Album Review: Jay-Z, "Magna Carta...Holy Grail"

As I have matured in the way that I listen to music, I have become one of those people that doesn't rush to declare an album's greatness until I've had ample time to sit with and study the product in its entirety.  Thus, you can imagine how annoyed I became at seeing so many people gawk at my favorite rapper's twelfth studio album, Magna Carta... Holy Grail.  Granted, Jay-Z flexed his hustler's muscle once again by selling a million records well before his much-anticipated album even hit the market, so you know this only fueled the frenzy.  What built the anticipation even more was that a lot of his core fans had been disappointed with his product as of late--some since American Gangster and many since as far back as The Black Album.  However, I knew there was trouble afoot for our beloved superhero (or beloved villain depending on who you ask)...

While many people heralded Watch The Throne--the collaborative effort between him and "little brother" Kanye West--one of the biggest issues that I had outside of the overall beat selection was Jay's flow and delivery.  Whereas Kanye seemed more comfortable and excited to do the project, Jay often sounded out of place, out of breath and a bit detached.  When he dropped "Open Letter" recently, you would've thought the Reasonable Doubt Jay-Z just made a cameo appearance; however, it featured his new-but-not-so-improved flow.  Naturally, I began feeling like my homie Ransom Rellic: "Don't play for the Wizards!!! Retire as a Bull!!!"  Unfortunately, after 4-5 careful listens of MCHG, he sounds much closer to D.C. than Chi-Town--much more than I want him to be.  Although I agree with most people about the beat selection, you are about to read one of the most unbiased, detailed reviews of Magna Carta... Holy Grail from one of the biggest Jay-Z fans that you know.  Strap yourselves down tight and brace for impact...

1. Holy Grail (featuring Justin Timberlake).  Outside of the production super tandem of The-Dream, Timbaland, J-Roc and No ID, Mr. JT owns this song from the first few seconds and gets you prepared for what you assume is about to be something epic.  However, Jay-Z's flow is my issue.  He's doing this new thing where he says a line, pauses, goes "unh", pauses again and then says his next line...ain't a huge fan of the Swiss cheese flow for him as a predominant flow.  One of the best lines was when he's singing an interpolation of Nirvana's legendary "Smells Like Teen Spirit": "And we all just entertainers/And we're stupid and contagious."  I will give him credit for picking up the pace in the second verse and getting a bit introspective regarding the price of fame: "Can't even take my daughter for a walk, see 'em by the corner store/I feel like I'm cornered off, enough is enough, I'm calling this off."  Now Mrs. Scribbler isn't necessarily a fan of these assertions because she feels like he's "Draking" himself out with this whole "oh my gosh, I'm so famous that I don't know how to handle it" mentality and that he should be used to the limelight.  However, I respect his candor a little more and think that his perspective should naturally change because, as opposed to Drake, he's a husband and a father; hence, it's different with a bunch of cameras in the faces of you, your wife and your one-year-old daughter than when it's just you.  Basically, he's experiencing what Eminem talked about vehemently on "The Way I Am" regarding his daughter Hailie.  Overall, despite a few missteps, this is still one of the honorable mentions of MCHG.

2. Picasso Baby.  Timbaland and J-Roc...man alive, these dudes delivered a straight banger--although as me and my homie Gladiator discussed, the second half of the beat could've and should've been the whole beat.  Again, however, you have to get around Jay-Z's non-Hov-like flow (although it gets better in the second half of the song) to pick up what he's putting down--a lot of which sounds like Melvin in Baby Boy schooling Jody on the difference between guns and butter.  Notable lines: "Sleeping every night next to Mona Lisa/The modern day version with better features/Yellow Basquiat in my kitchen corner/Go ahead, lean on that sh**, Blue, you own it."  If I could take the second half of the song alone, this would be a contender for my favorite song on MCHG.  Totally puts me in the mindset of "Come and Get Me" from Vol. 3...Life and Times of S. Carter.

3. Tom Ford.  Again, Timbaland and J-Roc deliver the goods with a syncopated beat that sounds like an 80s arcade on steroids.    Paying homage to the designer by saying that fly ish is his addiction, Jay-Z actually flows better on the first verse this time around but gives you a meh flow in the second verse.  Once a murderer of bouncy Timbaland beats like "N**** What, N**** Who (Originator '99)," "Big Pimpin'" and "Is That Your B****," it's apparent that he doesn't weave in and out like he once did.  Still, he gives you classic slick lines like, "F*** hashtags and retweets, n****/140 characters in these streets, n****."  Despite a barely-making-it chorus compared to Jay-Z's normally adept hook-writing ability, I can live with this one...

