Jay-Z reached his peak 10+ years ago on The Blueprint...right?

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Black Album and American Gangster were good though. WTT was good, but mostly due to Kanye's production and vision. Everything else since BP has been meh.

 

[CapFromMCU]

Yep,he peaked with the blueprint and its been a steady decline since...i dont have none of his music from past the blueprint on my ipod or phone its all pre 2001...

reasonable doubt is so much better than the blueprint tho so how did he peak then? just on a lyricism/rapping level, few rappers are touching Reasonable Doubt Jay-z, if any. blueprint had almost perfect production but f*ck all that, he was slackin with the bars

 

[The G.O.D II]

BP2 when solidified into a single album is classic. BA is classic minus that fakkit ass Madonna song. AG was a solid concept album. Yes he has dropped BS like KC and BP3 but to say his peak was after BP1 is inaccurate. I would say he fell off hard after the Drake verse on TML

 

[JoelB]

American Gangster
WTT (production was the star of the album)
Black Album
Everything else needs to be thrown in the bushes

 

[Miggs]

reasonable doubt is so much better than the blueprint tho so how did he peak then? just on a lyricism/rapping level, few rappers are touching Reasonable Doubt Jay-z, if any. blueprint had almost perfect production but f*ck all that, he was slackin with the bars

You can debate which album is better...IMO RD is his best...funny thing is RD back in 96 wasnt considered classic like it now is 17 yrs later...

My point was that he has declined since RD over the 6 albums he released since...

 

[NvrCMyNut]

Nobody will admit it but Bleuprint era Jay-z was Rick Ross before Rick Ross. When Jay-z reinvented himself & re-started his rap career(in 94) it was all based around fly talk but he did have something to say, especially for my generation, how can a n!gga hear ''can i live'' and say otherwise? That constitutes as ''deep'' as rap gets imo. But by the time of The Blueprint(which is a certified classic u out the loop if you say otherwise) he had already said what he had to say, all was really left was fly talk once dude stopped being fly his music became obsolete. Now we have some embarrassing pretentious faux hipster tight jean wearing lame.

Disclaimer camel stans: Hov was 100 times the artist Ross pretends to be.

 

[lachreyatarbabypits]

Posters take themselves and their opinions waaay too seriously. It's really a sign of insecurity.

This

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Nobody will admit it but Bleuprint era Jay-z was Rick Ross before Rick Ross. When Jay-z reinvented himself & re-started his rap career(in 94) it was all based around fly talk but he did have something to say, especially for my generation, how can a n!gga hear ''can i live'' and say otherwise? That constitutes as ''deep'' as rap gets imo. But by the time of The Blueprint(which is a certified classic u out the loop if you say otherwise) he had already said what he had to say, all was really left was fly talk once dude stopped being fly his music became obsolete. Now we have some embarrassing pretentious faux hipster tight jean wearing lame.

Disclaimer camel stans: Hov was 100 times the artist Ross pretends to be.

Powerful posting. Jay has probably a top 3 (definitely top 5 at least) solo discography in hip-hop history but he hasn't been an elite emcee since his 2nd album.

 

[L&HH]

justify my thug is one of the corniest songs i've ever heard from a legend

ahhhh man yea its not that great of a song. I think Madonna was supposed to be on it but backed out idk, but even then if all she was gonna do was sing what the hook was it still woulda been whack...

 

[L&HH]

And to think Jay took off Ignorant shyt for Justify My Thug?



True story

In hindsight Im glad he did that. It made AG an even stronger album and idk if ignorant shyt would fit in TBA. As far as Justify My Thug tho

 

[Brady-Carter]

Meh, Hov still the same.

 

[L&HH]

My man 9th Wonder watched him "write" Threat. There is footage on and off the Fade to Black movie of Jay doing his writing process. The only case of writing help I know of is Kanye had the Lucifer song written for himself, and Jay took the cadence of the "Gotta get my soul right...." part as well as the "Murder capital where we murder for capital" part.

One of the Directors of Photography for that movie got to see almost every song written and recorded and will tell you Jay did it. Those are his words absolutely.

You aint even gotta entertain these nikkas. Like Jay been in the game how long? What change in his diction, or lyrics would even warrant nikkas to think he was getting ghostwriters, he a ghostwriter his damn self. As far as the bolded thats not even ghostwriting lol. Jay actually asks the advice of ppl on his flow and stuff like that when he does records thats how you make great records.

 

[Digga38]

when i think about albums i think of them as a whole that means production and lyric wise....Blueprint has the best production i ever heard outside of maybe the sun still rises in the east...I just dont think Black album can hold onto Blueprint production wise...lyrics about even

 

[Gravity]

Powerful posting. Jay has probably a top 3 (definitely top 5 at least) solo discography in hip-hop history but he hasn't been an elite emcee since his 2nd album.

Jay Z hasn't been an "elite emcee" since 97? His music is "obsolete"? Some of you are so disconnected from reality it's funny. It's easy to spot those that live through the Internet.

 

[CM_Burns]

Black Album, WTT, and AG were all good albums but I don't listen to them much. Vol 3-BP Jay was his peak.