The Revisits ( The Discography Of Jaÿ-Z )

On this special episode of M4L we have The Revisit  with Marcus Johnson. Where we go back and listen to rappers discography. On this episode we have Jaÿ- Z pt 1 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

This is the revisits. This is where we go back and revisit popular rappers and catalogs during the height of their careers. Right now we are going to do Jay-Z. I've got Scrap Lotto with me. What up? We're going to go through their discography during the height of their careers. And this is going to be part one for Jay-Z since his catalog and his career span so many years and decades. So we're going to end up going through the first the first half of his catalog in part one, which ends at the black album, which was his first retirement, we'll say.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

He's talking about Reasonable Doubt. We're going on like 96. Well, yeah, it came out in '96. But if you want to actually get on the story of Jay-Z, his story really starts before that with Jazz O and Big Daddy Kane and all this and that, which you know, he had a go-to a road of all that meeting Dame Dash and Biggs. And before there's like started Rockefeller Records as an indie, and then they started moving with uh the singles. So let's get to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Yeah, definitely. When he uh came on the scene at Live with the Barbecue, live at the barbecue, um, that was his first, what like I want to say first feature. Um, and then from there, things just kind of like I wouldn't say snowballed because he was more of a slow burn.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

But uh it was one of those things where like we were introduced to him at first, and then from there, uh Jazz O continued to put him on. Yeah, with Hawaiian Sophie and all this and that. Right, right. Wait, I'm thinking Nas is live. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Nas was live at the barbecue. Yeah, that's my fault. So uh it was Hawaiian Sophie was the first one because he had on the big uh the stuff and was hanging in front of him looking goofy in the music video. Right, right, right, right. Nas later came back and uh referenced that.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Yeah, Hawaii Sophie fang. Kept my name in this music.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Yeah, so uh so his first album came out in um June, it came out June 25th, 1996. It's reasonable doubt. Um definitely was a slow burn. Uh only sold 30 uh 48,000 copies during his first week. Which is crazy because that's uh amazing now. Uh and to mention the fact that it is a slow burn, it didn't go platinum until 2002, I want to say, which is pretty crazy. Um all things considering his like career long term and just the fact that this is heralded as a classic album. Yeah, um, his first classic.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Um the source went back and re-gave it five mics too, because I forgot, I think they gave it like four or something like that. And they re-went back and like, oh, it's a five mic album.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Yep, yep. And they they gave it uh five mics back in 2002. So like they came back six years later to say, oh man, we messed up, which like the source at the time was the end all be all getting like uh a high rating in the source, but like over time it lost his like hell.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

I think my rating system is more you know intriguing than the source now.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Right, right. And it plus it's like one of those things where like if you look through his discography and kind of like look at the source's rating, it's almost like oh man, he's low key in pocket.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Like they like it's kind of like inner scope with uh double XL. Yeah, definitely, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

They're not giving anything, like they're not doing anything wrong.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Anything shady, G Unit.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Yeah, nothing, nothing. Anybody affiliated with him, anything like that. Like I think OB Trice got it out of hot.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

He got yeah, they gave him probably like a XL.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Right, right. Um, but some notable releases from that year were uh Tupac's All Eyes on Me, um Tupac Don Kilmonati, The Seven Day Theory, uh The Fuji's The Score, Nas, it was written, um Outcast's Atliens or AT Aliens, however you want to say it, The Roots, uh Ilfadel, Half-Life, and then um Ghostface Killers. Yeah, stake is high, De La Sol. Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah. So um a lot of a lot of up and coming rappers, when you think about it. I mean, essentially the Fuji's. I mean, Nas has already dropped his classic, but like this is a follow-up on five. Um, and and a lot of people are like listening to that style of darker New York rap. It's a little a little grimier, a little more um like I wouldn't say edgy, but just like like darker, yeah. To match the mood of New York at the time.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Yeah, because also, like I said, uh Hell on Earth came out that year too, and that's one of the darkest albums of all time. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Um it was like despite it only selling 40 or like 40 something thousand copies, uh debuted 23rd on the Billboard 200. Um like like was critically acclaimed at the time, but not many people were listening to it. Like we said earlier when we were having our conversation. Um, the source gave it four out of five mics, then came back in 2002 and gave it five mics. Uh double XL uh gave it a retro rating of double XL, which I mean uh double XL wasn't around during that time. So I get it. Yeah, to come back, but to come back and give it a double XL is just like, man, come on, man, that's low-key cheating. Because like you've heard every you've heard all the talk about it, like you can't not give it a double XL because it's everybody's calling it a classic. Yeah, and then um uh Pitchfork gave it 9.5 out of 10, and and uh Rolling Stone later gave it a five out of five. Um not many people were kind of looking to Pitchfork or Rolling Stone for rap. Yeah, for rap stuff, but still it's like one of those things where um when something that's outside of hip hop is acknowledging hip hop at the time, even retroactively, um, you have to kind of take a look at it on like a national stage and see what what music is as a whole as opposed to just this little sector of hip-hop because hip-hop is is still growing. Yeah, at that time. Rap is still growing at this time period where like these these great albums are coming out and we're gonna look back at them retrospectively as like great albums, but like in those. But they do during the moment. Yeah, in those moments, like the world wasn't acknowledging it like they are now or like they were six years later. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Um also like like I was saying before, like how it took for Jay-Z and M getting onto uh Def Jam to like put because that album was indie. Right. So it really didn't have the like label push to even push it to the masses out there. So they used uh the single Ain't No Nigga to really kind of like catapult them to like the you know the masses to like, hey, I got this album and stuff like that, which maybe maybe worked a little bit. It kind of worked because like I I remember hearing the story, like to get off topic a little bit about how Joe Button, you know, he had Pump It Up and Def Jet kind of did the same thing. They put uh Pump It Up on the Fast and Furious soundtrack, and that song was so like pop popping at that time. Right. People bought the Fast and Furious soundtrack, like shit, I got pump it up on this. Right. Why do I want to get pumped up on the you know the Joe Button?

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Yeah, if I only like this song.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Yeah, and I felt like it was the opposite for Jay, because Jay people bought the soundtrack, because like me, I had the soundtrack, and that's the first time I heard Jay, and I'm like, oh shit, who the fuck is this song? It's dope. I like this song. Right. But I wasn't old enough to go out and go buy the album and shit like that. But I'm pretty sure there's probably adults that probably heard did that and went out and bought the album off that placement.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Yeah, especially because like the the landscape of music was completely different, where it's like one of those things where like you do have to buy a whole album. Um you're not gonna be able to like get singled. Yeah, yeah. And I'm sure this, I mean, even though he put out singles for this, like it wasn't easy to find. Yeah, they he they weren't easy to find. And like some singles come with B-sides, then they have a second single on there. And I'm sure these weren't coming out like like that um because it was all in.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

I think Dead Presence was the first official single from the album.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

I think it was uh it was actually uh can't knock it might have been can't knock the hustle.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

I thought it was Dead Presence, okay.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

I think it was like the only three singles that like really got released from this were um Can't Knock the Hustle, well Ain't No Nigga, Can't Knock the Hustle, and Feelin' It. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Um Dead Presence also, because it had a video.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Yeah, it did have a video, which kind of makes me wonder like, was it after the fact? Like once it started picking up steam, where they like, hey, let's just let's just go ahead and do the video. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Yeah, because like I say the video was iconic because it had that scene with Big E and AZ and all them playing Monopoly with like real money and stuff, and like how I want to buy Baltic Avenue, which is the most expensive, you know, spot on the board. So, you know, it's just being braggadocious and shit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

So and I mean that's kind of what the album was as a whole, like um a little braggadocious, but like it was really um, yeah, the mafioso. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Um somebody like taking you through that life if you're not a part of that life, but being um a little more detailed and having a uh a little bit of fun at times throughout the album. Um do you have any like because it's heralded as a classic, some people think in a classic that you're not supposed to have any bad songs. There's no bad songs, or there's there's no no filler on the album. Um what would you say are your highlights and lowlights for this? Uh highlights is everything up until I wanna say what comes out there.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Uh I won't say it's regrets. You don't like regrets? No, no, no. I like regrets. I feel like everything's like uh smooth up until that, and then kind of get like a little, I gotta actually look at the track list.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Uh okay, so regrets is uh like regrets is the last song.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Okay, so you then it's not regressing. Okay, my bad.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Um to me, uh everything up until cashmere thoughts. See, that's what I'm gonna say. Yeah. And on honestly, while you're looking that up, yeah. I think uh sonically it flowed really well. So like I think um it had a sound and it stuck to it. It wasn't all over the place. Um the the tracks were were laid out like correctly. There wasn't um the the track listing was correct, like it just sold.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

