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I’m still bringing it up because there needs to be these types of discussions. All this leisurely hip-hopping is disgusting.
First and foremost: 4:44 IS a great album. And, Jay-Z is still the Best Rapper Alive.* Now, let me address the elephant in the room. I’m an old school hip-hop head (dare I say it, an old-head). I come from the era of the MC. I could elaborate further but if I need to, you probably wouldn’t understand. The newer hip-hop/rap, in my opinion, births rappers (and a culture of fans) with relatively shorter careers/lifespans and stunted growth/maturity. Not too many artists from the past eras (or even the current era) could drop an album after 40 (damn near 50) and still have as much of an impact and relevance as Jay did here. This album was just so appropriate. He didn’t try to fit in with the current wave of music. It would’ve felt forced and unnatural. If you’re 47 years old and have the same mindset as these current 20-something year old artists, (and sadly enough, some of the 30/40 something’s too…) after all you’ve seen and been through, then…
But then again, Jay HAS been talking about pretty much the same stuff since he came out. I think it would be fair to say that he’s been pretty consistent as far as his Robb Report aspirations and lifestyle goes. 4:44 has the same old Jay-Z talk, but there seems to be an honesty and maturity level to this album that I don’t see in other ‘commercial’ rapper’s albums now. I’m thinking of the Rick Rosses and the Young Jeezy’s, who still cling to the one foot in, one foot out of the streets and drug game tropes. These tropes fuel the negative stigmas and stereotypes that we are still struggling to escape today. To have an album from that former street dude that focuses on the Black family, and legacy and wealth in a responsible manner, at this junction of the ascendance of Black culture and consciousness is highly appropriate.
BUT it’s not a conscious album. Is it? And Jay-Z is not a conscious rapper; is he? We can get into all the Illuminati and occultic references. Or his apparently blasphemous assertions and his perceived allegiance to D’evils. That’s a whole other conversation (albeit a long important one). That is all VERY debatable, but I want to close out with an old ‘freestyle’ Jay-Z dropped on Funk Flex (Most Kingz/Grammy Family).
I tried to transcribe the verse (the lyrics are below the video for those who still like to read), but there are some spotty areas that I couldn’t decipher. If anyone has any corrections, let me know.
*Note – I can name about 20 MC’s who are better lyricists than Jay-Z too. By Best Rapper Alive, I’m taking into consideration about 15 other metrics that your favorite rapper lacks.
Jay-Z's Grammy Family freestyle
Jay-Z:
“Say when (When)
Inspired by Basquiat, My chariots are fire
Everybody took shots hit my body up I’m tired
Build me up break me down to build me up again
They like Hov, we need you back so we can kill yo ass again
Hov got flow, tho he’s no Big and Pac, but he’s close
How I’m s’posed to win, they got me fighting ghosts
Man
Same Suge ig-Knight you (same sword they knight you),
they gonna good night you with
Shh…That’s only half if they like you,
that ain’t even the half what they might do
Don’t believe me, ask Michael
See Martin, see Malcolm
You see Biggie, see Pac. see success and its outcome
See Jesus, see Judas. See Caesar, see Brutus
See, success is like suicide. Suicide it’s a suicide
If you succeed, prepare to be crucified
Media meddles, niggas sue you, you settle
Every step you take, they remind you, you ghetto.
So it’s tough being Bobby Brown.
To be Bobby then, you gotta be Bobby now.
Now the question is, is to have had and lost
Better than not having at..
Man
Everybody wanna be King. The shots ring
You laying on ya balcony with holes in your dream
Or you’re Malcolm X’ed out, get distracted by screams
Everybody get your hand out my jeans
Everybody look at you strange n say you changed
Like you worked that hard to stay the same
Game stayed the same. The name changed
So it’s best for those to not overdose on being famous
Most kings get driven so insane
That they try to hit the same vein that Curt Kobain did
No danger is so gainless
Get right up to the inner sanctum of yo chambers
Low chained em. The (the end of me is) enemy’s approaching
So raise your drawbridge, and drown em in the moat
The spirit I’m invoking…
Hold on
Everybody screaming they want the old Hov
But the new improved Hov hit like Albert Pujols
Everybody wanna hear me talk that money like Phil Rizzuto
But my mind is on Pluto
Bills that I do fold, I now invest
On trying to find some loopholes in the IRS
Swear I use to have a few hoes, I am just
concentrating on making a new Hov through sex
I’ve awakened just to try to school those putos
Tryna follow in my shoes with jewels froze (but you was froze?)
Better adhere to this text before you go
Broke, spending more than you’ve accrued
On silly baguettes
I know silly begets silly, you’ll learn on your own
At least my conscience is clear, I’m no longer steering you wrong
Ain’t nothing wrong with baguettes after you get a home
Take care of your own, you can go back and, uh
I’m getting courted by the bosses
The Edgar’s and Doug Morris’, the Jimmy I’s and Lyor’s
Gotta be more than the choruses. They respecting my mind now
Just a matter of time now. Operation: Take Over Corporate
Makeover offices then take over all of it
Please may these words be recorded
To serve as testimony that I saw it all before it
Came to fruition, sort of a premonition
Uncontrollable hustler’s ambition. Alien superstition
Like Stevie. The writing’s on the wall like my Lady, right Be’by?
Saw it all before n shit, but y’all thought I was crazy, maybe like a fox
I’m KG (cagey).
The more successful, the more stressful.
The more I transform into Gordon Gecko
And the race to a billion got my face to the ceiling
My knees on the floor, please Lord forgive him
Has he lost his religion? Is the greed gonna get him?
He’s having Heaven on Earth. Will his wings still fit him?
I got the Forbes on my living room floor
And I’m so ? Motherfucker I want more
TIME’s Most Influential was impressive
Especially since I wasn’t in the Artist section
Had me with the builders and the titans
Had me right with Rupert Murdoch
Billionaire boys and some dudes you never heard of
Word up on Madison Ave is I’m a cash cow
Word down on Wall Street homie, you get to cash out
IPO Hov, no need for reverse merger
The boy money talk, no need to converse further
The baby blue Maybach like I own Gerber
Boardroom I’m lifting your skirt up, the corporate take…”
