Please Don't Hate On 07.15.09: Jay-Z

Posted by Jay Carroll on 07.15.2009

This week, we continue to switch genres and go back to my first love, hip hop. The reigning King of Hip Hop is the subject (obviously), and there's a banner for you to dislike and stuff. Just click the damn link already.

Note: This week's column is swag-free (and by extension, better than you) due to the author's extreme prejudice against that word.

Since last week's column was a flame out (one comment? One?!) and I've been bouncing from genre to genre for the first 3 weeks, I've decided to come back to my personal wheelhouse: hip hop. Without question, hip hop is stuck in a rut lately. Unlike resident hip hop writer Fred Richani , I don't think the game is suffering from complacency as much as outright laziness, but it doesn't prevent me from enjoying hip hop below the mainstream level. Instead of launching into a diatribe about how hip hop is slowly killing itself, or throwing out analogies (saving all of that for a special Carroll Report in the future), I'm just going to examine an artist instead.

I almost forgot…… OMFG BANNER ~! (Credit goes to jamofpearls from the WrestleCrap.com Forum section)


Now that we have a banner, let's star the show.

Since Jay-Z's major label debut in the fall of 1996, he has been a heavy player in the hip hop industry. After the death of the Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z seemed to assume the mantle of best rapper in New York City, which people often associate with best rapper alive due to NYC's influence over the genre. At one point, Roc-A-Fella records boasted the best up and coming hip hop roster in the genre: with Dame Dash as the public figure, Kareem "Biggs" Burke as the silent partner, and Shawn Carter the focus of the label's music production, they were a dynasty, even assuming that moniker in the process. Arguably the years 1999-2003 would serve to be Jay-Z's peak, with the release of 3 near classic (or in the case of The Blueprint, classic) albums, a disc that began as a solo project that instead exposed the world to Just Blaze, Kanye West, and Freeway (The Dynasty: Roc La Familia), a collaboration album with R. Kelly (aptly titled The Best of Both Worlds) and an MTV Unplugged performance, back before the VH1 Storytellers series made it fashionable to present rap in that aspect. Despite, or maybe because of, all of this success, Jay-Z has amassed a small vocal minority in the hip hop community that think of Jay-Z as the Michael Jordan of hip hop. Not so much in the sense of "best of all time", but in the sense of "past his prime and needs to turn the game over to the younger generation. Personally, I've went from being his biggest detractor (Yes, I still think Nas won that battle, Hot 97 polls be damned) to being one of many that respect his contributions to the art of hip hop.

Complaint #4: Didn't he retire in 2003?

The running joke of Jay-Z's career has been his retirement. As early as Reasonable Doubt, he was already talking about retiring from the industry, building a stable of up and coming artists, and in general being just another guy walking around in music videos and making money off of his record label. A funny thing happened on Jay-Z's way to the executive booth: He didn't sign an artist worth noting at the time (sorry Memphis Bleek fans), and Def Jam would only sign his fledgling label if Jay-Z agreed to actually record as well. So, to keep his vision alive, Jay-Z remained in the booth, essentially being a player/coach/executive for his team. Along with this, Jay-Z constantly spoke of wanting to get out of the game, but being pulled back in every time he attempted to leave. So when his 8 album contract expired after his Linkin Park mash up collaboration album Collision Course in 2004, Jay-Z was off into the sunset. Technically, his 2003 release The Black Album was supposed to serve as his last will and testament to the industry, with Jay-Z going as far as to entitle the last track off of the album "My First Song" with lyrics such as:

"It's my life - it's my pain and my struggle
The song that I sing to you it's my ev-ery-thing
Treat my first like my last, and my last like my first
And my thirst is the same as - when I came
It's my joy and my tears and the laughter it brings to me
It's my ev-ery-thing",

and even having his Jay-Z persona shot in his "final" music video for 99 problems.

Skip ahead to 3:33, if you wish to just get to the point I was making.

Even with all of that said, the word "retirement" has pretty much become a joke in every profession. Brett Farve has retired the last 2 years running, only to come back. Terry Funk is famous/infamous for retiring multiple times from professional wrestling; I'm pretty sure his first announced "retirement" was in 1987 and he was still getting into the ring 20(!) years later. Michael Jordan retired 3 times, and only left the game for good once he realized he was just too old to play in the NBA. Abe Polian pushing him out the door may have helped him come to that realization as well. Hell, even Jesus Christ "retired" to Heaven, and depending on what denomination/cult you believe in, he's due back at any time. I'm not saying Jay-Z is on the level of Christ (or whatever higher being you believe in, we here at 411mania are religious tolerant), but at this point the word retirement should be retired and replaced with the phrase "I'm taking a break from this shit. But I might be back one day" for more accuracy. The clinching part of this argument? Jay-Z is still better than roughly 85% of the rappers who are still regularly releasing new material, even post-prime-and-retirement. If the man still has the skills to make good music, allow him to continue. To paraphrase Jigga himself, "Nobody ever tells rock bands like the Rolling Stones to retire, they just tell rappers to retire when they hit 40."

Complaint # 3: For all the talk of a "dynasty", Jay-Z and Roc-A-Fella never delivered on that promise.

Here's a quick summary of important people who signed to Roc-A-Fella Records, what they accomplished in their time there, and what their current status in the industry is as of right now:

Amil – signed during the run on female rappers that occurred between 1997-2001, Amil produced one album and faded into obscurity after she gained weight and had her first child. She' s working the mixtape circuit with her former group, according to the latest word I've heard on her.