I forgot, yeah. Okay, that's that's my low. One of my lows is not because of the song, but because of the woman on the song, and that's uh 22 2s. Like Well, you don't like I like 22-2s, but I just don't like old girl on 22 twos. Like every time she just starts talking, I'm like, oh my gosh. I'm trying to hear it. She's like, she's like, uh like who uh like who's smoking, like who's smoking uh reefer up here? Like, yeah, who's smoking reefer? Like, I mean, like, shut up, bitch. She's like, uh-uh, we ain't having this up in here. This is a uh show for everybody, family, Austinette. Like, no.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

But when you consider the time period, that low-key is like exactly of that time period. A show that would be on TV and they're discussing a rap and like something like that, just seems pretty like on the moment, pretty like in the time period.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Yeah, uh, no, because just like just funny. Because like that, you got that. And uh, Can I Live? Which I used to argue is Jay-Z's greatest song. Like, it's arguably one of Jay-Z's greatest songs. Cause the story, I feel like we'll get later into uh, because I feel like this is part one of the song of a movie. And then when we get to the end, blackout when he has a lore, which is I feel like is the the ending to the Can I Live? So uh like I feel like Can I Live? That's a high one. He got like I said, feeling it, their presidents, politics is you like there's just so many like dope tracks on this on this album.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Like even the uh like so the with the the debut and introduction of Memphis Bleak, even coming of age is really dope.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

I didn't know Jay wrote for Memphis? Like, no, he wrote for like he wanted to get uh that kid that was messed with Wu-Tang clan. I can't remember his name. Shaheen? Yeah, he wanted to get Shaheen on it. But I guess they couldn't, you know, get that, so he ended up getting bleak because he messed with Bleak from that.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Which is crazy. Like yeah, your career is like based on a slip-up or like based on somebody not being able to answer the phone. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Yeah, because that's why I like because I thought I saw, oh, Memphis wrote no. Jay-Z wrote the whole song and he wrote, you know, the as a uh Memphis part as for a young up-and-coming drug dealer for the, you know, so he basically his advocate.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Does that mean that like uh if Shaheen does get on the song, like we were talking about a different, like you're in my will somewhere? Is it Shaheen? You're in my will somewhere. You might be because I'm alive, you're a millionaire.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

And Shaheen might probably want to went through what he ended up going through.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Ended up going through. He wouldn't have been an original gangsters. So um and then like uh sauce money's on it. Like I like bringing on. It's not like one of the repeatable songs that I listen to a lot, but like I like it.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

I always just laugh because of Jazz O on there. He's he said farfeit nougan. I was like, man, he was reaching.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Yeah, yeah. I like uh I like everything up to a cashmere thoughts and then everything after, but I don't like Can I Live too. Yeah, that could be.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah, Can I Live Two could have been cut off and Cashmere Thoughts basically. Yeah, those like but you say classic album's gonna have its Yeah, it's gonna have its ups and its downs, and like and like they're not necessarily bad songs.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

No, I just don't like them. Yeah, they don't sonically like Cashmere Thoughts does fit sonically with the with the album, with the way the album goes. Like it flows through the album, but it I just don't necessarily it's the reason why they're later in the album instead of true in the album. True, because like back then there was a b uh a front half and a back half. I mean it still happens now, but like you can back then you could really tell the back half of the album, almost like the B side of an album. So like it's one of those things where like you get on the B side of this. I would say everything after Ain't No Nigga is the B side to this album, but the B like the back half of this album, you flip the cassette or whatever, it's it's legitimately um it's it's still good, it still flows pretty well. Yeah. Um anything else you have on a reasonable double.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

We're gonna talk about uh the impact. Well, we talk about the business out of it with priority and it's an independent album before, you know, they end up getting the label deal through Ain't No Nigga.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Which is pretty crazy because like I don't I get the song and it makes sense. Like I like it. I did not like it when I first heard it.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Yeah, I didn't either.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Um, but in the video was a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah, because like like like I said, I I got the the Night Professor soundtrack for Touch Me Tease Me by Fucking Case and Foxy Brown. Right. And that song just happened to be up on there.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Right, right. And like when you when you think about it, like uh if you're listening to the whole album, Ain't No Nigga Makes Sense. Yeah. But when if that is the single, if I were to go back and hear that single today, I'd be like, I I wouldn't want to listen to this album. But because of the time period and everything that was going on, like it makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

And like I said, this album basically sets up the depth gen run. So if it wasn't for this album, we wouldn't get the depth gen run that he ended up going on. Yeah, definitely wouldn't. No telling what run, because uh I want to say and when we're about to get in volume one, he said, well, you uh uh after these last two, I'm gonna split and leave y'all with nothing but influence assist. So he wasn't planning on staying here long.

SPEAKER_00 15:36

But who knows if like they they kind of plug and play him with Jazz Oh because just because um so which I I'll get on Jazz O when we get to volume two. When we get to volume two, I uh yeah. Um but we'll move on to to volume one. Yeah, yeah, in my lifetime.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Post Biggie death.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Yep, yep. So uh November 4th, 1997. Um I forget when Big Pass. Uh March.

unknown 16:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

That's what they said. Oh, okay, okay. So uh this one sold 138,000 copies, which is like close to uh uh a hundred thousand more than um than uh reasonable doubt. Uh some more notable releases that year were uh Notorious B's Notorious B IG's Life After Death, Wu Tang Claying Wu Tang Forever, the Missy Elliott's debut album, um Super Duper Flaw, uh Who?

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Ace Harlem World.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Yep, uh Master P's Ghetto D, which is kind of like it that's bubbling, you know, like something's bubbling right there. Something's bubbling. Uh Capone Noriega, War Report, uh Bone Thoughts and Harmony, The Art of War, which something's bubbling there a little bit, um, that later just kind of comes to fruition. Um Puffy Shiny Suit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Uh Puff Daddy and your family, no way out.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Yep, yep. And and like it's bringing in the essentially the jiggy era, right? You know, and like this album is pretty quintessential to that when you think about it. Like just some of the songs and like the videos, the visuals. Um, and I will start this by saying I think this this album is straight buns, bro. See, it's terrible.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

I I got a second opinion. I got a second opinion because I feel like we're getting a lot of Jay-Z's like uh best rapping out of like his rapping, like the songs, for example, like I Know What Girls Like, Lucky Me, Sunshine, like those are like the downs.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

But like I feel like everything else, like if you just go back and listen to it and so if we're gonna go through that right now, man, the intro, Imaginary Players, uh, Where I'm From, You Must Love Me, uh, Streets Is Watching. Yeah. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Which oh speaking of that movie that kind of led tied into all that, right? Which had was had its own separate soundtrack and stuff with songs I felt like could have easily been like if let's say like you're only a customer, like that could have easily been on volume one and replaced, you know, lucky me or Sunshine or uh I Know What Girls Like.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

But Sunshine was a single.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Yeah. Like it's not as bad as I Know What Girls Like, but which was a single, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

But uh it it's it felt like there was a lot of let's see what sticks with this album. Yeah. Like let's throw whatever we can against the wall. We got um there it does feel like we're trying to fit into the jiggy era and do a little bit what Puff does, but we're trying to do it our own way.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Which I know what girls like. That's the biggest like jiggy puffy's even on the song.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Right, right. I know, and and Kim's on the song. It kind of feels like it was something it was biggest throwaway, low-key. It could have been. Yeah, you know, like there's a lot of it in the production, a lot of it with um Kim, a lot of it with P. Diddy being on it, like just feels like it was meant for somebody else that wasn't Jay-Z.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

And he also have The City is mine, which was a single that was a single, which I kind of like that song. I get, I get it, but I liked it more than uh I know uh Sunshine and I know what girls like.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Yeah, definitely, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

And lucky me. And that the Lil Wayne got that tattered on him.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

I will say I the only thing I'll give to this album is uh Sunshine. Um Hype Williams like at his most hype Williams low key the fisheye lens, everything, like the color scheme, all of that. Um is it's Hype Williams being hype Williams. I'm not gonna say that's and the sample.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

I feel like cause babyface was it was a babyface was on on it too. So I feel like you know, the sample was like an old 80s break beat because it's yeah, like I feel like he thought that was gonna work.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