However, my biggest issue with this song is not Jay's inconsistent flow, but his use of the "B" word in reference to his wife.  Despite being part of a genre mired in a history of misogyny and hatred toward women, you would think that a 40+ married man would be mature enough to use more respectful "pet names" for the "the hottest chick in the game".  He's the same guy that accurately and masterfully established the female dichotomy in "B*****s and Sisters" on The Blueprint 2: The Gift and The Curse.  By referring to Mrs. Carter in that manner, he is essentially saying that Beyoncé gets what she deserves, works his nerves, holds him up, slows him up, is in the streets with her nose in his biz, tells lies, wanna ride [in his car instead of drive her own], gives up the a** and does it fast, has n***** all in their crib, doesn't give a f*** and wants to check for his homie, and gets no love because Jay doesn't "love no b****".

It's especially troubling because he now has a daughter, and if he wants to set the best examples for his beloved Blue Ivy, then it needs to start on his own albums; this ain't '99 or '00, cuzzo.  Daughters often seek men that remind them of their father or father figure.  Thus, if she grows up and listens to a record like this, then it could make her think that it's okay to be with a man that calls her derogatory names because her father does it to her mother on wax.  That ain't never been cool, Iceberg Slim.  However, seeing that Beyoncé aka "Third Ward Trill" is actually on the song and echoing the chant, then it's not much more that I can say; if you like it, then I love it.

4. F***WithMeYouKnowIGotIt (featuring Rick Ross).  Although I can deal with the decent production job from Boi-1da, Vinylz, Timbaland and J-Roc, this is my 2nd least favorite full-length song on MCHG.  This is one of Rick Ross' weakest showings of recent memory other than "Hold Me Back", and if the song solely hinged on his performance, I wouldn't have even made it to Jay's verse.  He flows slightly better than the MMG label head, but it's still not his legendary flow.  Albeit a catchy little number if you have nothing else better going on in your brain, this is the first true "skipper" of the album.

5. Oceans (featuring Frank Ocean).  Yeah...didn't see this one coming.  A song called "Oceans"...featuring Frank Ocean...I guess allowing Ricki Lake or Joan Rivers to sing the hook wasn't gonna cut it, huh?  (I know, I know...I'm here all week.)  Anyway, I could easily sum up this song in one equation: Pharrell + Timbaland = a fishscale beat.  However, this is one of the best songs on the album because Jay's flow is more like his flow.  Furthermore, Frank and Jay give their takes on the role reversal from Black people coming over the waters to America as slaves to figuratively and literally being on yachts in modern times, having much more status, but still dealing with many of the stigmas.  Here are some of my favorite bars:

The oil spill that BP ain't clean up/I'm anti-Santa Maria/Only Christopher we acknowledge is Wallace/I don't even like Washingtons in my pocket/Black card go hard when I'm shopping/Boat dock in front of Hermes picking cotton...

Finally, the first consistent sign of hope on this album.  A good beat, a good feature, and Jay's actual flow and knack for providing his perspective in his unique (and often unappreciated) way all in one song.

6. F.U.T.W.  Continuing a streak of solid songs, this came very close to being my favorite song on the entire album.  Catapulted by another banger from Timbaland and J-Roc, Jay-Z's flow and motivational content is one of his better showings of the album.  He drops simple gems like "don't be good, my n****, be great" and a bit more intricate wisdom like the following: "See most my n***** die early twenties to late teens/I'm just trying to come from under thumb of this regime/One percent of a billion, more than n***** ever seen/Still they wanna act like it's an everyday thing."  Much like "Tom Ford", I would've liked to see him put a bit more effort and thought to the hook, but I'm not that upset at him for not having much of one here.  Although "F.U.T.W." seems to be a sleeper among more renowned reviewers, this ranks high on my list of Magna Carta's best tracks.

7. Somewhere in America.  Man, when this beat comes on...goodness gracious.  I'm really feelin' this Hit-Boy dude as a producer and he had the nerve to link up with one of my favorite producers in Mike Dean.  However, Jay-Z kinda drops the ball again with this whole rap-stop-say-unh-and-then-repeat flow.  I'll give him credit for making up for it with chuckle-worthy lines like "By the way, f*ck your math/You ain't gotta count it my n****, I can add/One million, two million/Three million, twenty million, oh I'm so good at math" and slick lines like "When I was talking Instagram/Last thing you wanted was your picture snapped".  Nevertheless, when you retread some of the same references like Jordan and Sinatra and tell Billy Ray Cyrus' daughter to "twerk" at the end of the song, it's hard for me to be in love with the track as a whole.  Off the beat alone, it's good enough for full blast in the whip though.

