"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosphy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents."- Ludwig van Beethoven
I was (and still am) a HUGE Darryl Strawberry fan. My brother Al and I used to sit in his Queens Village home leaning towards the TV when the NY Mets’ lean lefty stepped-up to the plate. If he singled, advanced the base runner, walked, stole a base or had a successful sacrifice—all positives in baseball speak—we looked at each other deflated that the larger than life Straw Man didn’t hit one over the Whitestone Bridge. Unrealistic, perhaps, but that didn’t change our anticipation. My brother is married now, so rap music is regulated to an un-repairable irrelevance in his house.
Personally, I thought the Black Album was Jay-Z’s walk off home run. Uncharacteristic and irrelevant as a formally announced rap retirement seems, the three-year anticipation had me fending like a Simpson verdict for Jigga’s Joint to drop—and oh did it drop!! Kingdom Come is here, a 14-track jewel; and judging from all of the red light head nods in the jeeps and coupes, not to mention million-plus swiped barcodes, BEYONCE can safely anticipate a present-filled holiday season. I wouldn’t invite Free to any egg nog celebration, if I was her… And, as usual, I digress.
Right from the start, track one “The Prelude” will have you adjusting the EQ. The extremely sick Rick James sampled, “Kingdom Come” will rattle the clubs for months. My neighbors are going to hate me for that one. They’ll move by the 14th track, “Beach Chair,” which is my favorite. Carter’s collection clearly has something for everyone—including a lyrical tribute to his mom, which truly illustrates his unique, two-fold position between pop (music) and popular (culture). He may be both, which is simply unheard of.
Severed friendships, gut-wrenching relationships, mourning the lost of a loved one, yeah, Kingdom Come poetically strokes it all. The self-dubbed mythical metaphoric, yet sometimes misogynistic man even has a wack duet with Princess Pop; probably just to keep peace at the house. Who knows, I may stuff my brother’s holiday stockings with this one and shake things up in his “Queen’s” home. Or is that what NAS came to do?
1 love,
Ray Lewis
3 comments:
I am not sure how much you liked Jay's new one, but I am very sure I loved the article. Please don't ever change.
I thought the "un-retirement" of Jay-Z might bring you back to the blogosphere. :O) Nice scribe as always. I'm almost inspired to buy this CD. Almost.
This article was very well written, dispite its' against-the-grain interpretation..Jay has been, and will continue to be one of the most clever writers of our day..I personally appreciate his vulnerability, allowing us to basically watch him grow into what I consider a prolific wordsmith..Unfortunately, in this particular genre of music, this talent is exactly what gets 2 out of 3 of the artists that make it, airplay..Hip Hop (on a whole) is saturated with folks that are better than average when it comes to "word-play", I do believe that Jay is one of the better at it, but that does not give him the right to drop what I believe is less than his best..
As far as lyrically "Moving" me, This CD does not cut the mustard..Combine that with tracks that are sub-par, Jay will not get a nod from me on this one..
Much Respect to "MY" Godfather of Soul: Mr.James Brown (R.I.P)
Regretfully
Spoon
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