I mean, considering the time, yeah, I'll give it to him. Like I'll give him some grace, yeah, but like it's crazy that this sold so much more than his last album.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

Because, like I said, the Def Jam, it's his first Def Jam album. True. And Def Jam is behind, he got a machine behind him now. So he's able to push. And plus, he got a backstraight single. The uh there's a void in rap at the time with Pac and Biggie both being gone. So it's like who's stepping up to the plate? Diddy dancing and trying to step up to the plate, but we know that ain't right, right.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

He was the dude in the background, like all in the videos, yeah. Um I mean, um And then like say he was looking like I'm looking at my nose, he was looking for his like like identity, like Jay he was looking for, and and he and I think that's why probably why I'm not giving like while I'll give him a little grace on this, because like every artist goes through trying to find themselves artistically, and like um you would think after uh his first album being what it is, and like he kind of it kind of feels like he's established and knows who he is and knows what he's doing. So like to go out here and make volume one and it be this is almost like a step backwards to me a little bit. But when you think about other artists and everybody in their totality of their catalog or their work, they they have some misses or they have some things where it's a sophomore slump.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

That's what they call that's there's a lot of people that suffered from the sophomore slump coming coming up.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Yeah, but a lot of people who were not familiar with Reasonable Doubt, low-key, like in this time period, thought this was his first album. Yeah. Like legitimately thought this was his first album. They considered Ain't No Nigga like a single that they had heard, but they didn't nobody like not nobody, but there were a lot of people that weren't checking for Reasonable Doubt, but they're like, Oh, I remember Jay-Z from that that single single and this is his first album. And it's like Yeah. This is a big misstep, my dude.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

Going back, I said, and where you listen to like the raps and shit shit, like he had something, but it just He was uh hey, he was spitting in the woods.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

That he was fitting on, but like um like the misses were super misses. Yeah, like I said, the highs are highs, but the lows were low. They were they were super low. Um, the source ended up giving this four out of five mics. That's when I was like, when I was going through this and like looking at what the source was giving stuff, I was like, it Def Jam had to have something, like had to be in pocket because there's a lot of things. If anything, I would give this like two and a half, three.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

I'll give it a three. I got three three and a half, three, three and a half. I can't give it a couple. I couldn't give it a few. I can't remember. You're gonna have to look it up real quick.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Because if more than half of the uh album, I don't even think because when I was going, like the only songs that I have are there's only like four or five songs that I have on this album where I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Yeah, you got A million one, the intro.

SPEAKER_00 22:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

And you got you we disagree on City's Mind. I know girls like disagree on that. Imaginary Players, Strees is watching, Friend of 498. Nope, don't like it. Yeah, I didn't like that beat. I didn't like Lucky Me. Yeah, this is three. This is a three. Because he gotta get that, he got uh Real Niggas with Too Short, which I fuck with. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Yeah, where I'm from, you what you muscle up. The back half is better than the the first half.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Yeah, the first half is a pop album.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Yeah, and the back half, basically after uh Always Be My Sunshine, when it starts with who you with, that's when it's nothing but deep cuts.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Yeah. Nothing but deep cuts.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Yeah, I say I was a three. I'll give it a three. It's a solid it's a solid three.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

It's rolling around in that two and a half three range for me, man. Like, yeah, Rolling Stone got it right because Rolling Stone gave it a three out of five. Yeah. Pitchfork uh gave it an eight point four out of ten. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

Pitchfork, they all listen to Pitchfork.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Um it, but I mean, it is setting up for Matthew.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Yeah, his mistakes that he learned that he saw on that album, he learned, and we got volume two, which we were about to get into. Yeah, yeah. Like that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

Like everything from here on was like a run, bro. Like he set up to he set himself up in the best position to be um what he becomes, like, and what what the label becomes and what he does for everybody else, and like puts everybody else on. Um, but that's a that's a huge thing. Yeah. Um and so then that that brings us into uh volume two, and like this is when rap is really, really, really starting to like take off into his commercial era where um he's a street hustler that goes bang straight. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. And we've kind of surpassed the shiny suit era, but we're we're like heading into the bling era, yeah. Um, which is shortly thereafter. But like this is like the catalyst, this is what sets it up. Um so that year, before I even get to like what it sells, that year, um, which is what 98? Yep, 98. So this album comes out September 28th, 1998. That year saw DMX It's Dark and Hell is Hot, DMX Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, which was that run that everybody talks about DMX going on, which was like remarkable.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

DMX the game, that's they say.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Yep, yep. And then like you have so many really good albums, classics, essentially. So that's a criminal came out the same. Nah, that's not a classic.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

It's still something. I'll take it over uh stink onia, but that's for the Outcast Day.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Hey, we'll talk about that one day, one day. Um then you have you have the miseducation of Laura Hill. Which I don't think is a rap album, but in today's context, would you?

SPEAKER_01 25:40

No. Still still wouldn't.

SPEAKER_00 25:41

You still would not think it's a rap album. Fair enough. I'll give you that. Um you had Big Pun, Capital Punishment. Uh you had 400 Degrees, which uh that's a classic to me. Yep. Um you have a tribe called Quest the Love Movement. Yeah, which is their last album. Uh because they broke up. Yeah, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

You had uh The Locks, which Ronnie Powers, which was there kicking the door, basically kicking the door.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Doing man, which like could have been better, but we won't go there. We won't go there.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

They made up for it with uh the one where they did Rough Riders.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Yep, yep, yep. And then um Black Star.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Yeah, Black Star with most deaf, Tyler Head.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

98 was a stacked year. You had like you had uh what eight ball dropped that double disc, which wasn't bad. Yeah, 98 had some some some gems.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Yeah, man. Um that was a that was a good year. Uh I'm pretty sure uh the belly soundtrack came out that year. Or belly came out.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

I thought it was 99.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

I thought belly was 99. Well the soundtrack, the soundtrack came out in '98. Oh, can't remember.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

I always thought it came out in '99.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

Yep. And then uh December 15th, 98, uh the the professional, DJ Clue. Yep. Yeah. Def Gen was Dev Gen Roxy, yeah. Just throwing them out there, tossing them out there, bro.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

So like uh Didn't Red Man dropped that year too? Which one though? Uh I'll be that. I'll be that. I think that dropped 98. He might have 98 also.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Man. Oh. I'll have to look that up, but uh was it Darks of the N- No, Darks of the Name was 2000.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

And Buster was that year too, right? With Extinction Level Event.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

Yeah, I want to say he was. Yeah, I want to say he was. Yeah, like yeah, 98 was uh Oh, he uh his Red Man was uh El Nino, the collab album with the Death Squad.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Okay, so uh that must have been 99 then with uh Dox the Name. I think that was the year Dox the Name.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

Yeah. I think it might have been 2000. Because there was like a lot of two.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

What's the name was 2000? Uh it might have been.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Because there was a lot of 2000 imagery in uh Doctor Name. Man, we got phones and we know we can't like we can't fact check. It was called Dox the Name 2000, but it came out in '98.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

Yeah, because like the Chronic 2001 did not like the Como 2001.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

So this came out in So this came out in December 8th, 1998. So like you were right, you were right. Um, which is crazy because like a lot of things came out that year. That was like the year they must have started seeing returns on that music.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah, like that's all yeah, we thought I said that's how we end up getting the Hard Knock Life Tour, which is based off this album.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, so just to get into it, uh this sold 352,000 copies in his first week. In his first week. So like he's single. Yeah, yeah. God, it was everywhere. It was on it was a commercial. Man, I remember the commercials for this.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

I remember they parried it on uh Mad TV and it had Aries Spears acting like Mace, which didn't make no sense, like doing a hard knock life song. It's like supposed to be mace. Right. So I guess he could he didn't have his Jay-Z and pressure down yet, so he did Mace.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

Which, like, I mean, once you reach mainstream media in that sense, like you kind of made it. Yeah. Like, even though uh Mad TV is a second tier to SNL at the time, it's still like it's like an in living color type of situation where they're bubbling in a different community, but like they've got eyes on them. So um people people are watching, like people are watching, people are taking note, and like you've kind of reached the zeitgeist now. That is popular culture if you've made it onto some type of prime time TV or some type of Saturday night show. So um that's a big thing where like you you know he's reaching the masses at this point, and like hard knock life is like every you can't escape it, you couldn't escape it during that time period. Um like every everything on this album was almost perfect, like not perfect, but like just fit the album, fit everything he was trying to do, like conceptually.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Like from the like I said, the beats, yeah, the hooks, like this is the first time we got to see Timberland and Jay-Z. Yeah, like who are Swiss and Jay-Z. Yeah, like it was yeah, it was definitely a a dope album. But going back, you know, when I do how I do listen to Jay-Z and I go back and listen to the albums and listen to this album, I was like, oh shit, like just smiling like every song. Like, damn, I forgot how dope this this song was and shit.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

Um I have this theory after listening to it recently. So like uh like nigga what nigga who was like one of the singles or whatever, they made a video for it and everything. But like if you hear the if you listen to the song a lot, um he refers to himself to as Jigga a ton. Yeah. And it makes me realize like he's using that in place of nigga so that he can be, like, this is just my theory. He's using that in place of nigga so that he could be more radio friendly. So instead of using that as a transitional word, he's gonna call himself Jigga, or he's gonna just say Jigga all the time to be transitional so like his songs can get more radio play. Like you could put more songs on the radio if you're just saying Jigga all the time as your transitional word. Yeah. Um, so like I that's my theory behind like why he even calls himself that low. Um like what like songs. What songs like do I like off of this? Yeah, well what do you think is the low or the is like the only lows I have on this are uh Ride or Die. Yeah, was it and If I should die. All the dying songs.

