Jay-Z began his career with so much promise that its ridiculous for me to state it. Along with Damon Dash, he founded Rocafella Records, and released the untimely classic known as Reasonable Doubt. Since then, he signed emcees who are supposedly his proteges including Memphis Bleek, Beanie Sigel, Amil, and most recently: Freeway, Cam'Ron, M.O.P., and Ol' Dirty Bastard. Jay-Z is supposedly building a dynasty, but unfortunately for him his record label spews from an amazing lack of talent, with only about two or three respectable lyricists, and the rest being complete trash. Since releasing Reasonable Doubt his record label, as well as his bank account, has grown tremendously, but unfortunately for Jay, his respect has detetiorated. As each album that he released since his classic has consistently gotten worse and worse with no improvement. His subject matter has detetiorated horribly, as his songs used to feature amazing street narratives and hustling storytelling, they have transformed into egotistical self-endulged materialistic crap music. Besides the subject matter, his lyricism has also detetiorated since then, virtually losing his wordplay skills and relying solely on his remarkable delivery and somewhat clever punchlines to keep his "respect" as a lyricist, which is still worse than it used to be.

Anyways, in 2000, the "Roc", as he likes to call his label, decides to release sort of a compilation album, showcasing all of the so-called "great" artists from Rocafella Records called The Dynasty: Roc La Familia. However, just before its release, Jay-Z decides to be egotistical and slap his name on the album, labelling it as his fifth studio album, with tons of guest stars. Basically Jay-Z figures that by slapping his name on the cover of the album, as well as his mug, that it will sell as a Jay-Z album like his previous efforts have. Fortunately for him, it worked and Jigga pushed nearly 600,000 units in its first week with the release of The Dynasty: Roc La Familia. However, no matter what name you wanna put on the cover, this is still a Rocafella compilation to me, and not just a typical Jay-Z album. So whether you consider this his fifth solo album or not, this is is my review for it.


Track List & Rating

1. Intro (****)
2. Change the Game (***)
3. I Just Wanna Love U f/ Pharrell Williams (***)
4. Streets is Talking (**)
5. This Can't Be Life f/ Scarface (***)
6. Get Your Mind Right Mami f/ Snoop Dogg (**)
7. Stick 2 the Script (*)
8. You, Me, Him and Her (*)
9. Guilty Until Proven Innocent f/ R. Kelly (***)
10. Parking Lot Pimpin' f/ Lil Mo (**)
11. Holla (*)
12. 1-900-Hustler (*)
13. The R.O.C. (**)
14. Soon You'll Understand (****)
15. Squeeze 1st (*)
16. Where Have You Been (***)


The Dynasty: Roc La Familia kicks off with the "Intro", as Jay-Z starts the album by introducing everybody in Rocafella records for this album. Jay-Z raps over a re-make of the Theme to the Sopranos, and Jigga gives us an introductory freestyle. Jay-Z spits WAY better than he did on the horrible Volume 3: The Life and Times of S. Carter, as Jigga gives us pretty good punchlines, amazing lyricism, and a multi-syllable flow, which is a great start to this album, and basically surprised the hell out of me that Jay-Z, at this time being a complete sell-out, could deliver something this good:

But I'm starvin my n*ggaz, and the weight loss in my figure
is startin to darken my heart, bout to get to my liver
Watch it my n*ggaz, I'm tryin to be calm but I'm gon' get richer
through any means, with that thing that Malcolm palmed in the picture
Never read the Qu'ran or Islamic scriptures
Only psalms I read was on the arms of my n*ggaz
Tattooed so I carry on like I'm non-religious
Clap whoever stand between Shawn and figures
N*ggaz, say it's the dawn/Don but I'm superstitious
Sh*t is as dark as it's been, nothin is goin as you predicted
I move with biscuits, stop the harder n*ggaz actin too suspicious
This is, food for thought, you do the dishes

The first major song, and also the second single, is the Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel track "Change the Game". The beat kicks in pretty good, as it is a definite head-banger, but the lyricism completely kills the track. Jay-Z raps monosyllabalistic, materialistic verses about his status, giving us pure brag rap. Beanie Sigel raps next, and as usual, raps terrible. Jay-Z is given the third verse, who does a tiny bit better, but still gives us a horrible lyrical track about money, guns, drugs, and women, which was Jigga's mentality at the time. Expect more of this crap from this album.

One of the first tracks in which i heard Pharrell Williams giving us the hook is on the lead single from this album "I Just Wanna Love Ya (Give it to Me)". Since then, Pharrell has done hooks on more than one Jigga track, and tons of other commercial hits. Jay-Z starts off this track by doing something that he is known for, which is stealing lyrics from the late Notorious B.I.G.. The lyrics are of course, sh*tty, but the delivery is respectable. The chorus is a bit catchy, admittedly, but the subject matter is terrible. Jay-Z raps about attracting women with his money, and what he will do for them, sort of like pimp music. The production and chorus are the only redeeming things about this track, as Jay-Z embarrasses himself to the underground... yet again.

"Streets is Talkin" is sort of a remix of Streets is Watching, which was a song featured on Jay-Z's sophomore album Volume 1: In My Lifetime. Jay-Z tries to be more close to the streets, rapping about street violence, gang mentality, and pretty much thug rhymes. Jay-Z sort of raps about the gossip and trash talk on the streets about him, which is pretty good subject matter, except the fact that his ego gets away with him, and because his lyrics come off pretty weak. The instrumental is pretty simple, and listenable, but not too good. Beanie Sigel raps after Jay-Z's three verses, and comes off ridiculously stupid and sort of ruins the track even worse than it was before.