8. Crown (featuring Travis Scott).  In terms of full-length songs on MCHG, this is my least favorite song of all.  I have tried to get into Travis Scott as an artist and have listened to his material, but like many newer artists, there's a darkness about him that's hard for me to get around.  Combining that with one of the weaker beats on the album, another sub-par chorus, and Jay-Z's flow needing an APB, I skip this song even quicker than "F***WithMeYouKnowIGotIt"...at least that song's kinda catchy.  This is just a lot going on and not enough going on simultaneously.  Also, it's another song where he's treading that fine line between mocking people for treating him like God and revering himself as one because of the God-like things that he's accomplished in his own arenas.  Then again, when you've referred to yourself as "Jay-Hova" for most of your career, the latter part should be no surprise to fans and haters alike.

9. Heaven.  There's an overarching theme developing with MCHG: Timbaland and J-Roc are pretty good at producing and the supporting cast of singers play their positions well.  (In this case, Justin Timberlake delivers the goods once again.)  However, an unfortunate theme is developing as well: Jay-Z is not consistently making the most of these grand opportunities.  At first listen, I liked this song a lot, but I wasn't as enthralled the second, third and fourth time around.  Granted, I absolutely love how he came right at his whisperers: "Conspiracy theorists screaming Illuminati/They can't believe this much skill is in the human body."  Possibly one of my top 5 favorite lines on the entire album.  Nonetheless, although I get the whole questioning of religion and even comparing what he does as one of the most influential hip-hop artists of all time to being a "religious" leader in his own right, he seems to lose steam by the end in terms of flow and content, has difficulty in making his point stick and does some weird, high-pitched crap with his voice in the final few bars.  Despite all of that, it's still a bumpable song.  (Yeah..."bumpable" just became a word.  Someone please notify Webster's...PREE-SHAY-IT.)

10. Versus.  When I first heard the opening to this "interlude", I was digging the one-two combo of Timbaland and Swizz Beatz on the beat.  Then Jay-Z effed it all up with arguably his worst flow on the entire album and turned this into perhaps the laziest, most pointless 52 seconds of his storied rap career.  Next...

11. Part II (On The Run) (featuring Beyoncé).  In what appears to be the sequel to their "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" smash hit and spin on 2Pac's classic "Me and My Girlfriend", Timbaland and J-Roc replace Kanye West as producers this time around for Mr. and Mrs. Carter.  However, whereas Jay-Z and Beyoncé were a little more even kiel the first go-round, Beyoncé is clearly the star of this show...so much that Jay's absence from the song would've made it five times better.  B does what she's supposed to do as one of the top R&B/pop songstresses and artists of our era with beautiful, flawless harmonies and, dare I say, better lyricism than her hubby.  On the other hand, Jay continues his underwhelming delivery and I'm soooooo not a fan of how unnecessarily and annoyingly elevated his voice is in many spots.  I do like these lines though: "Ray Bans on, police in sight/Oh what a beautiful death, let's both wear white/If you go to heaven and they bring me to hell/Just sneak out and meet me, bring a box of L's."  At least we know that he was good at choosing a woman as his wife that can cover for him when he's not at his absolute best.

12. Beach Is Better.  Like "F***WithMeYouKnowIGotIt," "Crown" and "Versus", this also is a bottom-dweller track.  I've heard better beats from Mike Will Made It (though it ain't his worst either) and Jay's lyrics don't wow me either.  Could've done without this one and nobody would've missed it...and it's too short to like anyway.

13. BBC (featuring Nas, Pharrell, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Swizz Beatz and "Third Ward Trill").  Straight off of producing one of the most fun, danceable tracks of the year in "Blurred Lines" for Robin Thicke, Pharrell keeps the party going with the most upbeat song on MCHG.  I can't say that I'm in love with the chorus, but the song overall has enough energy to overcome that as well as what has become a dynamic duo in Nas and Jay-Z, who paint pictures that fuse the "Paid In Full" era with the swagger of today's shot callers.  Oh yeah...and Jay-Z's flow is more like Jay-Z's flow.  Now am I saying that I'm pressed to hear this song when I'm listening to the album?  Not really because I could skip this track depending on my mood, but all-in-all, it's cool for what it is.

14. Jay-Z Blue.  Although many people were initially praising this song as one of the album's highlights, I had to listen to it a second time before I could agree.  In fact, the more I listen to it, the more I'm convinced that it's the best song on MCHG.  Although Jay does more pausing in this song, it doesn't sound as contrived and he sounds more comfortable on a solid production job from Timbaland, J-Roc and Justin Timberlake. More than anything, he successfully tackles the subject of fatherhood and its associated fears, especially in the third verse when he arguably had his best flow of the entire album:

Father never taught me how to be a father, treat a mother/I don't wanna have to just repeat another, leave another/Baby with no daddy, want no mama drama, I just wanna/Take her back to a time when everything was calmer/Out in Paris on a terrace watching the Eiffel Tower and a Ferris wheel/Yet and still, nothing could prepare us/For the beauty that you be Blue be/Looking in your eyes is like a mirror, have to face my fears/Cheer up, why can't you just be happy/Without these back and forth thoughts, you too much like your daddy/Badly I just wanted to spend more time with him/Sadly life wouldn't let me get around with him/Now I got my own daughter, taught her how to take her first steps/Cut the cord, watch her take her first breath/And I'm trying and I'm lying if I said I wasn't scared/But in life and death if I ain't here/Apologies in order, Blue Ivy my daughter/If it was up to me, you would be with me/Sort of like daddy dearest...