SPEAKER_01 31:30

Yeah, that that uh also he I forgot he put money in the thing on that in that album, too. So that's another one. That's on the that's the last track. Yeah, that's another hot song that was getting played everywhere that's on this album.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

Well, all the man, all the singles were played everywhere. Can I get a yeah, everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

Even though it was on the soundtrack. Yeah, yeah. It was on the Frush Hour.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Yep, that's what I thought. Uh, which I mean, you can't, man, you can't deny. You can't deny all the singles.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

Oh, what's the name was on the uh soundtrack too? It was on uh that Money Cash O's wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, it was on the soundtrack. I can't remember the movie, but it was on the soundtrack because he got a Memphis Bleak and uh Beanie Verse.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

And speaking of the belly uh uh soundtrack, that crew love, I guess that's Beanie Seagull's like first ever like verse. Introduction. Introduction into which like this is what this album kind of set up is setting up Rockefeller. Right. Like we're getting ready for the Rockefeller era with this album, and that's kind of like the stepping stone that started that.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

And then also, isn't Ken I get a like uh kind of like uh thrusting Ja Rule, uh like kind of propping him up.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

Yeah, propping him up too because like even though he's buggling.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

I don't think it did, or it must have come out, it might have came out shortly after. Yeah, but the album might have come out the following year, I think.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Yeah, it came out in '99. Yeah, yeah. So like she came out in '99.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

Because I remember listening, like they were like, uh, this is kind of like the world's introduction to Ja Rule or whatever. And and a lot of people thought it was like he was like a copycat DMX or whatever. But um, he still held his own on the song.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

Oh, yeah, he did, yeah. So he said he had a better verse now. He I don't know if you've seen his like recent interviews, he'd been saying that he killed Jay-Z on the song. I wouldn't say all that. He said he said people remember his verse. And I'm like, people like, can I hit it in the morning? That spawned a J. Cole song. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So like, so you shut up, John. Right, right, right. Nobody cares, John.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Go back to where you're going. But I will say, Jazz O laced him on that uh. Bro, Jazz. It's crazy that like they made him, they they they uh they screwed his verse like like sonically. Like it sounds like he's wrapping it in tin can in the parking lot, bro.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

Like they uh heard Jazz's ass having heard of me. No, the the uh they really did a bogus on the video. They switched this whole verse up and it's like so trash.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Also, if you uh if you listen, if you see the video, um they bleep it out so much that it's just like Yeah, it's like and it's like, oh man, like y'all got beef low key. Like something something's not foreshadowing. Right, right, right. Um But like I think uh in terms of I would give this like four to four and a half out of five. I think this is like some of his better work lyrically, commercially. Um, I think is is starting the trend upwards for him and like establishing like, oh, this is what this is who he is, this is what he is. He's gonna be rapping about like the same stuff, yeah, but it's gonna be a little artistically different um going forward. Um streak. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hustler, braggadocious, braggadocious. Yeah, but like his own spin, making the lifestyle seem funner than what it is.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

But he also gave us, you know, the dark side of the light, too, which some rappers just only gave us the highs. They never gave us the lows. That's why I meant to say on the last album, he was giving us the lows a lot on that album. Like the lows side of hustling. That's why like there's a few songs on that uh Streets of Watching soundtrack you could easily replace because they're talking about the lows, but he probably didn't want to make everything downward and shit like that. That's why this album, there's no down songs on it, except for a week ago. And that's basically not saying like down as in like it's bad, but down as in like, you know, like darker, a little bit like yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

Um The Source gave it 4.5 uh mics out of five. Retrospectively, Double XL gave it four out of five, Rolling Stone gave it three out of five, which is crazy because like, nah.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

Um the least that you can give it is a four, but uh that's four out of five to me. Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

Exactly, exactly. So um, and that's just starting the the the trend upwards, and then we we finish out the trilogy with uh Live Volume 3, which comes out um what like 99?

SPEAKER_01 36:01

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's it's the last week of 99 because uh DMX came out like two weeks. Like he came out a week before Jay. Oh, okay. And Jay-Z came out a week after DMX because I guess Def Jam wanted to have the first, I mean the last number one album of the decade and the first number one album of the decade, which they did. Typical Def Jam.

SPEAKER_00 36:28

So that that brings us to volume three. Volume three, released December 28th, 1999. Um that comes out selling 462,000 copies.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

This is not this is only with do it again. Big Pippen wasn't even a part of the We'll get into that in a second.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

Uh scenario. This is notable really some notable releases that year are the Slim Shady LP, so something's bubbling there, uh Dr. Dre 2001. Yep. Um you have uh Most Deaf Black on both sides, Method Men and Redmans, Blackout, Nas I Am, Nas Nostradamus, uh Mob Deep Murder Music, BG, Chopper City, and the Ghetto. Yeah, X, and then there was X. Yep, and then there was X, which I thought was a pretty good album.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

Rough Riders compilation came out, I won't say that year. Was it 99? Is it 90? Yeah, 99, yep. Rough Riders compilation. Yep. He's on that.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Yeah, Jigga, Negas on that. Yep. Uh so the for this, the singles for this were uh Do It Again, which is super wild to me. Yeah. Super wild to me that you would play this in the club. Yeah. Because this is awful to be playing it. Like nobody could dance to this. Nobody is getting Jiggy to this.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Also kind of like, here's Beanie Siegel.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

Yeah, oh yeah, definitely, definitely, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 37:47

Here's Beans. Like, even though Beans was like, we hearing he's bubbling, but this was like he's on a single. Like, all right, now I'm introducing you to Beans.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

Right. And like put some money in his pocket, get him motivated to go on this run that he's about to go on because like his album dropped a few months after this. His uh yeah, because uh it was in two, yeah, yeah, it's in 2000. Um and so then the I didn't know that the other single uh was the things that you do, but however it's uh uh they probably didn't have a video.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

It's probably just a radio, it's probably just a radio single that got a lot of money. I never heard it on a radio. It's probably up north. If it was probably up north, you probably would have heard it a lot more than being here.

SPEAKER_00 38:27

True. Uh the thing about that is like that is like one of my favorite songs on this album. However, it is the biggest waste of Mariah Carey you could ever have. Like, if I'm gonna have Mariah Carey on a single, she's giving it all she's got. Like she's like she phoned it in. She did phone it in, and it feels like they chopped up something from something else. Like this is somebody like she had a song somewhere in the studio, and they were like, let's just take a little bit of this first and put it on here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:54

Swiss did the beat.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

Swiss did the beat to that. Well, you can tell by all those horrible horns. This uh or flutes, I mean. I'm gonna say Timbaland dominated this album. I think he had four beats. Yep. He had uh Big Pimpin', Some Like It Hot, the song with BG. Not BG, but song with Juve. And uh Is That Your Bitch? Yeah, which he took off the album because that he ended up stabbing and all that. But but I guess he if on it's on the version now. This anything is on the version now.

