Jay-Z

New York rapper Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) was one of the most successful hip-hop acts of the 1990s. His gangsta-rap album Reasonable Doubt (1996) was a concept on drug dealing penned by a real-life small-time hustler. The songs exude anxiety and guilt as Jay-Z laments his own nihilism. This album imposed a new standard of delivery and flow for rap music. David "Ski Beatz" Willis programs the propulsive dialogue of 22 Two's, crafts the beat of standout Dead Presidents II , infected with a disorienting piano carillon derived from Lonnie Liston Smith's A Garden of Peace, complements Angela "Mecca" Scott's sensual hook in Feelin' It with jazzy piano, and appropriates the Stylistics' orchestral and choral dancing soul for Politics as Usual. Christopher "DJ Premier" Martin's hypnotic moribund beat for the self-glorifying Bring it On and his melancholy piano pattern and percussion chaos of D'evils are emblematic of the album's minimalist production. Can't Knock the Hustle, a dialogue with the bluesy hook of Mary J. Blige opens with heartbeat and then glides over the subdued beat made by Jerome "Knobody" Foster and Deleno "Sean C" Matthews. Jay-Z's mentor Jonathan "Jaz-O" Burks sculpts the pop counterpoint over thin funk beat of Ain't No Nigga. Rodolfo "DJ Clark Kent" Franklin twists the Ohio Players' Ecstasy into a circus-like chorus for Brooklyn's Finest, a mafia-style collaboration with The Notorious B.I.G. Irving "Irv Gotti" Lorenzo stuffs an orchestral sample of Isaac Hayes' The Look of Love into the existentialist cry of Can I Live. The reissue includes two bonus tracks: the cinematic Friend Or Foe (beat by DJ Premier) and Can I Live II, a remix with propulsive sax beat that brings out both anger and bombast.

The albums of the following five years were the exact opposite: superficial, artificial and meaningless. The conversion to mainstream pop-hop fusion began on My Lifetime Vol 1 (1997), and its hits Sunshine and The City Is Mine, and continued on Vol 2: Hard Knock Life (1998), with Can I Get A, Hard Knock Life Jigga What, It's Alright and Money Ain't a Thang, the star-studden Vol 3: Life and Times of S. Carter (1999), and Dynasty Roc la Familia (2000), with I Just Wanna Love U and Change the Game. Each of these was a monster selling album. Jay-Z's style was easy to digest and basically invented living-room rap.

The Blueprint (2001), with Izzo, upped the ante a bit. Jay-Z sounded rejuvinated. There are three main producers. Roosevelt "Bink" Harrell arranges grandiose opener The Ruler's Back with this cinematic horns, sculpts the poly-syncopated All I Need and backs Blueprint (Momma Loves Me). Justin "Just Blaze" Smith adds kitschy strings to the anthemic, complex vocal interplay of Girls, Girls, Girls, and repeats the trick (neoclassical strings and soul chorus) for the stately self-flagellation melodrama Song Cry but also adds a sped-up sample of Bobby Glenn's Sounds Like a Love Song that made history. Kanye West provides an artful cross-pollination of Jay-Z's menacing rant with the Doors' raunchy Five to One in Takeover. His work on Heart of the City (almost a tribute to Bobby Blue Bland's Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City) is so dense that at times it is almost cacophonous. He turns Izzo (H.O.V.A.) into a catchy skit by sampling the Jackson 5’s I Want You Back. Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley contributes the tribal chant and pounding funky beat of Hola' Hovito. The Trackmasters (the duo of Jean-Claude "Poke" Olivier and Samuel "Tone" Barnes) concoct the magisterial choreography of vocals and Indian-esque sound of Jigga That Nigga. Eminem steals the show in Renegade a joint manifesto about freedom of speech in rap lyrics (arranged by Eminem 's usual producer Luis Resto). The production standard of this album and in particular the "chipmunk soul" technique influenced hip-hop for several years, and Kanye West and Just Blaze went on to become trend-setters.