Beanie Siegel – the leader of the State Property stable of artists, the South Philly native released 4 albums for the Roc-A-Fella imprint, and was engaged in one of the more memorable beefs of the post-Nas/Jay-Z era with Jadakiss (which he won by ripping Jada to shreds over his own hit record). Has spent an increasing amount of time imprisoned since 2004. Arguably the best rapper from Philadelphia today (yes, I think Black Thought is a more talented MC, but Beanie registers higher on the popular conscience. Then again, so does Cassidy, but this is Jay-Z related)

Cam'ron – signed by Dame Dash, allegedly without Jay-Z's permission, in 2001. The Dipset capo went from thinking he was signed to an executive deal with Roc-A-Fella to asking for his release from Def Jam in less than 3 years, citing that he felt his projects weren't properly pushed. Later started a war of words with Jay-Z, accusing him of ripping off verses from other, more talented rappers (more on that later)

Foxy Brown – gave Jay-Z a sparring partner on his first commercially successful release and later signed with Roc-A-Fella in 2004. Between her legal troubles and lack of sales, she only released one album with the label before leaving in 2007. (Notice a trend with female rappers and Roc-A-Fella)

Just Blaze- went from being exclusively Roc-A-Fella records go to hitmaker in 2000, to getting his own major label imprint and a bevy of artists running to have him produce a track for them, just to have that ubiquitous "Just Blaze!!!" sound effect play at the beginning of the track. Ironically, he was brought in at the same time as…

Kanye West – the biggest artist to emerge from the Roc-A-Fella label, he also was signed to be an exclusive beatsmith for the Roc in 2001. After a car accident that damn near took his life, the man that was "sav(ing) all the good beats for himself" would release The College Dropout in 2004 and run towards solo success. His 2005 single "Diamonds Are Forever" served as a notice that not only was "the Roc still alive" but that he was carrying the banner for everyone else too.


Blah, blah, blah, Kanye West is a future subject of this column, so I'll leave off on him here.

Memphis Bleek – Jay-Z's pet project (and the person that Hov force-fed rhymes to for his appearance on Reasonable Doubt ), he never really amounted to much of a solo artist. In an interesting twist, Jay-Z's first hint at coming out of retirement was recording the song "Dear Summer" and releasing it on Bleek's 2005 album 534

Honorable mention: Ol Dirty Bastard, Young Gunz, Freeway, Peedi Crakk, Tru Life, Uncle Murda, ect – None of the previously listed artists really moved units as a part of Roc-A-Fella, mostly due to unfortunate circumstances or the label never pushing them as good artists. Samantha Ronson is more famous for eating out Lindsey Lohan at this point than her stint at Roc-A-Fella, and Tierra Mari was a one single flop in the summer of 2006.

Overall, that's a pretty pitiful amount of artists that actually were helped by their time with the Roc. However, there is a critical flaw in this argument against Jay-Z: He wasn't the sole person in charge of Roc-A-Fella. Nevertheless, whenever another artist would fail to meet expectations, most of the time the blame was levied unfairly at Jay-Z.

Complaint #2: He's not a writer, he's a biter.

Thanks to Cam'ron being pissed off about his time with Roc-A-Fella, he decided to expose Jay-Z as a rip off artist with this compilation of lines that he's lifted over the years.



Jay-Z haters took this opportunity to accuse him of jacking every hot verse of his career from other rappers, and went so far as to say that he should return every accolade he was awarded and "hop off of Biggie's dick". The beautiful thing is that the hip hop community at large had a visceral reaction to this by finally admitting that hip hop was an art form where the phrase "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" was the standard and by pointing out that Cam'ron was guilty of the same thing.



At the end of this beef between the two artists, there was still segments of the hip hop community that refused to acknowledge these as being truths, but for the most part it was accepted as just a part of hip hop's fabric.

Complaint #1: Jay-Z may have been the best in the game when he left in 2003, but he has been surpassed by the next generation. His claims to being the king of hip hop aren't valid anymore.

After Jay-Z effectively stepped down from the throne in 2003, a lot of rappers took it as a once in a lifetime opportunity to snatch the label of "King of Hip Hop" for themselves. Much the same way that Michael Jordan's 2nd and 3rd retirements left the NBA scrambling to replace him, the hip hop industry tried to do something it had never done before: the attempt to find the next King was on T.I. went from being the "King of the South" to just King in a short amount of time. Cassidy proclaimed himself the "best rapper alive since the best rapper retired". Eventually, most of these claims ceded to the background as the groundswell for Lil Wayne to assume the mantle grew in leaps and bounds.

The main issue with all of these artists claims to hip hop's throne lies within their arguments to become the king themselves. None of them have the personality, lyrical content, or ability to affect the industry quite like the past holders of the crown. Jay-Z started the trend of extravagant videos, using capital made in the rap industry to fund other ventures, successful clothing lines, alcohol… Has any of the supposed new kings of rap had such an influence? Lil Wayne, while having the quantity of songs and the fanbase, does not have the ability to actually push the industry in a positive direction. As a matter of fact, his embracement of gimmicks and the AutoTune has caused hip hop purists to cry foul on the state of hip hop. Ever since Nas made the claim that "hip hop is dead" with an album of the same name in 2006 (while maintaining that hip hop is not dead), it has become the rallying cry of many a detractor to the status of hip hop currently. Jay-Z has weighed in with a very accurate, derisive song on this very subject:



He's absolutely right as well. Hip hop has stopped being about attempting to make the old things new again, and has become a game of cannibalization and copying people that pander to the ringtone buyers of the world. Even with him not being in his prime anymore, he is still better than most artists currently releasing records and can still influence the industry with one single. Overrated? Only if the new sacred cows of hip hop are as well.

I hope that this article will be used as a powerful persuasion against those who doubt Jay-Z's abilities. And if they still doubt the man, hand them a copy of Reasonable Doubt, and watch it get melted away.





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