SPEAKER_00 39:30

So that's just which I thought that was a bean song to begin with.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

Yeah, but I guess they used it to kind of like push help beans. Like you want this song, you're gonna have to buy the beans album, uh kind of help beans.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

Which is like basically the equivalent of selling merch with an album. Yeah. Um it got how many mics? It got four mics out of five, again, from the source, which um I agree with it, kinda. Uh it's it's a 3.5 for me. Yeah, but it's my favorite of all like the volumes? Yeah, it's my favorite of all the volumes, but that's because nostalgia's tied to it with me. But like I can recognize that volume two is the best out of the trilogy. Yeah. Like, hands down, the best out of the trilogy. But like, in terms of like memories and nostalgia tied to an album, volume three is probably it for me. Then uh like what do you think is the lower? Uh anything that has a meal on it. Facts. Facts. Like, Carter.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

Anything that has a meal. She's like on uh yeah, she's like on four songs.

SPEAKER_00 40:35

Yeah, and they're all ass.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

They are all do it again, do it again is good.

SPEAKER_00 40:39

That's probably the I don't even like that song. I don't like that song at all. I don't know that's I like that song. And I'm mad it's the single because it's like I know this was played in the club a lot during that time period. Yeah, and the video had it, had them being in the club, and I just think to myself, like, what were y'all doing in the club during it? Just standing around, just like I bet you can have a full conversation.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

You gotta think this is back when they used to have the tunnel. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:08

And that's what kind of music this is shanking in the club music.

SPEAKER_01 41:11

Like, this is this is Get At Me Dog was a club song.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

I know, I know, I know.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

Man, but I won't say like my lows from this, like yeah, I won't say the Emil songs like pop for rock. I wasn't good for that. I wasn't big on uh uh fucking what's uh S. Doc Carter, like S. Doc Carter. Yeah, I wasn't big on that, but my highs is basically like big pimping. Uh There's been a murder, uh Dope Man. I like Dopeman because the whole concept of him making it seem like rap game is a dope game, and then how he kind of preludes to uh uh Murder Inc. Yeah. Talking about him and DMX and Dark River and uh Darker Demon, yeah, deeper criminal link. But yeah, that album, like yeah, especially like say uh the intro, like well not the intro, but uh so ghetto.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

Yep, yeah. I like so uh ghetto. Same here. So So Ghetto for me, Dope Man, things that you do with Mariah Carey, it's hot. Um and then the Snoopy track. Um then the back half of this album is pretty, pretty uh I like Big Pippin.

SPEAKER_01 42:22

I I get it's like yeah, I get it. Like I get Big Pimpin'.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

Yeah, yeah. And it kind of like in the time, in the time, it's a big, it's a huge record. It's huge for rap, it's huge for him, it's like big for UGK. Like it's their second resurgence. Like we get uh UGK went through like three different eras, yeah, yeah, three different resurgences, and so this is like the start of their second one.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

And people always talk about Pimpsy verse and stuff like that when Bun really watched watched everybody on that song, bro. Like that it's Bun B song to me, it's Bun B and then featuring a bunch of other people. Jay-Z had to go add a second verse that was on the video that nobody really cared about. Like MTV. Oh shit.

SPEAKER_00 43:12

I like There's Been a Murder. I like Come and Get Me. Yep. Um, I like the outro, and then because he put those on there for some reason where he had that long gap of time, and then you you get uh jig of my nigga and girl, yeah, girl's best friend. Which is wild that he took that song from Rough Riders and put it on his album anyway. I'm pretty sure that's weird.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

I feel like that's probably a label. Yeah, probably a label thing.

SPEAKER_00 43:36

Um and then girl, I like Girls' Best Friends. Yeah, I like Girls Brian.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

Even though it was a movie soundtrack song, which I I I'm guessing that's what um Jay and DMX was going at it for like songs on soundtracks because they got some bangers that they gave the soundtracks when I when I was going through making like uh my soundtrack playlist. I'm like, Jay Z and DMS got a lot of soundtrack songs.

SPEAKER_00 43:56

Well, I'm I think that's more Def Jam than anything. Yeah, Uh Def Jam and whoever is owning them or whoever they're in pocket with in terms of like uh movie studios.

SPEAKER_01 44:06

I think it was Universal, it was one of them motherfuckers.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Yeah, exactly. So like I think that that's a plays a huge part in like them getting laced with all these great verses. Yeah, and I also he should have kept Is That Your Bitch on there instead of giving it to Memphis Bleak. And he even made a video for it.

SPEAKER_01 44:20

Yeah, but that was for the mem that was the Memphis Bleak version, is that your chick? Okay. And he kind of like toned it down, but on this version, the beat and everything, I was like, I remember uh Reese uh found this on uh NAFSD. I think it's the Emmanuel or Reese told me about it. And uh we had to get on like the internet to go to hear the shit because you couldn't hear it nowhere else. And I was like, man, this shit is fucking cold. Like, I don't know why he ain't put this shit on it on his album.

SPEAKER_00 44:47

Labels, labels. That's what that's what usually happens.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

Like you talking about Nas? Right.

SPEAKER_00 44:53

Which this is this kind of starts bubbling during this song.

SPEAKER_01 44:56

Yeah, because uh because uh uh 2000 was when uh the QB album came out, and that's when uh Memphis Bleak thought he was No, it was uh Notre Dhamma's and Memphis Bleak thought he was talking about on the Notre Dame song. Trying to say, I'll make a slug melt in your cap. And like, I'm wearing a cap. You talking about me, right? And then he whooped his butt on the Queen's Bridge album, and that's when Jay-Z had to step in.

SPEAKER_00 45:22

No car, yeah. So this uh this rolls into um the dynasty album.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

Which was like compilation at first.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

I don't I still don't get this. Like uh they everybody considers it his fifth studio album, but label considers it his fifth studio album. But like he only has like two solo songs on this album. This is like the best of uh uh Beanie Seagull, though. Like this is some of the best work Beanie Seagull has ever.

SPEAKER_01 45:49

Like they should have kept it a compilation, but they was just so afraid of just throwing it out there, it's a compilation that it's label politics, it wasn't gonna sell.

SPEAKER_00 45:59

Which is crazy because like I mean, it once you get into the album, like it's pretty clear what's going on. One, two, uh Jay brings you in, but Benny Siegel keeps you there. Yeah, and Memph Bleak just is there. He is just spodder.

SPEAKER_01 46:15

I ain't I ain't on front. I do like Holler, and that's Memphis Song. Crazy because that's one of my low lights old. Like I said, yeah, Holler is not a low light. You really don't want to get into low life. We can talk about that single with uh Reacted.

SPEAKER_00 46:27

With who? On that on this? Yeah. What which single?

SPEAKER_01 46:32

Jacob, Kelly, not guilty.

SPEAKER_00 46:37

Fair enough. Fair enough, fair enough, fair enough. I thought this was America, people. I thought this was America. Fair enough, fair enough, fair enough. So we'll get into this one. So Donnesty, Rock Law Familia, Jay-Z's fifth album, comes out on Halloween um 2000. Comes out to 557,000 uh units moved, goes platinum in his first week. Uh this is his biggest week to date. Um, some notable releases that year. Uh you have Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP. This is when Dude hits his stride. That's the biggest scene. Like, man, he's he's taking off.

SPEAKER_01 47:14

Giving us shitty singles and selling millions of records.

SPEAKER_00 47:16

Millions, bro. Uh uh, then you have Outcast Stania, which I think is a great album, but you uh you have different thoughts on that, which we'll end up revisiting their catalog anyway, so it is what it is. Um we have Ludacris back for the first time, uh Nelly's Country Grimer, Wu Tang the W, uh, 36 Mafia when the smoke clears, and then just some notable, notable um rises in terms of production. The Neptunes is breaking out, Kanye West is breaking out, just Blaze is starting. Yep, just Blaze is starting to make a name.

SPEAKER_01 47:52

On any other I can't remember if Bink was on. If who? Bink, because I think Bink popped up because he he was he wasn't on this album. I don't I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00 48:02

Yo, no, no, he was. He was, he was, he was.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, this is I think this is Bink first, because he's a Rockefeller fella uh part of that production camp.

SPEAKER_00 48:11

Yeah, yeah. Um so those are some noticeable things or notable like big big things in here. We get to see the uh the debut of uh Freeway in this album.

SPEAKER_01 48:23

Um might be my favorite song off the album. Hands down. Well, yeah, I'm thinking about, yeah. I don't say favorite, but it's like ones I I run back a lot.

SPEAKER_00 48:32

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 48:33

Because I can't run back uh Where Have You Been. Bring a tear to my eye.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

We'll get to that as well. Um so just I just want to love you, get parentheses, give it to me as the single, the lead single off of this. This drops October 17th, um with a video as well. I I for what it is, I think this is probably one of his better singles, but it is crowded in production when you listen to it back, like all that stuff going on during the uh during the chorus, and then just uh Pharrell trying to harmonize.

