What was it like when Jay-Z came out of retirement?

[I'm Blackman]

Master P did it first

don't forget Too Short

 

[I'm Blackman]

it was a big deal.

I remember xxl had online only articles where he was talking bout "I got a whole bag of beats from Dre. What the fukk?" The articles would come out each and I'd check for them.

the first single was played a good bit. I remember not really liking the album and saying he could have kept this shyt.

 

[( )-___-)]

I was young so It made him seem Old af. Which was probly his plan to transition to corporate Jay-z and have the youth view him that way

 

[-DMP-]

Man it was hype but I’m kinda upset we never got the mixtape with him and dj Clark Kent. I think it was called “corporate take over”

Anyway all the features, Grammy freestyle and the prelude had folks hype.

Album was softer than people would have liked tho, which was the general consensus after the hype wore off.

 

[Stick Up Kid]

major disappointment.

Hov legit dropped 3 trash albums from 2002-2006.

 

[YakSpiller]

show me what you got was a big letdown. whole thing seemed pretty weird and subpar.

Yeah.

The video really made me hate that song even more than I already did. I don’t know what video was worst, SMWYH or Picasso baby.

Kingdom Come
Blueprint 3
Magna Carta Holy Grail

All terrible albums.

American Gangster and 4:44 are good.

 

[Rasille]

I was amped and I actually liked Show Me What You Got.

 

[JustCKing]

don't forget Too Short

Add Mase to the list. I think his retirement lasted the longest. Mase "retired" in 1999. We didn't hear anything else from him until 2004.

Master P "retired" in 1998 and came back in 1999, but I understand why he came back. His label was taking hits and he needed to come back to defend it.

Too Short "retired" in 1996, came back in 1999. I felt like he never left though because like Jay, he still had some big features and he put out a compilation in 1998.

 

[re'up]

I read about it in EW too

Weird time in the game, and transitional time in my life. This was last of the early 2000's, we were in new territory by 2006.

 

[Pillmattic]

It was like "eh, who didn't see this coming"

And yeah as someone who was in the south, kingdom come had no buzz, you heard show me what you got and all that on the radio but when wayne slid it, he took over what little buzz jay had with it.

It wasnt until american gangster soundtrack when Jay finally felt "back"

The rollout for that album was ridiculous. Jay had HP commercials, some Hangar tour that coincided with NFL, and he was doing deals with world leaders in regard to selling water.

Facts and 50 cent was throwing so many subs at jay during that promo run “I mean if banks had hp and etc promotion he would’ve done atleast a mill” 50 voice disgruntled because banks sophomore didn’t do what he thought

 

[Pillmattic]

Go Crazy was very important.

-This is right around the tipping point of the south taking over. Up until that point NY represented hardcore rap. The south was becoming popular but it wasn’t seen as street, it was party music, laid back cool music . Mind you we still wearing baggy clothes at this point so the culture is still street.

-TI was before Jeezy but wasnt quite ‘street’ like east coast cats could relate to.

-TM101 came out months before Carter 2 which is when weezy went to the moon, taking the south with him (with a new more digestible east coast flow ( gillie) and beats)

-So even before Carter 2 era Wayne, jeezy was really the first time a southern ngga had ‘east coast’ vibes. Cats can hate that ‘that’ mattered but it did. We was still comin off the jay z-50-dipset era.

For reference I went to college in VA basically the border of east coast and the south. At this time we still wanted traditional ‘east coast’ music at parties and clubs. And this is in VA so imagine how it was in NY. With Go Crazy, that went out the window. To hear this epic feature from jay z you had to play an Atlanta ngga’s record in the club and that they did. Cats fukin loved jeezy

100% agree with everything you said and I think Wayne really fukking with dipset in 2006 helped him a lot in New York the bird call with cam jr and Wayne was a move

And trust me I get what u mean by neighboring state I’m from Vegas and whatever LA did or didn’t like Vegas was the same thing I mean there have been massive LA migration to Vegas in the 90s 2000s currently and if u have LA friends you learn a lot of things very quickly two big ones what u do in Vegas is not flying out there no questions asked and if you do wanna go to LA make sure your with the right ppl and whatever they tell you not to wear or not to say you listen and don’t question anything just trust there protecting u not clowning u or big homing you if they bring u to where there from they got real love for you, but no disrespect I got mega love and respect for all my LA ppl, but if you where from the east and got love in LA after biggie and pac passed u where a mega star don’t think 50 cent and eminem rapping over dre beats didn’t go along way and helped them crack the code and some ppl liked dipset some ppl liked nas but jay z it took some time for certain to really get love out here (speaking for Vegas and what all the LA friends living in Vegas would say)

 

[darius19]

super hyped to see Dr. Dre was going to have a big role in it, but underwhelmed by the product even though in retrospect it wasn’t a bad album, there’s some good joints on there like Lost Ones

This felt like Hovs first attempt at making a grown man album, but he did a much better job the second time around with 4:44

 

