Scribbler's Borrowers & Lenders of the Week: Jay-Z, "No Hook"

So the resident Jay-Z fan posted a Jay-Z song on his revamped series.  Surprise, surprise.  Ah well...deal with it because there will be more to come.  Anyway, the original Mr. Carter has been the beneficiary of "borrowing" many times throughout his storied career, and like last week's "Borrower" in Big K.R.I.T., he proves over and over again that he possesses quite the superb musical ear.  When he put out the super-dope American Gangster album and unoffical soundtrack (2007, Roc-A-Fella), "No Hook" immediately stood out.  (ASIDE: the song has a bit of sentimental value for me because whenever I think about riding around Philly with Mrs. Scribbler before she became the Mrs. and listening to this CD for the first time with her, "No Hook" is the first song that comes to mind.  That's enough of that sentimental ish...back to biz, kids.)  With Sean C & LV bringing the sample and Diddy calling upon the assistance of live musicians, the end result is a match made in heaven and the perfect platform for Jay to spit one of his many signature tales about the highs and lows of the streets:

Now this is not a hard-to-recognize sample like last week's post may have been or like many of the future posts will be.  If you've seen How to Be a Player (1997), you probably remember this song from the opening scene.  If you've listened to enough Quiet Storm shows, I'm sure that you've heard it a time or two.  It's the late, great Barry White's "Love Serenade"--a two-part musical love affair taken from Just Another Way to Say I Love You (1975, 20th Century).  It's dramatically sexy.  It's emphatically sensuous.  It's schematically smooth.  Again...it's Barry White.  Take a listen to the legendary "Lender":

Not many lyrics and ain't no need for them.  The music says and does it all.  Hard not to want to make some babies after hearing this classic--or at least "practice".  It's kind of crazy how Jay turned a hot-and-steamy bedroom ballad into a dark, telling tale with many splashes of introspectiveness.  However, the flair for the dramatic was not lost whatsoever once he got his hands on it.  It's hard to know whether Barry White would've approved of what was done with his masterpiece, but it's easy to surmise that Jay was inspired by "The Man" to come up with one of his own.