SPEAKER_01 49:06

Is it because the chorus is not really shit? It's just give it to me, give me that funk, that sweep, that nasty, that Gucci stuff. Yeah, like where so that's why it's called I just want to love because you say it at the beginning. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:19

Like Yeah, but this uh this album brings you one of the best intros. Yeah, like top top ten, like over the course of time, top five, maybe even like one of the best intros um that like rap has ever produced, produced by Just Blaze. Um when people talk about like some of the greatest songs in Jay-Z's catalog, they always mention the intro to Dynasty uh because he was japping on that.

SPEAKER_01 49:47

Um I like this can't be life with Kanye. And I I remember hearing about Kanye on that that he stole Dr. Dre's Dre's drums in the studio.

SPEAKER_00 50:00

Yep, that's like an infamous story about him still like Dr. Dre walked out of the studio, he stole his drums and just ran off. Um yeah, so like um what would you say are the highs on this for you, and what would you say are the lows?

SPEAKER_01 50:16

Uh the highs I gotta say are basically Dynasty Intro. You got uh something you understand. Where have you been? I like to be but you mean her which I didn't realize was J B. Like I also what's his name not being on here is ridiculous for the fan. I feel like for the fan would fit perfectly on this album. Oh man, why it was on the Mills album. They wanted you to buy the Mill album for that song. They knew what they was doing.

SPEAKER_00 51:30

So much wasted time. Yeah, that's so much wasted time.

SPEAKER_01 51:33

That song could have definitely been on the dynasty. Like you can put with technology now, you can put it on a playlist with the dynasty.

SPEAKER_00 51:39

So gosh. So for me, it's uh the intro. I like change the game, um, which was a single. Um I like I Just Wanna Love You. I like Streets is Talking. I like the Can't Be Life. Um, I don't think get your mind right, Mommy, is a low light. I think it's a decent, um, a decent song. I'll be forgetting Snoop's on there.

SPEAKER_01 52:01

Yeah, I'll be forgetting Snoop's on there.

SPEAKER_00 52:02

Snoop Dogg has no place on there. Yeah, he has no need to be on that song. Whatsoever. I think there's dad just because Snoopy's because they was talking about pimping a little bit, and it was like, let's get they could have put him on parking lot pimping. That is true, but they did not. I don't know why. Um, stick to the script. You meet him, her, um parking lot pimping, uh, 1-900 Hustler, and then uh I like soon you understand. Yeah, and I really, really wish I would have been in the uh booth when they recorded Where Have You Been? Because Beams was crying. Yeah, Beams definitely was crying. He was like, I don't know if he was doing that for the simple fact that like they were like be emotional on this or like like playing a role, but he was like, man, he I hope he talked to his dad after that. Like he um he he was really going through it on that.

SPEAKER_01 52:57

Like that, that like his verse, like it's like Jay like could have just like not even recorded his verse because like I feel like Jay was. I don't even remember Jay's like Jay's relationship with his dad wasn't even as you know they're talking about the relationship with their dad, and Jay's dad's like he'll was in and out. Right, right. Beans dad just didn't give a fuck about a fuck up. Clearly, if you could hear that song. Yeah, Jay's dad, like you know, Jay probably sees his dad probably every other month or something. Beans like just hear stories from the streets about his dad. You supposed to be Michael.

SPEAKER_00 53:30

And he did that was his uh his first mention of him uh like drinking syrup and popping pills, which like ended up being his demise in the end anyway. But it's pretty crazy that like he he hadn't even popped off yet. And like he was already struggling. Um but we know why. We clearly know why. The last song on this album lets you know. Um even even uh even Emil had a decent verse on this album, which is pretty crazy. But if if you ask me, this is just a Jay-Z and Beans collab. Both of them it felt like they were just going back and forth the whole time. Like they were trying to, they had something to prove to each other. And he wasn't gonna let Beans show them up.

SPEAKER_01 54:11

He took Memphis Spot. You say what? He took Beans took Memphis Spot because Memphis is supposed to have been mixed up with Beans like, nah. But like I said, this is a compilation album, but the label is afraid to call it a Rockefeller compilation album, so let's just show Jay-Z's name.

SPEAKER_00 54:26

Or it could be one of those things where like Jay is like, hey, um, I have a so many album deal. Deal. And I want to I want to get about it, I want to rework my deal, so I'm gonna make sure that I'm gonna put all these people on here, and then just like I don't have to do 16s for 16 songs. I'm gonna do uh one 16 for 16 songs. Like, I I feel like he is a businessman, so like I feel like that could have been behind it. Plus, this is when there were kind of cracks showing between them with him and Dame and whatever. So like, uh, because after this is when we you bring in Cameron. So like um that could have been happening during the making of this album, we just never know. Um but what are your lowlights on this? Yeah. Like said uh Jigger Kelly, not guilty. So you're not gonna mention his name. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 55:15

We're gonna have to mention his name because if we talk about the Oh, yeah, man.

SPEAKER_00 55:18

I forgot to even do any notes on the side. Oh, well, we don't know.

SPEAKER_01 55:21

Yeah, we can we can skip, yeah. We can definitely skip that album.

SPEAKER_00 55:23

All right. Well, we will not mention his name.

SPEAKER_01 55:25

Like that I'm gonna say that. Uh uh, yeah, I'm gonna say that. That is probably like the only song I'll skip. Everything else is tolerable, I feel like tolerable. Like it's squeeze first. Like Squeeze First. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_00 55:36

He just kept repeating himself.

SPEAKER_01 55:38

It's like boom, boom, boom, boom. Yeah, okay, okay, yeah. He squeeze first.

SPEAKER_00 55:41

He just kept repeating himself. Oh man, it was yeah, I just I couldn't get through it, man.

SPEAKER_01 55:46

Squeeze first and uh guilty until proven innocent. Those are two songs that I could be alright with.

SPEAKER_00 55:53

Which is crazy because he made a video for it, which in the time, in the time it makes sense. In the time it makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 56:00

Because he he was just coming off of the un Yep.

SPEAKER_00 56:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:03

And then Dude was just coming off of Well, if Fiesta was everywhere. Like Fiesta was everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 56:13

It was, it was, it was.

SPEAKER_01 56:16

Like, so I said, I see the play. I saw I see the play.

SPEAKER_00 56:18

Everybody did. Plus, like, I don't know, I don't know how much that that song helped him move more units. Yeah. And I don't know how much that song was viewed.

SPEAKER_01 56:29

Also, it's also the with the him and un shit was happening.

SPEAKER_00 56:32

So it kind of played into that, like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:35

Yeah, I poked him up in the club. Yeah. But I'm missing.

SPEAKER_00 56:39

He went home without an ask. We back for it. I'm back to being home. Um, so this one, uh, the source gave it again four out of five. Mic. The source did not give this dude anything below four mics. I'm telling you, in pocket. Uh Double XL gives it a three out of five. Uh Rolling Stone gives it a three out of five. To me, it's a it's a it's a three point five.

SPEAKER_01 56:59

It's a three to three three to three point five, man.

SPEAKER_00 57:01

I think it's I think it's a good album. And then just based off of the um the intro alone, yeah, honestly. Like that's one point itself. And one night hunter hustler. 1900 hustler, like that's I mean that gives it automatically too.

SPEAKER_01 57:15

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 57:16

And to be honest, like, if you told drugs, I don't know what that's like. Um it really would speak to you. It would really speak to you. They were s I mean, they were dropping gems in that song. So like this rolls which you know rolls into the blueprint. Yeah, yeah. Like rolls into, but he had taken um a little bit of a hiatus when you think he was coming off of close to a year of not really.

SPEAKER_01 57:41

Yeah, because he was building the rock up. Okay, stock up.

SPEAKER_00 57:45

He had uh, I'm pretty sure Beans dropped during that time period. Beans did drop. Yeah, he dropped twice. He dropped in a one.

SPEAKER_01 57:51

Memphis dropped. Uh uh. She dropped.

SPEAKER_00 57:58

Um, and then they were bringing in um they were bringing in state property. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so like that was happening. And then also like he was getting it together for what was about to happen once like around the drop of this album because he started beefing with Nas. And then um whatchamacallit was cooling off as well. DMX. DMX is cooling off during this time period.

SPEAKER_01 58:20

No, he still went crazy. Still high. He still went crazy with the Great Depression.

