madtheory's Full Review: Jay-Z Live... MTV Unplugged [PA] - Jay-Z
When I first heard that Jay-Z was going to drop an MTV Unplugged album, I laughed. Hard. Anyone who’s seen Jay-Z perform live knows that his stage performances aren’t that great, even with the lights, effects, dancers, and other stuff. If you strip those away and delete his digital tracks and high-dollar production, all that’s left is an above average rapper spitting rhymes over a Digital Audio Tape or mediocre house band. Besides, to the best of my knowledge, the only other rapper that’s done an Unplugged set is LL Cool J, and LL ripped it just because he brings so much energy to every show. I can say what I want about LL, but give him the mic in front of a receptive crowd and the roof is coming off, guaranteed. Canibus should take notes.
Anyway, my laughter stopped when I heard that The Roots were backing him up. This impressive group of Hip Hop/Jazz fusion musicians could rock a show blowing a kazoo and strumming used dental floss. Give ‘em an old bucket and chopsticks for drums too and they’ll turn the venue into Fresh Fest 2002. If you’ve never seen the Roots live, you’ve truly missed the best Hip Hop has to offer. Combine their talent with Jay-Z’s lyrical skills and catchy songs, and you’ve got the makings for a very enjoyable show. This is what Jay-Z and the Roots put together on the latest recording from MTV’s Unplugged series, Jay-Z Live… MTV Unplugged; a great show with deft lyricism, solid songs, and killer musical performances.
Track Listing
1. Izzo (H.O.V.A.)
2. Takeover
3. Girls, Girls, Girls
4. Jigga What, Jigga Who
5. Big Pimpin’
6. Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love)
7. Can I Get A…
8. Hard Knock Life (The Ghetto Anthem)
9. Ain’t No
10. Can’t Knock the Hustle (feat. Mary J. Blige) / Family Affair
11. Song Cry
12. I Just Wanna Love U (Give it 2Me)
13. Jigga that Ni**a
14. People Talking (Bonus)
The performance starts out with the single that you would have needed to be deaf to avoid a few months ago, “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”. The Roots add a lot of depth to the song by adding violins and violas on the melody, accompanied by a jazzy flute. This is one of the tracks that I think actually came out much better than the original.
Next up is a remake of Jigga’s Nas/Prodigy assault, “Takeover”. Hova does a nice job with the raps and crowd element here, but the real story on this track is the work by the Roots. The guitars and keyboards capture that “Five to One” hook perfectly. For the section where Jay-Z takes shots at Prodigy, the group switches up the music to “Shook Ones pt. II” by Mobb Deep. Then when Jay focuses on Nas, they flip to the beat from “Oochie Wally” done by Nas’ Bravehearts camp. It’s some pretty clever stuff.
Jay-Z gets some nice crowd interaction going on “Jigga What, Jigga Who.” Here, he divides the crowd into halves, with one side yelling out “Jigga What” while the other shouts “Jigga Who,” each at the appropriate times. I think he should have done a little more to pit the sides against each other. It definitely would have hyped up the crowd a lot more. For the lyrics, he spits that high-speed freestyle while the band captures the sound of the original song perfectly. ?uest and Hub do a spectacular job capturing the syncopated drum and guitar beat.
The Roots must have known that they were going to lose the crowd a little at the end of “Jigga What, Jigga Who” (not too much gimmicky stuff for the audience to latch on to), so they immediately segue into the big single from Vol. 3, “Big Pimpin’”. Since Bun B and Pimp C are thankfully absent, Jay drops his two verses from the radio single over another impressive emulation from the Roots.
In the middle of the session, Jay includes a pretty nice medley of some of his classic material. He kicks it off with a rendition of the smash hit “Can I Get a…” from the Rush Hour soundtrack. After a verse of that, the Roots blend into the slower “Hard Knock Life” with a female vocalist doing a nice job of the Little Orphan Annie loop. Then Jay takes it all the way back to Reasonable Doubt with “Ain’t No” minus Foxy Brown. Overall, it’s an excellent mix of songs.
Most of these songs sound much better with live instrumentation, especially the more dramatic pieces like “Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love)” and the lamenting “Song Cry”. With “Heart of the City”, the Roots again reinvent the sound of the original adding some skilled musicianship to make it fresher. However it’s Jaguar Wright that really explodes on this track. Her remarkable vocals add a great deal of emotion to the hook, and completely dominate at the end. Even Jigga was impressed.
It’s a shame that Jigga couldn’t go further back into his discography, but the execs at MTV picked the songs knowing most of his current fan base didn’t know who the hell he was prior to The Life and Times of S. Carter Vol. 2. Most of the performances are from The Blueprint and the only songs off his classic Reasonable Doubt are the singles off that album, “Ain’t No” and “Can’t Knock the Hustle.” Jay’s pre-TRL work is untouched for the most part. I guess that’s a good thing though; this crowd would have been sitting on their hands if he would have performed “Dead Presidents II”.
But nonetheless, Jay-Z Live… MTV Unplugged is pretty good. Jay-Z takes his performance up a notch and actually energizes the crowd. The Roots nail each and every song almost perfectly, adding droplets of their own Hip Hop/Jazz fusion flavor as they go. Don’t miss how they drop a piece of Carl Thomas’ “I Wish” during “I Just Wanna Love U” and splice in Mary J. Blige’s latest single “Family Affair” after she collaborates with Jay on “Can’t Knock the Hustle”.
Listening to this CD makes me upset that more emcees don’t make use of live musicians. If Jay-Z had taken the Roots or another equally talented band into the studio to do similar work on The Blueprint, I would have absolutely no problem giving that album 5 stars. However, it also makes me wonder if Jay-Z missed his true calling, backing up Tariq, Malik, and Dice Raw as a hype man for the Roots. Then again, maybe not.
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out
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