jSnively

Due to the political nature of this topic, we have removed some comments that violated our commenting guidelines and have closed this thread. If you wish to discuss politics in a less-moderated fashion, then we provide a dedicated political outsider forum.

macxpress said:

Where are all the people complaining how ugly it is?

It's super ugly.

Yeah, i thought more people would be psyched about it = P

darkvader said:

jSnively said:

[..]

I mean, it's awful.  I didn't manage to make it through the entire thing, it was that bad.

I don't really care at all if he's on Apple Music or not, I'm not even remotely interested in listening to that.

If you like it, whatever, that's your thing, but to me he has a grating voice.  It's not as bad as the country music twang/whine, but it's really, really bad.

Whether or not you like it wasn't the point. The point was the lyrics, specifically because it directly addressed the issues raised by a handful of commenters. You're free to not like his music, that's entirely up to you, but this thread is ... something. I'm not even a big Jay-Z fan, I like some of his stuff fine, but the reaction was so uneven and from so many people who clearly had no context for what they were discussing, I felt it was worth pointing out.

SpamSandwich said:

[...]

I don't dispute he's a successful businessman, it's just that his product is complete garbage.

You should listen to this song:



It's off The Grey Album (which is a mashup of Jay-Z's black album and The Beatle's White Album). Mostly just because it's hard to find the originals from the Black Album on youtube in decent quality. It explains a lot about his music. I'll clip the lyrics since I'm not sure whether or not people will bother listening. Emphasis is added by me.

The music business hate me 'cause the industry ain't make me
Hustlers and boosters embrace me and the music I be making
I dumb down for my audience and double my dollars
They criticize me for it yet they all yell "Holla"
If skills sold truth be told
I'd probably be lyrically Talib Kweli
Truthfully I want to rhyme like Common Sense (But I did five Mil)
I ain't been rhyming like Common since
When your sense got that much in common
And you been hustling since your inception, fuck perception
Go with what makes sense
Since I know what I'm up against
We as rappers must decide what's most important
And I can't help the poor if I'm one of them
So I got rich and gave back to me that's the win, win
The next time you see the homie and his rims spin
Just know my mind is working just like them (The rims that is)

This was from what, at the time, was supposed to be his last album. He's not a dumb dude, he knows exactly what he's doing. And if you want an example of what he's talking about in that song may actually sound like, listen to this (off the same album):