SPEAKER_00 58:24

Yeah, which is we'll get into because it was dropped that year, but like um it is it is still looking a little bleak. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:32

Yeah, you see, you see, you see it is coming.

SPEAKER_00 58:34

Like you see the down, it's coming. Plus, like he's giving a little uh little leeway to the other people in uh the Rough Riders camp. So like I I don't I don't know if Dragon drops that year or drops.

SPEAKER_01 58:45

Dragon was towards 99. I think Dragon's 2000.

SPEAKER_00 58:49

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 58:50

Um, I think like I think Rough Riders was 2000. He had like Eve Volume 2.

SPEAKER_00 58:56

What was Eve's first album?

SPEAKER_01 58:59

Rough Riders First Lady, I think that's 99. Okay. Because her second album drops in 01. That's Scorpion.

SPEAKER_00 59:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:06

Yeah, Rough Riders Volume 2 came out 2000. Then you had the locks album, then you don't say Dragon. And you had DMX to end the year, but he starts year. Right. So yeah, it was their year in 2000. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:19

Comes to rap labels. Yeah. And then so then you we get into uh the blueprint, which is heralded as like people think it's better than reasonable doubt. I personally, I personally think it is. I think it's his best album.

SPEAKER_01 59:32

The rollout and everything. Everything about it about it that yeah, it's because you you get uh It's his magnum off, as you can say.

SPEAKER_00 59:38

Yeah, you get Izzo, H to Izzo uh in July of that year, and like that song in of itself, first of all, it was everywhere. Yeah, it was literally everywhere. You could not go anywhere. And I don't know being a Brent saying it on the radio here. Yeah, like it was everywhere. And um, like the rollout for the album was ridiculous, and then he goes and drops it on 9-11. Of course he doesn't know it's about to be 9-11.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:04

It was supposed to, uh I think if I remember correctly, it was supposed to come out a week later, but they they because the leaks, so they pushed it forward to 9-11.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:14

Well, and this that uh that also brings up something big as well. So, like, this is when like music pirating is starting to hit like not its peak or antithesis or anything like that, but it's starting to pick up heavily because like this is what's causing people to push their albums up sooner because leaks, and I do remember hearing like leak verses from this album and um just things that I thought were gonna be on the album didn't even end up being on the album, but they're just like because the way music is then you could get a mixtape verse and you're gonna think it's gonna be on the album because you don't understand like mixtapes up north are different than what's going on for the rest of the country, and we're not getting we're not getting mixtapes in the northwest unless somebody physically has traveled there and bought the mixtape and then brought it physically back to the state. So like it's it's a completely different landscape.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:03

So I remember because uh I know we kind of didn't go over the shit that came out that year, but I remember Jada Kiss dropped uh that year and it had uh uh that Jada's got a gun. And it had like the hook before he changed it. It was like more resemblance to the uh Aerosmith song. But I guess they couldn't get cleared. So they twisted up, then it was like Jade Us, gotta That's even wet. Yeah, I would rather have the dude singing Jade's got a gun. I would rather have that than like the uh guys just singing slowly, like Jade Us.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:39

I think the concept in of itself is terrible.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:42

Well, yeah, you gotta think everybody was shooting people at that time. So the Styles P got a song called Shoot Em in the Head. Yeah, true, true, true.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:48

Shoot him in the yeah, maybe talk about like raps more violent now than it is back then.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:52

No.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:53

Listen to locks. Right, right. But listen to Styles P specifically.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:57

Yeah, Styles.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:58

Um so this drops on September 11th, um, which is it comes out, sells 426,000 copies, which it really isn't bad considering like what happened that day. Yeah. Not a lot of people were going out and buying you know, like not a lot of people were going out and buying albums. So for that to almost sell half a million in the first week in light of a legitimate national tragedy. And came out the same day as a Mariah Carey album, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:25

Wait, which Mariah Carey album? It doesn't matter which Mariah Carey. It's just Mariah Carey.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:29

It does because if it's that uh I'm pretty sure it's that one with that terrible movie. Yeah, it is glitter. Yeah, it is. Nah, bro, that was decadent.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:36

You didn't know until you heard the album.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:38

Well, so however, however, so I listened to a podcast about this album by itself, and the label had already has been had been sabotaging the album to begin with. So like they um they they were fucking her over. So like it wasn't meant to do well. It was not meant to do well.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:55

So like the fact that it dropped beside that Jay-Z album, low-key, like it it doesn't, it doesn't change anything because I just say because like back in the day, like you couldn't really preview an album, so you're just going off the name. So it's like, oh okay, I'm buying this on the first day, but you still get outsold by Jay-Z.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:12

They also did no promo and the single that they were gonna use for I thought it was that Loverboy song.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:17

That little bit.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:18

Well, the original single they gave to J-Lo. There was another, yeah, they gave the there was another single that they were gonna use. They uh they were having issues getting it cleared. Okay. They ended up getting it cleared for J-Lo, and then that ended up being a J-Lo song. I wonder why she hates J-Lo now and won't acknowledge J-Lo. That makes sense. Well, that's because they were trying to they all the music that that was gonna be written for her or produced for her was getting funneled to J Lo and they were trying to um thwart her career via J-Lo. So um yeah, yeah. She shouldn't have been sleeping with Tony Matola. Well, I think that's Tony Matola. Um so that sells 426 copies, and um, which is again, like I said, as a feat because on September 11th, I I think I read somewhere that only one car was sold that day. So like that was like the biggest day of like uh pizza orders in the nation for that time period. So like people were not going anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:15

Yeah, people weren't going places. I remember us being in school, there's like, no, y'all still staying here. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Send us home.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:22

Right. Why wouldn't you send us home? Like there was legitimate fear in the air, so people weren't really going anywhere. So like how you sell 400,000 copies, 400,000 plus copies uh of an album on a day of a national tragedy, again, it is a feat and of itself. Yeah. Um, that year, as we were talking about, um Nas Still Maddox comes out. Um, The Great Depression comes out with DMX, uh Eve Scorpion comes out, Pain is Love from Ja Rule comes out. Uh Cypress Hill, Stoned Raiders comes out. Uh even uh Cormega debuted. Yep. Uh Fabulous. Yep. They debuts. The Outlaws come out. Um so some pretty big, big releases. Wu-Tang Iron Flag. That's a fart in the wind, bro. Yeah, it was. Um, but the big thing around this was the uh was the beef. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:21

The biggest thing around this was pick aside. Actually, it wasn't even like that back. You know how today rap beef pick a side back then. It's like we just were enjoying everything about this.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:32

Yeah, we was enjoying it. Everything about this was really good. Uh he drops Takeover, um, which uh you're gonna have to correct me if I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure like had already come out prior to the album. Uh oh no, Taker.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:45

Wait, no, Takeover wasn't because I remember What about the Summer Jam? Yeah, the summer the Summer Jam uh because he just said that line. He's like, You guys don't want it with Hove, ass nines. He don't want it with call with Hove. He just said that line. Oh, okay. And he put Project up on the screen.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:02

That's why we have the term putting them up on the Summer Jam screen.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:06

But yeah, like he didn't drop Takeover until the actual because I remember uh uh because you know 9-11 niggas didn't really have to get the album. I remember uh Terrence Artist mom ended up getting the album and I was talking to him over the phone. He's playing Takeover. He's like, oh man, he's going off on Nas. I was like, man, I can't wait. And he had a burner. I was like, man, burn it for me and you can, you know, and bring it to school tomorrow and stuff like that. And he I remember because we was taking Ice, it was I step test testing, and I ended up getting it from him.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:33

Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, I uh I remember hearing it from Emmanuel because Emmanuel was like, hey man, he's got one on his hands. Like he's got like like this album is something special. Like he's got something on his hands, and like they ended up, like him and his brother had bought it that year. Um, so like that that's where I remember first hearing it, but like just kind of skimming through it, not necessarily um really like paying too much attention. And then also like they had played Takeover a couple times to be like, like, are you hearing this? Are you hearing this? And then like that blew up to the point where it's on MTV and they're like flashing the lyrics across the screen while they're trying to give you details about what's going on between the beef and them, and then um, and then from there we get a lot of back and forth between the two. Yeah, and then we got super ugly, which is an L in of itself. Yeah, uh definitely a super L for that. Like that's that's taking the low road.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:27

Um it's like it's like all right, I'll you don't hit like you don't hit me so hard, like all right that's why I fuck you. Yeah, yeah, like yeah, he's gonna slip with your bitch. He got punched in he got punched in the chin and it kind of like staggered him with the eyes.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:43

