Jay-Z American Gangster (Review)

"5/5, enough said. Disagree? Go listen to the album and holla back at me."

The quote above is my original review of Jay-Z...oh I'm sorry, Jigga's new album American Gangster. Luckily for you guys, I decided to go back and elaborate lol.

Lets start with the bad, since that won't take as long: Hello Brooklyn 2.0. To be fair, it wasn't just Lil Wayne that makes this song stick out like a black man in Utah, the beat, though good, just throws off the album's tempo as soon as it comes on. Who knows why Jay wanted this throwaway mixtape track from Wayne so bad, but its inclusion (especially at track 4) could've been better filled by the title track American Gangster or the completed version of Dead Presidents 3...hell, they could've used the snippet and it still would've been a better fit. Plus, who knows why Wayne was making a song praising Brooklyn in the first place lol.

Welp, now that we got the bad out of the way, lets go over why this album is so great. First off, the intro is phenomenal! It sets the pace for the album perfectly with an ill beat and powerful words from Idris Elba as he defines what a gangster is. After the intro, Jay goes right in with Pray and American Dreamin' and proves he still hasn't lost a step...until the next track starts, of course. Once the out of place Hello Brooklyn 2.0 concludes, the tone set by the first 3 tracks picks right back up on No Hook. Everything from that point on just flow together so well and the album just feels so right!

Despite Hello Brooklyn 2.0, I went back and forth wondering whether this album was classic or not, and in my opinion it is. Its right up there with Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint to me so I had to give Hov the 5. If you don't agree that's cool, but I don't wanna hear NOBODY saying this shit wasn't hot like some tried to do last year with Kingdom Come. Oh yeah I'm STILL trying to figure out what was so bad about that album lol.

5/5