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The Hits Collection - Volume One - Jay Z
by petinho
Jay-z is a phenomenon. Growing up as a deprived child in a poor part of Brooklyn, New York, Shawn Carter has taken over the hip hop world to become a multi millionaire entrepreneur of world renown. He has launched the careers of legendary artists such a producer Just Blaze (credited with the beat for public service announcement included ... here) and rapper/producer Kanye West (Izzo (H.O.V.A.)) and holds claim to several classic albums. This is his first greatest hits album and contains his most commercially successful l songs from his first eight solo albums. The glaring flaw in this is that there will never be enough space on one disc to satisfy all of his fans as Jay has dozens of classic songs both in the mainstream and the underground.
The aforementioned public service announcement is a great place to start such a collection. A firm fan favourite it was part of The Black album, one of Jays best, and, like the majority of the songs included on the cd, is an excellent piece of music. There is not a weak song included but as expected numerous classics have been left off in favour of more mainstream songs. For example the true brilliance of Jay lies in a song like dear summer as opposed to the chart smashing run this town.
This is a nice collection and is a good introduction for those not into hip hop, but for a casual Jay fan I would suggest buying the black album or the blueprint instead of the hits as they are a better testament to his qualityy as opposed to radio hits.
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My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West
by petinho
Kanye west is a douchebag. His words not mine (runaway), but if he wasn't modern music may be a much different and far more boring place. For every moment of madness under the spotlight, see his outburst at Taylor Swift during the VMAs, there is a moment of musical genius only a mad man could produce. This album is no exception and ranks ... among his, and hip hop as a wholes, best.
The first thing to mention is the production on this album. Kanye overseas a mass of talented musicians and producers to mould some truly fantastic soundscapes. The Smoky Robinson sampling "devil in a new dress" is one of the best examples as kanye flips Robinson's romantic crooning so that it becomes something completely different. The album sounds like a mixture of Kanyes previous styles and stages of creative growth as his trademark soul samples, used on the college dropout predominantly, mix with the live orchestration of late registration and the electronic elements of Graduation. The emotional tones and some of the autotune remain from 2009's experimental 808s and heartbreaks and are added to kanyes hip hop. A style distinctive from any other hip hop artist to have ever picked up the mic.
Lyrically Kanye struggled a little through his first couple of albums after being shown up by a number of the greatest MCs to ever pick up a mic (Nas, talib kweli etc) but for this album he has significantly upped his game. The only featured artists that can claim to have stood toe to toe lyrically with Kanye are the star turns of Jay-Z's brag rap on so appled and raekwons appearance on the dystopic Gorgeous. Nicki Minaj turns up for one of her few stand out verses on monster creating a career high water mark she is so far unable to match, as she lives with Yeezy and Hov on monster.
The number of features on the album is high with not a single song containing purely Kanye as artists such as Kid CuDi, John legend and Dwele make appearances. Often in modern rap this is counter productive as the features often distort the meaning of the song and distract from the headlining artist, however the true genius of this album lies in getting these musicians to work together to continue Kanyes vision. One of my favourite tracks on this album is a reworking of bon ivers lost in the woods to become Kanyes up tempo lament "lost in the world". This kind of unconventional move carries risks but more of kanyes come off than fail and the album is a monument to what can be achieved when a mainstream musician with Kanyes budget creates something out of the ordinary. A classic no doubt. The album ends in applause and you can't help but clap along. For all his flaws, what would we do without kanye?
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Cole World: The Sideline Story - J. Cole
by petinho
The career trajectory of J. Cole to this point is a huge part of this album. Entitled cole world: the sideline story a lot of the songs deal with J. Coles desire to make it to the top to where his mentor Jay-Z is (Mr. Nice watch, Gods gift, Rise and shine). Billed as hip hops latest in a line of saviors after two acclaimed mixtapes, ... 2007's the come up and 2009's the warm up, showing great potential from the young man from North Carolina. His whole life changed when one of his strongest songs "lights please" (included here is an improved remastered version) from the warm up was heard by Jay-Z one of the worlds biggest rappers. He was signed as the flagship artist to Jay's new RocNation label increasing the hype to huge levels. However Cole was soon brought back to reality when he was placed on the back burner by the label whilst less talented artists such as Willow Smith were pushed. This prompted the release of much of his original album as a mixtape entitled Friday Night Lights containing the single in the morning with now superstar Drake (also included here). Finally his album has been released to high expectations from fans and critics alike, with demand for nothing short of a classic. However, the album falls slightly short of this fabled status but should not be judged adversely because of this.
The weaker points of the album seem to be attempts at radio hits forced upon him by his label with songs such as can't get enough (featuring a woeful hook from Trey Songz) a long way off the best of what Cole has to offer as shown by the inclusion of average first single "work out" as a mere bonus track. For his best look no further than the heartfelt and thought provoking "lost ones" concerning the often taboo subject of abortion, The way Cole confronts this from the two points of view within a young couple results in a great conceptual song. This was recorded a few years ago before he was signed making you wonder what this album could have been if Cole was left to his own devices. Other high points include the head nod inducing gods gift and rise and shine as well as the two tracks lifted from his past mixtapes which are without doubt some of his strongest but may frustrate long term fans who have had these songs for a number of years.
In conclusion, this album is a mixed bag containing some of the best (lost ones, dollar and a dream III) and worst (can't get enough, work out) of Cole. It provides a great introduction to new comers to the young fayetville man which may encourage them to delve into his superior mixtape offerings. When viewed subjectively however it is a very strong album and among the best mainstream hip hop offerings of this past year,.
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