. It sounds so contrived, as if one of the smoothest rappers alive, had suddenly become uncertain, and the result was an overcompensation, into corniness. The first three words of the song, “Ordered some Patreezy” let me know this song was destined to fall short. First of all, “Patreezy?” Second of all, this is a brown liquor song, Jay, you know that.

Luckily, he counters the flop of Party Life, with the stellar, Ignorant Shit, which is a song that makes a statement about what people want to hear from him. Before the song starts and Jay is doing his infamous “It’s your boy!” thing, he says “Yall got me really confused, I make Big Pimpin or Give It To Me, and yall hail me as the greatest writer of the 21st century, but when I make some thought provoking shit, yall say I’m falling off.” But one of the most important parts of the song, and possibly of the entire album, is the third verse, when responds to the attack on Hip-Hop:

“I missed that part/ where it stopped being about Imus/ What do my lyrics got to do/ with this shit/ Scarface the movie did more/ than Scarface the rapper to me/ still that ain’t no blame for/ all the shit that’s happened to me/ Are you saying what I’m spitting/ is worse than these ‘celebutantes’/ showing they kitten, you kidding/ let’s stop the bullshitting/ till we all without sin/ let’s quit the pulpiting”

Success, an organ heavy swagger track, has the much missed sound of Jigga’s flow on Reasonable Doubt. Honestly, it made me think he may have written this one down. He has his ex-nemesis, turned friend, Nas, on the song, who also steps up to the plate, and spits a hot sixteen, with quotes like, “Yall drive by like monuments/ Google Earth Nas/ I got flats in other continents.”

Fallin, comes next, which is a cautionary tale, about falling from grace, and how every gangster has his day, when he’s caught, and left out there alone. Karma. The Neptunes produced, Blue Magic follows up, with an eighties flow, that now, might even seem foreign, to those of us raised during this time period. But it was a nice touch from Hov, though risky, and possibly detrimental as a single for an album which is not eighties-like, at all, besides the crack and heroin talk.

The last song is a proclamation, American Gangster, in which Jay-Z celebrates his life, his hustle, and his passion for achieving “the sky.” A song, appropriate for a man, who has indeed made his mark in music, fashion, international culture, sports, and all around business. Technically he is much as an American gangster as Frank Lucas, or as John D. Rockefeller, or even as George Bush Sr. And for the rest of the American gangsters, as well as the people who are infatuated with the culture of gangster, and even those who just like to hear drug stories, from one of the best rappers to ever do it, Jay-Z doesn’t disappoint. That is, if you like that “ignorant shit.”

American Gangster by Jay-Z is released Tuesday November 6, 2007.