Best MCHG review I have read so far

[Robbie3000]

Jay-Z ‘Magna Carta . . . Holy Grail’ review: When fans are reduced to customers - The Washington Post

Eight summers ago, Jay-Z described his impossible journey from no-name to brand name in eight sly words: “I’m not a businessman/I’m a business, man.”

A triumphant little zinger, no doubt. But what about the rest of us? When an artist self-identifies as a corporate entity, are we still Jay-Z fans? Or are we Jay-Z customers?

The answer to that late-capitalist riddle arrives with the rap icon’s insidious new album, “Magna Carta . . . Holy Grail” — which first appeared last week as a data collection exercise disguised as a smartphone app capable of delivering a bundle of mediocre rap songs to your mobile device.

Here’s how it worked: Samsung purchased a million copies of “Magna Carta” in advance, then, via the app, made the album available to subscribers five days before its widespread release. In exchange, users were asked to share access to their social media accounts, their phone calls, their GPS location and more. If the medium is the message, we finally had an answer to that fan-or-customer question.

And now who would want to be either? Throughout “Magna Carta,” the 43-year-old pretends he’s a threat to a system he’s so eagerly become a part of, as if his life as a champion capitalist is some perpetually escalating act of subversion. Hooray? Rooting for this man in 2013 is like rooting for Pfizer. Or PepsiCo. Or PRISM.

Plus, all of this Samsung hullabaloo has only distracted listeners from the fact that, musically and lyrically, “Magna Carta” is one of Jay-Z’s blandest offerings. Over 16 joylessly professional tracks, our hero laces up his sneakers for his bazillion-thousandth victory lap around the hip-hop universe. There’s no mood, no verve, no vision to this music. It’s the sound of champagne being sprayed around an empty locker room.

And that’s disappointing considering the blitz of web and TV ads for “Magna Carta,” which suggested we’d be basking in a richly sculpted songbook. The first television spot crash-landed during game five of the NBA Finals, with Jay jawing about his craft in the studio with the album’s producers, Timbaland, Pharrell Williams, Swizz Beatz and Rick Rubin — the last of whom wasn’t actually involved in the making of the album at all.

Also in the ad, the rapper promised to document the difficulty of maintaining his sense of self in the riptides of fame and fortune. But as ever, Jay-Z maintains Oz-like distance on this album, refusing to expose the personal vulnerabilities that Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Drake and a generation of hip-hop stars rising in his wake have built their careers on.

Instead, “Magna Carta” is packed with his patented American dreaming at its most unimaginative. He name-drops Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francis Bacon as if the only point of art is to own it. He name-drops convicted D.C. gangster Wayne “Silk” Perry on a song named after fashion designer Tom Ford. And in a mysterious courtship ritual with Gen X, he recycles the hooks of R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

The last wheel falls off during the album’s final cut, “Nickels and Dimes.” After coughing up a weak Lady Gaga pun — “Taking food out my little monster’s mouth/That’ll drive me gaga” — and rekindling a weird media beef with 86-year-old Harry Belafonte, he closes the album by insulting the listeners who made him a superstar: “Y’all not worthy/Sometimes I feel like y’all don’t deserve me.”

But that didn’t stop Jay-Z from reanimating his oft-dormant Twitter account Monday afternoon — where he answered questions and cracked jokes. It was as if he was trying to remind us that he was still human the only way he seems to know how: by shaking hands with his customers on the digital sales floor.

 

[Long Live The Kane]

dead ass serious...the reviews have been more impressive and entertaining than the album...this
one in particular got better quotables than it did for sure, I feel like stealing the Pfizer/Pepsi bit

 

[Hiphoplives4eva]

Outstanding review and captures my feelings on the album to a T. I would overall describe this album as "beautiful nonsense"

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

I like the album, but this review does a good job of illustrating why people who stan camel are almost suffering from stockholm syndrome.

 

[OG Talk]

dead ass serious...the reviews have been more impressive and entertaining than the album...this
one in particular got better quotables than it did for sure, I feel like stealing the Pfizer/Pepsi bit

I agree

 

[Sad Bunny]

dead ass serious...the reviews have been more impressive and entertaining than the album...this
one in particular got better quotables than it did for sure, I feel like stealing the Pfizer/Pepsi bit

post more

 

[Art Barr]

Great review!


Art Barr

 

[Prolific_1011]

He name-drops Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francis Bacon as if the only point of art is to own it.

ETHER.

 

[Colilluminati]

I love how people keep shytting on Jay because he name drops Basquiat and a few more well known artist.

Yet I haven't heard anyone say anything about him name dropping Koons.

shyt is hilarious.

 

[bigrodthe1]

I swear this is the same review that dude made for WTT but he turns around and ups Kanye while downing Jay. Sounds like dude is that Jay has money
I just don't get how all these "critics" are downing Jay for making Hip Hop music but giving Kanye critical acclaim for making electronic tribal music. Who are these white people to tell US what Hip Hop is?!? They are the reason Hip Hop is dead as it is.

 

[*AP]

There’s no mood, no verve, no vision to this music. It’s the sound of champagne being sprayed around an empty locker room.

 

[DontEemTry]

I love how Hov just keeps goin though.

We gon go through the same thing next year too.

GOAT

 

[DallasTxRep]

 

[DeuceZ]

Throughout “Magna Carta,” the 43-year-old pretends he’s a threat to a system he’s so eagerly become a part of, as if his life as a champion capitalist is some perpetually escalating act of subversion. Hooray? Rooting for this man in 2013 is like rooting for Pfizer. Or PepsiCo. Or PRISM.

this/


:hovyikes:

 

[Insensitive]

I swear this is the same review that dude made for WTT but he turns around and ups Kanye while downing Jay. Sounds like dude is that Jay has money
I just don't get how all these "critics" are downing Jay for making Hip Hop music but giving Kanye critical acclaim for making electronic tribal music. Who are these white people to tell US what Hip Hop is?!? They are the reason Hip Hop is dead as it is.

I felt like Kanye's music was Hip Hop and it really
gave me the same vibes as Saul Williams "The Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust" or all of the DeathGrip albums The Money Store/No Love Deep Web/Ex Military.

Though lyrically and thematically I think he falls short in
comparison to the previously mentioned artists and their projects.