I usually try not to quote entire verses, but it's hard not to when that could go down as one of his most candid, profound verses ever.  This is what I wanted to hear throughout the entire album, not just in spurts.  This is the perspective that I wanted to hear from someone that has had successful and/or invaluable experiences in various arenas including hip-hop, fashion, sports and relationships.  This is the Jay-Z that true Jay-Z fans wanted desperately to hear because it's reminiscent of the insight injected into "Where Have You Been," "Meet the Parents" and "December 4th" as it pertains to family matters.  Besides, how could I not love a song that begins with a Faye Dunaway monologue from Mommie Dearest and uses interpolations as well as inserting a cappella portions from "My Downfall" by the late, great Notorious B.I.G.?  Now this is truly one of those "oh-yeah-he-did-that" moments.

15. La Familia.  Though this is not my favorite beat out of the Timbaland/J-Roc tandem on MCHG, that doesn't mean that the beat doesn't go; I still like it.  What I am not a fan of, however, is how Jay devolved in delivery after such a stellar performance on "Jay-Z Blue".  If it weren't for his adamant assertions about family first and being protective over those that he deeply cares about, then I wouldn't care for this song at all.  Alas, there is hope as he delivers these simple, but profound lines: "My brothers is my brother like my brother is/My n***** is my brother like my mother's kids/Not just in good times, that's that sucka sh**/But in war times, this just what it is."  Coincidentally, that's also the point of the song where he flows the best during his verses.  I could take or leave this one in general though.

16. Nickels and Dimes.  This is another song that I had to listen to more than once before I could appreciate it like many of the reviewers...and my verdict echoes theirs.  It's a solid marriage between one of the album's best production jobs courtesy of Kyambo "Hip Hop" Joshua and Mike Dean and Jay's effortless-in-a-good-way flow.  His lines are wittier, his delivery is more fluid, and the shiny "dimes" that he drops "like Magic in his prime when Kareem sky hooked" are quite precious:

I cut myself today to see if I still bleed/Success is so sublime/Gotta do that time to time so I don't lose my mind/Something 'bout the struggle is so divine/This sort of love is hard to define/When you scratching for every nickel and dime/Got me itching to do this sh** for my mom/Do this sh** for my town/Leave the door open, hoping they kick it down...

With more careful and meticulous listens under my belt, I contend that this is the 2nd best song on MCHG, but it might be a close second.

Although I don't always like the compare-and-contrast game, you simply can't avoid discussing Jay-Z albums with doing so.  I broke down how Magna Carta ranked against his other studio albums on the basis of four elements: sheer desire to randomly listen to an album in its entirety, the percentage of songs that I won't skip on average, quality of beats and quality of rhymes.  MCHG ranked 7th, 11th, 7th and 11th, respectively.  If I were playing craps or thirsty for a Slurpee, then that would be a winning formula; however, I've never played craps and don't drink soda much anymore--semi-frozen or otherwise.  On my list of his greatest albums, those rankings averaged out to a three-way tie for 9th along with Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life and The Blueprint 3, which means it's a little too close to being as bad as Kingdom Come.  Not good, big homie.

Maybe between selling his stock in the Brooklyn Nets to focus on his sports agency, being the face of a record label and management company while helping to guide the careers of J. Cole and Wale, still being CEO of Rocawear, and being a husband and a father, he may be doing too much burning the candle at both ends to put his all into a rap album.  Maybe he's just not the same rapper that we've come to adore (or despise), and he could be just tired of or bored with rap.  He was more introspective and provided more social commentary at 26 on wax than he does at 43.  Nevertheless, whether you love, like, hate or are indifferent toward it, no album has been talked about more in 2013 than Magna Carta.  No album has been bumped more in the average car in the past nine days than Magna Carta.  No hip-hop album released this year will probably outsell Magna Carta.  Will I tell you not to buy it?  No, but I won't tell you that it's a mandatory purchase unless you simply want every album in Jay-Z's catalog.  Am I saying that I don't like the album or that it's just as bad as Kingdom Come?  No, but I'm definitely not in love with the overall product mainly because the role players of this production inadvertently upstaged the star of the show; it sounded more like he rushed out of the dressing room and thought he could just wing it instead of truly getting into character.