ALBUM REVIEW: JAY-Z – AMERICAN GANGSTER
Author: Staff | Date: October 27th 2007 | Filed: Album Reviews
Jay-Z returns with American Gangster. After nearly a decade the rapper is still going strong with his tenth studio album set to release November 6th in accordance with the film American Gangster, which is in theaters November 2nd.
American Gangster has some ultra solid productions from The Neptunes, including the single “Blue Magic” and “I know,” my favorite. Other productions from the album include Just Blaze, Jermaine Dupri and Mario Winans. This album is trill as f*ck, Hov definitely wasn’t lying about taking it back to the Reasonable Doubt, lyrical wise, I think this can be Reasonable Doubt’s latter. I cannot stop playing “Pray” and “Success” among others. I feel like this album is relative in so many ways, this is seeming proof that you can come from rags to riches in due time and Shawn Carter has paid all of his. Period.
MY RATING: 10
“Success” ft. Nas • ( FULL )
“Hello Brooklyn” ft. Lil’ Wayne • ( FULL )
“Say Hello” • ( FULL )
“I Know” ft. Pharrell • ( FULL )
Lea
October 27, 2007 at 7:09 PM
“blue magic” is not doing so good on the charts, what up with that. Jay-z can’t top reasonable doubt or the excitement that came along with it.
Out of all the 4 songs I like “hello brooklyn” the most.
GYP
October 27, 2007 at 10:49 PM
THE MOVIE REALY LOOKS LIKE IT’S GONNA DO GOOD
chris
October 29, 2007 at 8:48 AM
this album ain’t for the charts, its a concept album, pertaning to the movie, so radio or not , its still gonna do good….so get the hate outta your blood people….
Larrikin
November 1, 2007 at 4:41 PM
Success is definitely the best album on the album, but I disagree about Blue Magic and Hello Brooklyn. I skip both songs every time.
GT
November 2, 2007 at 8:57 AM
excitment around reasonable doubt?? ‘There was no excitment, it jus slowly crept up on everyone, it wasn a classice from day 1. This album could be the same. You can see where Jay comin from in this album, hes showin people that lyrically hes still amongst if not the best out there. He changes up flows, gets the craziest production(not radio friendly but do i care?? NO). People want jay to go bak to doubt, yet then they try an say oh well its not doin well on the charts is it?? Well as i remeber, reasonable doubt didn do amazingly, but it didn mean it wasn loved. Ive been listenin to this album for a day now an i love it(Downloaded but like every J album i will buy it, i jus couldn wait till tues to hear it!)
The Taxman
November 2, 2007 at 9:51 PM
I agree with GT. Everybody’s been saying for years that they want Reasonable Doubt Jay back. He’ll never be able to totally replicate the vibe he had on that album because he was in a different frame of mind. He was fresh from the streets. Fresh from being “Shawn Carter the hustler”. Now he’s a multimillionaire. So likewise that’s what he’s been rapping about. Yeah, he returned to his Reasonable Doubt mentality somewhat on this album, but the way he approaches it is like a “from the outside looking in” retrospective, instead of a “fresh outta the game” take on it. And it took a movie about hustling to bring him back close enough to even re-visit that place. It’s a damn good CD though. Way, WAY better than Kingdom Come. Jay-Z even said so himself in Entertainment Weekly, but I’m sure some will consider his opinion to be a biased one. Jay’s Greatest album [Reasonable Doubt] was not praised as an instant classic when it was released. I was largely looked over in fact and took years to finally reach Platinum. This album will certainly do better than that, but if you want to put it in the same vain as Reasonable Doubt, then you can’t allow Billboard and sound scan numbers to gauge the albums worth. It truly is one of Jay-Z’s best and most inspired albums to date.
Young
November 3, 2007 at 12:42 AM
I have the album and it’s classic… and I saw the movie and it’s classic. Just like Frank Lucas says, “My Man!” BANG!
This is Black sophistication at it’s finest…
west 4th
November 3, 2007 at 1:04 AM
man!! this album is tight…how can someone be in the game this long and continue to bang out classics? see albums don’t have to grow on me, i kinda get it on first listens…thats why bto this day i say “KINGDOM COME WAS VICIOUS”..if you dont agree play it back a couple of times..but this American Gangster is official….over 10 years in the game and over 10 albumsand still relevant..this is why HOV is one of the best….
heatmuzik
November 6, 2007 at 10:39 PM
Ill make this short………..simply a classic and over time everyone will see.