Keep on truckin', Jay.Ġ5 Change Clothes The first single! And you know it's a hit already 'cause it's rocking the world's most reliable (and expensive) hip-hop production team. Sure, it sounds gimmicky on paper, but if anyone can pull it off it's "rap's Grateful Dead". A posse chants for the hook while an emcee encourages crowd participation and the band idles between verses two and three. Kanye West whips up a soul revue backing band complete with melancholy trumpet line and miasma-happy backup singers ("Hooo-woahhh-WOAHHH-ohvveee") for an imaginary mini-gig, while Jay contributes a very live-sounding performance. I mean, the track is introduced by a sample of dialogue from Gladiator: It doesn't get more epic than that, people! Merciless horn blasts, tender guitar licks, and turbulent string crescendos distract you when he identifies Martha Stewart as "Jewish," but the one element that makes "What More Can I Say" a true marvel is that, despite it serving as Jay-Z's alleged last hurrah, it manages to sound more like a celebratory changing of the guard than a self-penned elegy by one of hip-hop's greatest emcees.Ġ4 Encore It's a little hard to take Jay's claims of retirement at face value when The Black Album's first three songs all claim to be his last and this one makes reference to "when I come back like Jordan wearing the 45." But the concept of "Encore" makes such nitpicking irrelevant- a track like this leaves you waiting for the comeback. Buchannans, one of two unknown producers featured here, supplies a triumphant instrumental that serves as a perfect counterpoint to Jay's trademark hubris and incendiary braggadocio. Regardless of the reasonably simple Blueprint-tempered backing and familiar topical terrain, "December 4th" stands not just as one of Jay's finest performances to date, but Blaze's, too.Ġ3 What More Can I Say "What More Can I Say" is the sprawling pinnacle of every element that makes The Black Album an unrelentingly inspired future classic. The victorious overtone gives Carter the opportunity to apply his unwavering flow and powerful control of conceptual direction to his own personal experiences: When he details that he "had demons deep inside that would raise when confronted" and that "this is the life I chose, or rather, the life that chose me," the emotional context of the lines quickly turns to dumbstruck awe. (However, we regret that we could not take the concept to its logical extreme and cease operations after publishing it.)Ġ2 December 4th In this game of stick-and-move with triumphantly spiraling Chi-Lites strings, Hova's mother Gloria narrates a dizzying tale of growth through adversity, unusual childhood circumstances, and the catalysts for our protagonist's career. In light of the hype this record's received for its choice of beatmakers, we egomaniacally matched the personalities of our staff writers to Jay's producers. Carter as his third-best album- which in itself makes it one of the year's best. Even in falling short of Jay's classics, Reasonable Doubt and 2001's The Blueprint, it manages to eclipse 1999's brilliant Vol. What's stunning is that it delivers rap's greatest career-ender since Outkast's Stankonia. The prospect of hip-hop's finest producers laying down tracks for the final LP from the rap world's brightest talent has made The Black Album one of the most anticipated rap records of the decade. Certain lyrics hint that this isn't the last record he'll cut, but if that's true, will his game still be as tight when gets around to the comeback? It's anyone's guess, and that mystery is part of what makes this album such an intriguing listen. Or maybe it's not: Jay has cut an album every year for the past seven years that he'd want a break of some sort now is understandable. So why would he want out now, at the peak of his popularity? The Black Album, touted as his final release, offers some answers, though none as clear-cut as what may or may not be the truth: that it's all an elaborate publicity stunt.