Why doesn't this new generation seem to understand or grasp why Jay-Z was considered a top draw?

[qwasi]

I stopped reading at "Jaystice League" lol

But no, I get where you were trying to go I just think it's off base, especially in the context of the origonal discussion.

If you're looking for an equally culturally relevant comparison it's unfortunately Drake. Skill wise maybe more along the lines of Ab-Soul, he has that same level of wit at least and is what you get when you have a Jay-Z type that doesn't make the effort to ride that fence, rhyming like Common Sense as it were.

Wanted to avoid mentioning Drake given the climate but I concede that's more apt ( Jay Z clears though ). If he's Ab Soul then I owe him an apology. Volume 3, 4:44 & few Blueprint are in my rotation & I never connected the two. Esp when I consider that freestyle session between Soulo and Daylty - he washed him.

 

[BuddahMAC]

Because his specialty was hopping on the current wave as it peaked. Plus he was on Def Jam when it was the best hip hop label that spent the most money and had the best marketing team. When new listeners go back and listen to 20-30 year old music, hype and marketing no longer play a role, it's just the music.

Not many people gonna go back and listen to LAD then listen to Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 and come away thinking Jay was better than BIG.

Jay was adept at swagger jacking (as Cam said) and jumped on trends. And, maybe the biting played into it, but everyone swore a huge part of Jay's appeal was his charisma, but, if you never found him charismatic, then he fell pretty flat.

 

[Cloud McFly]

This is basically a thread for cats who have never felt dude’s music to justify their disdain by using the younger generation’s opinion. The same generation who don’t really mess with any of the music that came out when Jay-Z was active, yet are acting as if his peers’ music from then is getting major burn from them, which is false.

It’s totally fine if you don’t like his music, but the obsession of trying to sway others that your opinion of it is the right one has always been weird.

 

[BIGDENNIS10UK]

I regularly ask who your top 5 to people at work if I know they like rap or are music heads, and Jay is the only rapper from my top 5* that ever gets questioned. Like, weirdly hostile too.

"JAY Z? Really?"

Granted, I bet most of them, particularly the younger Gen Z cats, have never listened to the others, but they are usually like or just dont comment on the rest. One dude was like yeah breh you an old head



*my other 4 are Nas, Face, Pac, Cube

Solid top 5

 

[UpNext]

These posts over intellectualizing Jay as if he was a guy making "Nature of a Threat" or even "I Gave You Power" type raps got me .

 

[Mike the Executioner]

Worst thing Jay-Z ever did was keep his music off of Youtube all streaming platforms except for Tidal for years. Tidal failed, he got paid and a whole generation had little to no access to his music.

Now he's mainly known as Beyonce's husband musically. Add in the fact that most of his music didn't "age" well as far as being easily accessible or even casual.

This is definitely one of the reasons. We're in an era where older media gets consumed like crazy and younger generations have a much easier way of being exposed to it. Some of Jay's best work was hidden from the people who needed to listen to it the most. Even now, if you go on YouTube Music, there's no explicit version of Vol. 2 and Dynasty still isn't on there. You have to go to user playlists to find those albums. Vol. 3 wasn't on there for a long time until it got added recently.

I remember someone saying that Jay shined the most with his B-sides, not his singles, and that's true. If you listen to something like BP3, the best songs aren't "Empire State of Mind" or "Run This Town," they're "Thank You," "So Ambitious," "Already Home." Songs that were ignored for the most part and overshadowed by the monster hits that got overplayed and were never that good to begin with.

Prime Jay and post-retirement Jay are two different entities, and a lot of the younger generation doesn't know about the first one because they weren't exposed to him. It would be like if Eminem's earlier albums weren't on streaming, but his later ones were. You would be listening to MMLP2 and Revival wondering why anyone puts him in the GOAT conversation.

 

[JustCKing]

Because he had people like Swizz, Neptunes, and Timbo producing for him. Swizz was mostly trash and SOME Tim and Neptune stuff don’t sound too good now. Meanwhile cats like Paul and J, Dilla, people like that production still sounds good.

Dilla, Paul & J all have production that didn't age well either. There is not ONE producer wherr everything they did is gold. And if we're going by influence and what producers are sampling, you might want to take a deep dive into Timbaland because I would argue he is as influential if not more influential as Paul & J, and Dilla currently.

 

[Robbie3000]

U see it on YouTube, TikTok, FB, and IG all the time. Young people who've listened to Jay and don't really understand what the hype was about him. Were we bamboozled into believing Jay was that guy musically 20 years ago?

If I'm being 100 none of his songs have aged well. They dont hit at all today. But we have artists that were considered a notch below Jay who have songs that could still be hits if they dropped today.

Juvenile for example. He could drop the entire 400 Degreez album today just the way it is and still receive critical acclaim and love these YNs and Young Women. I watched some young dudes on TikTok listen to Notorious Thugs and they were mesmerized about how crafty and skilled Big was at blending in with Bone.

Jay Z fooled a lot of people for a long time because of his money and Beyoncé and industry machine.

In many ways, he is the OG Drake.

 

[Knicksman20]

This is basically a thread for cats who have never felt dude’s music to justify their disdain by using the younger generation’s opinion. The same generation who don’t really mess with any of the music that came out when Jay-Z was active, yet are acting as if his peers’ music from then is getting major burn from them, which is false.

It’s totally fine if you don’t like his music, but the obsession of trying to sway others that your opinion of it is the right one has always been weird.

Exactly & I'll take it a step further. Some of these nikkas clearly have their own biases & don't like NY rap or the region so they use threads like these to show their hate but hide their hands

@spliz

 

[Zero]

You would be listening to MMLP2 and Revival wondering why anyone puts him in the GOAT conversation.

Been listening since 99 and I still wonder why

 

[((ReFleXioN)) EteRNaL]

"I dumbed myself down to double my dollars"

Jay literally admitted his style of rapping is dumb. He didn't even have to write. That alone tells you how shallow his raps were. Jay could never memorize something as complex as "I gave you power"....those are the type of raps that require a profound pen.

William Shakespeare couldn't memorize Romeo and Juliet.


Nas= Shakespeare

Jay= Dr. Seuss

 

[Solo_87]

This is basically a thread for cats who have never felt dude’s music to justify their disdain by using the younger generation’s opinion. The same generation who don’t really mess with any of the music that came out when Jay-Z was active, yet are acting as if his peers’ music from then is getting major burn from them, which is false.

It’s totally fine if you don’t like his music, but the obsession of trying to sway others that your opinion of it is the right one has always been weird.

Bet the average hip-hop fan under 25 couldn't name you 5 Nas albums off the dome

And I'm not sure where this narrative Jay was this big wave rider came from either

Doesn't hold up against any real scrutiny

 

[BK The Great]

"I dumbed myself down to double my dollars"

Jay literally admitted his style of rapping is dumb. He didn't even have to write. That alone tells you how shallow his raps were. Jay could never memorize something as complex as "I gave you power"....those are the type of raps that require a profound pen.

William Shakespeare couldn't memorize Romeo and Juliet.


Nas= Shakespeare

Jay= Dr. Seuss

At least he admitted it later on, some of these guys completely quit rapping and went into failed businesses and other stupid shyt. Jay kept it musically. Even after retiring.

 

[winb83]

Reasonable Doubt, Volume 2, Blueprint, and American Gangster are all great. His music overall was better before he blew up with Hard Knock Life.

 

[Conan]

Imagine listening to the reasonable doubt or the blueprint and saying "this didn't age well".

Like, the mind baffles at some of this babble

I almost regret negging @CrimsonTider all these years, he had some great points. This place is a dusty echo chamber