Geto Boys emcee Scarface joins Jay-Z and Beanie on "This Can't Be Life". Jay-Z gets extremely introspective as he spits about everything from his childhood, to his arrest, to his legal problems, to the mentality Jay-Z had before he released Reasonable Doubt. The subject matter and lyrics shown by Jay-Z are a drastic improvement from what we've been accustomed to on this album as of yet. Beanie Sigel comes on the track next, sounding a tiny bit better than he did before, as his introspectiveness is good, but soon changes to thuggish rhymes and pretty much kills what he had going for him. Luckily, Scarface comes on the track and saves it with his emotionally powerful verse. The sad thing is, if not for Beanie and the average instrumental, lyrically and subject matter wise this track deserves 4 1/2 or maybe 5 stars... but it sadly doesn't achieve it.

After this we are treated to a trifecta of terrible commercial crap. "Get Your Mind Right Mami" sounds like a retrospective love song, but sadly changes to another pimp track. To make matters worse, Jigga enlisted the services of has-been Snoop Dogg for this track, who comes off average like everything he did at the time. On "Stick 2 the Script", Jay-Z raps about putting money over women, which is his "script". Poor subject matter, production, and subject matter pretty much sends this track to its grave. On "You, Me, Him, Her", everybody from Rocafella Records appears here, including Amil, which is horrible to me. Beanie, Jay, Memphis, and Amil rap commercialistic thug rhymes, mixed with a club vibe. Terrible, Terrible song...

Jay-Z redeems himself with "Guilty Until Proven Innocent". Jay-Z gets R. Kelly to back him up with vocals on this one. Strangely enough, Jay-Z's production has more of a club vibe on this track, but his lyrics dont match whatsoever with the beat. Jay-Z raps extremely good subject matter about the incident which had recently occured at the time where Jay-Z was blamed for stabbing Lance "Un" Rivera for bootlegging his album. Jay-Z basically tries to explain himself on this track, claiming that he is innocent and that he is going to fight this bullsh*t until the end. Jay-Z's message is clear, but R. Kelly and the beat come of horrible and deteriotate the song. Its a shame that a track with so much promise is ruined by the production.

The original lead single for this album was "Parkin Lot Pimpin", and here it is. Jay-Z gets materialistic once again, rapping about money, sex, women, drugs, and of course.. cars.. which is the main motiff of this song. Memphis Bleek and Beanie Sigel also decide to sadly pop in on this track, and give us mediocre verses, which match perfectly with Jigga's crap lyrics. The instrumental is a commercial mix of crap, driven by synthesizers and heavy bass. I remember this was on the radio for a long time before the albums release as the first single, but at the last minute it was changed to Give it 2 Me.

Skipping past the solo Memphis Bleek track "Holla", which spews of putrid sh*t, we get to "1-900 Hustler". The trio of Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek and Beanie return here, but are now joined by newcomer Freeway on this track. The subject matter is terrible, as the emcees sort of teach how to hustle to people, via a hot-line. Jay-Z gives us the best verse, because frankly, the other two suck a**. Beanie sort of narrates the track as the others rap, and of course, Freeway is awful. This is the very first appearance of Freeway on a Rocafella track that i am aware of. His high-pitched delivery is terrible, as well as his unmatching rhyme scheme that we all know of is intact. This track is just plain boring and pure filler.

"The R.O.C." and "Squeeze 1st" are pure filler. The first of the two is sort of a crew join with Jigga, Beanie, and Bleek, who does the chorus. The delivery is a lot more venomous, but its basically filler because it doesn't have any relatively good subject matter to keep me interested whatsoever. Not to mention the lyrics are pretty below-average and weak. Skip it. The second of the two is a pure thug-rhyme frenzy, basically glorifying gunplay, as Jay-Z delivers more of his idol threats to everybody. Besides the mediocre production, subject matter, and lyrics, Jay-Z thinks its better if he, once again, copies Biggie's lyrics for the chorus. Unlistenable trash...

"Soon You'll Understand" is a bit different. Jay-Z drops his pimp lifestyle to give us a tight love story narrative as Jay-Z gets introspective and intelligent for once. He fights himself throughout the song, keeping a very book-like and epic story going. The instrumental is a tight piano loop with a pretty cool choice for a sample. On the third verse, Jay-Z gets even better as he raps a letter that he wrote to the female from jail. He explains himself about the fact that they have split apart since then, and expresses his pain. Great Track and another highlight.

"Where have you been" continues the introspection as Jay-Z and Beanie Sigel rap about their fathers abandoning them. Beanie's lyricism is actually much improved, most likely due to the subject matter, but his delivery is terrible at times and he lacks continuity. The emotion exhibited on the track more than makes up for it as Beanie sounds like he is crying as he raps on this track. He raps about the extreme pain that he suffered, which is a good choice of subject matter. Jay-Z comes on the track afterwards and continues the same vibe, rapping about his own father. Excellent choice of subject matter, but the track lacks better lyricism and the annoying chorus doesn't help, but its better than the rest.

No matter whos name or picture you put on the cover of The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, it will still be an extremely mediocre album. Jay-Z needs to realize that he has an extremely talentless record label who basically can't rap. The majority of the album is loaded with filler and useless track with weak lyrics, and even weaker production. However, the good thing is that it actually has a couple of saving moments, and some better tracks, which makes this a big improvement over Volume 2: Hard Knock Life and Volume 3: The Life and Times of S. Carter, but Jay-Z would not re-establish his respect from me until The Blueprint, in 2001.


1.5 Stars... Rounded up to 2



Recommended: No

Great Music to Play While: Driving