The severe and bucked Jay-Z

Jay-Z's last year's album Kingdom Come has witnessed quite significant changes in the rapper's style and approach, but if you thought he had forgotten his past you are wrong. It turns out it is all about the inspiration. Having seen Ridley Scott's new film American Gangster Jay-Z has got so inspired as to have an impulse to make new material wholly dedicated to his past and the way he sees the street life. As always it did not take much time, and this November a new record American Gangster has hit the stores. Although the album contains the parts of the film dialogues, it has resulted into the rapper's rather personal collection and has little to do with the content of the film. Nevertheless American Gangster is a conceptual album dedicated to the life of gangsters, their personal struggles and feelings. Jay-Z's rap remains at the top, and as for the arrangements, there has been nothing to worry about for the production team includes P Diddy, Jermaine Dupri, The Neptunes and many others. If anybody worried that the rapper's previous work saw him fall out a little, this creation is meant to make everything clear, for now we face once again the severe and bucked Jay-Z.

A more interesting and varied work American Gangster

On the whole American Gangster is much more interesting and varied from the point of view of instrumentation than anything Jay-Z did before. An electronic Intro gives a general idea of what it is like being a gangster, noble and wicked at the same time. Synthesizers dominate on a melodious composition Pray, in which the rapper reveals to the listeners what there is in the soul of a gangster when he talks to God asking for forgiveness. One of the most interesting tracks on the album is Hello Brooklyn 2.0 featuring Lil Wayne, which is built around the sample of a Beastie Boys song. Telling of how it is important to remember one's past No Hook impresses with its powerful basses, and the up beat Roc Boys (And The Winner Is)... are based on tubes which the rapper is so fond of. Jay-Z permits himself a little prank, that is practically a pop song I Know which is a bit out of the gangster album format, and even Pharrell’s presence does not improve the impression, but he immediately rights himself on a great song Party Life telling of the joys of gangsters' life. If you do not praise yourself nobody will – that is the basic idea of a bold composition Ignorant Shit performed with Beanie Sigel. Yet the rapper's mastery of a songwriter is best revealed on Say Hello where he analyzes the past events with an enviable aloofness, although the song is a banal love story at first sight. Another luck is composition Success featuring Nas, it boasts the best instrumental background combined with a faultless beat. The album closes with an excellent track Fallin' and two bonuses that are Blue Magic featuring Pharrell and the title one American Gangster.

A point of view worth being considered

It is a long time that Jay-Z makes so heavy a figure in the modern show business that he has quit being modest himself and states in one of his songs on American Gangster that even if he falls down he lands on a sack of money. Thus he can well allow himself anything he wants, and the new creation is not an exception. Many might say that all the topics he dwells on are already beaten and that he has not surprised anybody, yet Jay-Z's personal story is different from the others. It is possibly connected with his ability to make right conclusions of the life situations and actually learn from his own mistakes. That is why no matter how old the idea of a gangster album is American Gangster is not just street life but a point of view that is worth being considered. Jay-Z's inimitable and always recognizable rap continues to evolve, and the record can easily pretend to be the year's best hip hop work. Nobody knows what will inspire the rapper for his next creation it is sure to become as successful as the tough and confident American Gangster.

Alexandra Zachernovskaya
12.11.2007