madtheory's Full Review: Kingdom Come [PA] by Jay-Z
Rappers do not retire. They fall off, get dropped, get shelved, or maybe even get shot, but people who have spent the majority of their lives fiending for the microphone never walk away from it willingly. At least not for very long.
Take Jay-Z for example. Having successfully turned a decade-long stint as one of rap's most eminent artists into several successful business ventures, Shawn Carter could never see the inside of a recording studio for the rest of his life and still have as much work (and money) as he could handle. Still, despite announcing his retirement following the release of 2003's The Black Album Jay couldn't seem to stay away from the mic, guest starring in various cuts by everyone from Kanye West to Beyonce to Lupe Fiasco, in addition to doing the odd show or two.
This year Jay-Z decided to give up the ghost and return to the game with his new album Kingdom Come. Although the name of the LP implies a miraculous second coming is contained within, don't be ready to kneel just yet.
As par for the course with the works of Hip-Hop's CEO, Kingdom Come does possess an assortment of bangers that will immediately find favor with your rewind button. The party themed “Show Me What You Got” is the first single on deck for this release, and although not as entrancing as some of Jigga's previous hits, Just Blaze’s mix of bright and brassy horn samples (including the immortal Shaft In Africa/“Rumpshaker” tenor sax loop) with live keys and drums and an intermittent Flava Flav drop makes the song feel considerably more vibrant and alive than its more two-dimensional radio contemporaries.
While the party material does well on the charts, Jay-Z is unquestionably better when creating less glittery tunes. Blaze again blesses Jay with undeniable heat on “Oh My God,” turning a yowling blues record into a spectacularly rugged anthem for the rapper's sharp rags-to-riches braggadocio. “Kingdom Come” is similarly dope, Hov talking fly over a neck-snapping boom-crack drum loop reminiscent of Boogie Down Productions' early days. In his lyrics, he compares his Hip-Hop homecoming to the Man of Steel’s return, “I’ve been up in the office, you might know him as Clark/ but, just when you thought the whole world fell apart/ I take off the blazer, loosen up the tie/ step inside the booth, Superman is alive.”
The most surprising aspect of Kingdom Come is just how much the artist allows Shawn Carter to peek out from behind his characteristically impenetrable Jay-Z armor. Typically tight-lipped on the mic about issues close to his heart, Dr. Dre's melancholy keys and strings combined with burgeoning songstress Chrisette Michele’s lamenting vocals on “Lost One” give Jay the medium to open up some about both the splitting of the Rocafella empire and his apparently not-so-indestructible relationship with girlfriend Beyonce. With “ 30 Something” he takes some of the themes and ideas normally celebrated by his mainstream rap peers and puts a perspective on them that can only come with age and wisdom: “I don't buy the bright watch, I bought the right watch/ I don't buy out the bar, I bought the nightspot.” Then on the dramatic “Minority Report,” he sympathizes with the victims of hurricane Katrina and questions whether or not he could have done more to help.
Of course, all the laudable material on this album only makes the minority of wack, generic album filler sound that much worse. Everyday becoming more and more synonymous with production as aesthetically appealing as a swift kick to the nuts, Swizz Beats continues with his assonant-synth driven pillage of ears with “Dig A Hole” featuring one-note wonder Sterling Simms. The finale “Beach Chair” is sonically better, but not by much. Lyrically Jay's abstract examination of life here is passable, but ultimately better left to suburban alt-rap artists with nothing more compelling to say.
One would think that Jay-Z is enough of a businessman to know that if he was truly intent on returning to rap, that all the hoopla and marketing fanfare associated with his return should be reserved for an album much more memorable than Kingdom Come. The production here is generally good and Jay-Z is deft as ever on the mic, but nothing here is particularly outstanding --- there's just not much to distinguish this effort from the rest of his catalog. The bonus disc of live concert cuts with him backed by a ?uestlove-led ensemble is a step in the right direction, but not enough to make the album feel any more noteworthy than anything else Hov has done. Although Kingdom Come is by no means a substandard album, it is nowhere near the second coming that Jay-Z fans wanted it to be.
Track Listing
01. The Prelude
02. Oh My God
03. Kingdom Come
04. Show Me What You Got
05. Lost One feat. Chrisette Michele
06. Do You Wanna Ride feat. John Legend
07. 30 Something
08. I Made It
09. Anything feat. Usher & Pharrell
10. Hollywood feat. Beyonce
11. Trouble
12. Dig A Hole feat. Sterling Simms
13. Minority Report feat. Ne-Yo
14. Beach Chair feat. Chris Martin
Bonus Disc
01. Politics As Usual
02. Can’t Knock The Hustle feat. Beyonce
03. Can I Live
It s been said that Jay-Z put on his retirement show just so he could call himself the Mike Jordan of rap. He might ve also named his ninth studio alb...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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