It was actually the eclectic (if inferior) double album The Blueprint 2: The Gift & the Curse (2002) that established his credentials as a musician. Not a single track was innovative, but all tracks were sophisticated enough in their respective (crossover) styles. Just Blaze and Kanye West produced 11 of the 25 songs, followed by The Neptunes (4 songs) and Timbaland (3 songs). Kanye West crafts the tribal beat of the six-minute posse-cut Poppin' Tags, the tense and cacophonous score of The Notorious B.I.G. tribute A Dream, the Caribbean oneiric beat of lead single '03 Bonnie & Clyde (featuring Jay-Z's girlfriend Beyonce Knowles), the martial and thundering The Bounce (featuring the entire Roc Nation tribe plus West himself, co-produces with Timbaland), and the suspense of Some People Hate (sampling the drum break from OutKast’s Player’s Ball and the vocal loop from Brian and Brenda Russell's Word Called Love). Just Blaze is responsible for the emphatic electronic theme of Hovi Baby, for the electronic march of Show You How for Bitches & Sisters, for the sped-up sample of Jermaine Jackson in Some How Some Way, and for the festive, almost rocking celebration of As One, featuring the entire Roc Nation (Memphis Bleek, Beanie Sigel, Freeway, Young Gunz, Peedi Crakk, Sparks and Rell). Timbaland concocts the frenzied and ugly beat of What They Gonna Do. The Neptunes turn A Ballad for the Fallen Soldier into a smooth and somnolent soul ballad. Henri Charlemagne culls a funereal chant from an Ennio Morricone for the ominous Blueprint 2. Dwight "Heavy D" Myers delivers the fractured noise-rock accompaniment of Guns & Roses (featuring Lenny Kravitz). Ernest "No I.D." Wilson props up All Around the World with a gospel-ish female counterpoint. Dr Dre's expansive beat of The Watcher 2 samples Dr Dre's own The Watcher.

Jay Z Collison Course (2004) documents a collaboration with Linkin Park.

Jay-Z announced his retirement after The Black Album (2004), containing the pounding, explosive 99 Problems, but nobody believed him.

The Best Of Both Worlds (2002) and Unfinished Business (2005) were collaborations with R. Kelly.

Despite the cast of guests (Dr Dre, Timbaland, Pharrell Williams, Kanye West), Kingdom Come (2006) was another disappointment.

On the other hand, American Gangster (2007), a post-modern concept album drenched in the sound of the 1970s (with floating snippets of Al Green, Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye), restored Jay-Z's claim to the throne of gangster-rap (Pray, Ignorant Shit).

The Blueprint 3 (2009) finally concluded the "Blueprint" series, with Alicia Keys helping in Empire State of Mind, Rihanna in Run This Town and Timbaland penning Off That. It was the 11th album by Jay-Z to top the sale charts, thus beating the record held for decades by Elvis Presley.

Watch The Throne (2011) was a collaboration with Kanye West, mostly an excuse to line up world-famous stars and hire the world's most high-tech studios.

Magna Carta Holy Grail (2013) was, hopefully, just a joke (including the single Holy Grail (2013), a collaboration with Justin Timberlake), even worse than Kingdom Come (2006).

If you don t care about Jay-Z s personal life, there is no reason to listen to 4:44 (Universal, 2017), a confessional concept album (mostly spoken-word) that feels like psychiatric therapy. The music is limited to a few minutes, best probably The Story of O.J. with the counterpoint of a female vocalist who seems to sing a different song and some soulful jazz piano. The centerpieces would be the two eight-minute melodramas, 4:44 and Smile. But these, and other songs, only owe their appeal to the artful direction of producer No I.D.. It's his work that provides the setting for these songs. He plays Jay-Z's boring lyrics against a soundtrack of black music that includes Stevie Wonder s Love s in Need of Love Today (Smile), Nina Simone s Four Women (The Story of O.J.) and Donny Hathaway s Someday We ll All Be Free as well as oldies from the Alan Parsons Project (Kill Jay-Z) and Quarteto 1111 (Marcy Me, 1970). You just have to try really hard not to listen to the words.

Everything Is Love (2018) completed the trilogy of albums devoted to Jay-Z's famous marriage with Beyonce (after Beyonce's Lemonade and Jay-Z's 4:44). This time they spend most of the time bragging about their wealth, which ends up sounding like a self-caricature given the low artistic quality of their combined output. All three albums of the trilogy are valuable more as rap's equivalent of reality television shows than as music. Few couples have produced such uninspired music for such a long time. And, in the annals of show business, it is hard to find a similar couple of obnoxious billionaires. In 2023 they bought in Malibu the most expensive house ever sold in California.