[Pillmattic]

super hyped to see Dr. Dre was going to have a big role in it, but underwhelmed by the product even though in retrospect it wasn’t a bad album, there’s some good joints on there like Lost Ones

This felt like Hovs first attempt at making a grown man album, but he did a much better job the second time around with 4:44

Dre is iffy with certain artists the watcher track I think on the bp2 with jay and rakim was fire but I never liked nas and dre’s collabs idk about the firm project (it might have aged better than I remembered) but I wasn’t thrilled at the time but the main thing I always wondered is how black republican didn’t end up on kingdom come bcuz that would’ve def gave the album a boost but maybe it was recorded later idk exactly but kc and hhid seemed like they dropped pretty close together

 

[Pillmattic]

The buzz was absolutely HUGE. I remember 06 like it was yesterday. Ghostface, Lupe, Jay-Z, Game, Nas, and T.I. (Who I mostly hated at the time) all dropped quality albums. Snap Music & the ringtone era had Hip Hop in a fukking CHOKE HOLD during the beginning of the year and it felt like only Kanye, still riding the wave from 05’s Late Registration would be any source of light. But then Ghost dropped in March of that year and Back Like That was a big single for him (mostly off the strength of Ne-Yo’s popularity) and the album was fukking F I R E. Then Nas announced Hip Hop Is Dead and everybody started debating the current quality of Hip Hop and the South’s dominance and nikkas got in their feelings. Lupe was doing his thing, even though T.I. Dropped early in the year, it felt like he RAN the summer (I live in Atlanta so this might be city/regional bias from radio) but it really felt like Why You Wanna was THE song of the summer.


During all of this there were rumors that Jay was coming back. I remember being on Allhiphop HEAVY back then and illseed was dropping rumors about Nas being in the studio with Just Blaze and Will I Am and Jay being in the studio with Dre Dre and Kanye. There were rumors that the album was going to be called Presidential Gala. Then when he dropped the official announcement via Entertainment Weekly the hype reached a fever pitch. The marketing campaign surrounding Show Me What You Got was I N S A N E! I remember even 50 Cent was in awe, saying it was the biggest marketing campaign he’d ever seen at the time.

The album did HUGE numbers first week (650k which is still Jay-Z’s biggest opening week to date) and everybody was so hype that Hov was back it took a few weeks for everybody to realize that album itself actually wasn’t that good lol. I remember Jay-Z stans saying it was better than Vol.1 and Vol.2. That it was going to bring Hip Hop back to New York. That Dig A Hole was the casket for Cam’ron’s grave. All kinds of crazy stan shyt lmao!

I know this was said earlier but I think jay signing tru life hurt dipset more than any record jay dropped I felt like jay was dissing dame dash on kc more than any rapper (especially if u find an interview of dame where he says what he really thinks) there’s some interview on mtv where jay and nas are kinda clowning cam idk if this was after cam got shot at Howard homecoming but there’s some tru life intro over a fire beat where jay is rapping and kinda singing (it sounds weird but it’s fire) throwing hella shots at dip set ( if u think selling 200k a success and 650k first week is a flop idk what to tell you) if u see rappers getting beat up in there own neighborhood (the Rucker fight we’re Jim gets jumped) that’s fiction and this is tru life! if I find the vid I’ll post it but tru life got the balling chain I think he got a purple city chain a lot of ppl say tru life was the reason cam went to Florida (but I know cam’s mom got sick so it might just look that way) but any dipset fan (myself included) but I’m a bigger nas jay fan so I didn’t feel that bad (why lie) tru life max b French Montana is a fukking rough patch for the dips

 

[Ziggiy]

I know this was said earlier but I think jay signing tru life hurt dipset more than any record jay dropped I felt like jay was dissing dame dash on kc more than any rapper (especially if u find an interview of dame where he says what he really thinks) there’s some interview on mtv where jay and nas are kinda clowning cam idk if this was after cam got shot at Howard homecoming but there’s some tru life intro over a fire beat where jay is rapping and kinda singing (it sounds weird but it’s fire) throwing hella shots at dip set ( if u think selling 200k a success and 650k first week is a flop idk what to tell you) if u see rappers getting beat up in there own neighborhood (the Rucker fight we’re Jim gets jumped) that’s fiction and this is tru life! if I find the vid I’ll post it but tru life got the balling chain I think he got a purple city chain a lot of ppl say tru life was the reason cam went to Florida (but I know cam’s mom got sick so it might just look that way) but any dipset fan (myself included) but I’m a bigger nas jay fan so I didn’t feel that bad (why lie) tru life max b French Montana is a fukking rough patch for the dips

Oh yes i’m WELL aware of Tru Life and the havoc he wrecked on Dip Set during that time. Dude was like a hunting dog during that time period lol. Too bad he never got an album out of it but that was partly his fault for not being able to stay out of trouble. There was a rumor that he had a song for his album called New New York that had verses from both Jay and Nas on it. That would have been a MAJOR look for him.