Yeah, definitely. And then for him to go on uh was it funk flex? Where he that's where he dropped it, I'm pretty sure. Might have been. Which is crazy because he ends takeover with like, you know who did you know what you know who let's keep that between me and you and then he goes flex.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:59

Like, you remember who I was talking about the end of takes over takeover?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:02

Well, Nash, that's your baby mama. And then he like goes into the studio and then drops super ugly and like he tried to scrape that off the internet, which like it's there, it's out there, but it's also like that and don't you know leave leaving condoms on your baby seat. Like, bro, that's probably the most vulgar he's ever gotten in any song.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:22

Because he he was boy Nash got under his skin with this.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:27

He really did, but that's also that was the talk. Even people that were like Jay-Z's camp were like, Nas got him. Like, Nas got him, like there's nothing he could do. And then then he goes out and just like starts flailing, like windmilling, throwing out super ugly, which is like crazy, crazy work. Um what uh songs you fuck with the most on this album? The whole album, man. Whole album except like the songs that you don't fuck with is really the the list. The song that I don't fuck with is you already know what it is.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:03

Wait, let me go through this. Oh, you really? I don't know how with that song. You don't wait. You you just look at that track list. There's one song on there.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:13

There's only one song on here that I don't fuck with. Well two, two, two. What? Hola Hobito. Yeah, it really wasn't a fan of that. The second verse he is low-key spitting, but I I don't focus. It's very little play. And um uh it's it's right before oh, that track master shit. Jigger that nigga. Trash. That's the only song I will not play. And it's it really messes up, first of all, it messes up the complete flow of the album. Yeah, um it stands out as being like, why is this here? Like, why is this here? This is hands down one of the worst songs that he like has put on a really good, solid project.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:55

Definitely. Um pretty sure that's the last time him and the trackmasters worked together. As it should be, even though Trackmasters was everywhere during that time period. Like now they had no, they did that album that we were not talking about.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:08

Oh, yeah. Well, well, yeah. Yeah, that so that led to But they were doing they were doing good with RB artists, especially him, yeah, you know, like especially him. Yeah. Um why do you think that he watched Eminem on Renegade? Because I disagree with you wholeheartedly.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:27

I don't I didn't say he watched, but I don't think Eminem watched him.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:29

Oh man, do you know what I had to do to get here? I don't think you do. Like that that is.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:35

I feel like you're getting like two, like you're getting Eminem rapping about the industry and what he's going through and shit like that. And Jay-Z rapping about like life and the struggles and shit I'm going through.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:46

But that's his, but that is his life.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:48

And that's why I say I can't, you know, like I rather hear about Jay-Z coming to a fork in the road and going straight than Eminem talking about, you know, I'm gonna be honest, man. Politicians and I think he watched them on this.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:02

I legitimately think he had the way better verse, like by miles to me. And I don't, I don't even think like I'm not a I'm not a huge Eminem stand. Like Eminem stopped being good mid-MM show. In the middle of that album. But we we'll get into that another time. But like, um, I gotta give credit where credit is due on that.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:26

Yeah, it's like it's a good, I ain't saying this, but I just hate that nobody was saying this until Nas came up and said Eminem murdered you on your own. No, I was thinking that in the beginning. Being out there, uh people is not blaming, like, man, you Eminem murdered Jay-Z, I'd rather listen to MM verse and Jay-Z is like stuff like that. They both snap. Yeah, yeah. But I resonate with Jay's more than I resonate with Eminem's.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:50

So so if you had to take three songs on this and put them as your top three, and like you're gonna take three songs off of this and make a uh a best of playlist, and you could only take three off of this, what three do you take? Uh I take You Don't Know All I Need.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:07

Yup. Yup. And uh loves me.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:16

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:17

I'll I'll I'm not saying the the bonus tracks, I'm not counting you not counting them? I'm not counting those as tracks that I would because they're big bonus. Like he's calling he's he's technically calling them bonus. I don't know. So like, and plus you couldn't get those songs until you listen to eight minutes of silence. So yeah, so yeah, so I really don't count those tracks, but yeah, those are three.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:38

Uh I would have to go lost me, all I need, and uh you don't know. Okay. I would I would say uh I would say all I need, um man, I would probably go the rulers back, low key. Um and then probably heart of the city.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:59

However, that was DMX.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:02

I know, I know. If if I could, I would go breathe easy. Because when he says I'm far from being God, but I work goddamn hard, bro. Like, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:11

Yeah, and that's like my one of my favorite Jay-Z songs.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:15

Yeah, same, same, same, same, same.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:16

But like I say, I don't count it because it's a technically it's a bonus track.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:19

But like, but in the streaming area, it's it's just on the album. Uh this is so successful, he comes back with a with his follow-up, which is uh the Blueprint 2, which he's making.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:33

He's feeling himself.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:34

Yeah, he's making a trilogy, he's feeling himself, and this comes out what uh November um the following year. So November 12th, the the following year, thinking like, hey, he's got a heater, he's got some, he's got some notoriety, everybody's calling Blueprint 1 a classic. If you name something after your first classic, like if he were to call Reasonable Doubt to, then I'm gonna come listen to it. So like he's got everybody's ear. Um he's he's bringing in uh different, he's bringing in new producers, he's bringing Kanye in for more songs, um Neptunes, more than Just Blaze. Yep, more Just Blaze. Just a lot of the things that worked for him in um in the blueprint, in the Blueprint one. Uh this one sells 400,000 copies in his first uh in his first week, which I mean it's no slouch, you know. Uh no, no, actually this sells five hundred and forty-five thousand copies in his first week. And I think that's just off of the strength of it being called.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:32

And I think a double disc kind of like the number. I don't know how the numbers were back then when they were counting as two. Okay, so he technically for like a million for oh well a minute. No, and uh so he maybe only sold 200. 250. I don't think he 250, and he went down from 400 doing the like I feel like he probably sold uh that like the first week and they doubled it later.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:56

It could it could be that, it could be that, and I'll probably look into that. Yeah. So this the single that dropped for this in October was 03 Bonnie and Clyde Hate It. Yeah, hate it trash. Yeah But let's get into some notable releases for that year. So this year you see uh the Eminem show, Lord Willing, uh from the clips, uh Scarface is a fix. Which might have been the best album that year. Yep, yep. Uh Cam or Nelly, Nellyville as Styles P a Gentleman and a Gangster, or a gangster and a gentleman. I forgot he did name his other album Gentleman and a gangster. Like to live quality quality. Uh then you got the the beginning, the beginning of the Diffset era, uh, which is Come Home with Me from Cameron. Oh. And I'm sure Jay was like, oh dear.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:50

Yeah. Well, yes, that's not no use.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:52

A lot of people say that, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:54

I bet you go look it up now. I bet you you ain't see nobody saying that.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:56

No, a lot of people are saying like that was a really good album. Like Lost Tapes was like, where's that?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:01

But yeah, Lost Tapes, like, because you had the original I Am album and some leftovers from Still Maddox. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:11

Still. Yeah, you can miss me with it. Nah, that's that's that's I'll play that shit. I got that shit on vinyl. Can't go to the city. I'm gonna listen to it all the way home just to give you some so give it some burn. So like uh we'll we'll go through this quickly because I personally do not like this album. I don't like the way he built this album.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:30

He's coming off the beach with Nas.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:32

Right, right. And he's putting out so many songs, but also it's like low-key narcissistic, Jake, because he's like, even in defeat, it's a valuable lesson learned. It evens it up for me. And it's like, what are you talking about, boy?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:42

Like, what are you talking about saying like he like uh like yeah, I beat uh yeah, he beat me, but what has he done? Right. I'm still fucking like, come on, man. Like uh like ask the people of Columbine.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:56

I was the first in line like man for every record soul, man. Sit your ass down. Man, he he low-key turned his concession speech into a diss. Like it was like, come on, man, you seem even more petty when you're like trying to admit defeat.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:11

I ain't gonna front though, he did give us that uh that line that said, is it Uchie Wally Wally or is it one month? Is it Black Lost? Oh, and then that jungle. He's a garden to me. Yeah, he was like I said, he was mad on that one. Like he should have been mad on that one on Takeo, like on TakeOver.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:35

He should have put those verses on blueprint.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:38

But no, he should no, he should put them verses on super ugly. If super ugly was the blueprint, too, then we probably might have been having a different story about that battle.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:44

That is true. That is true. So uh what do you think the lowlights on this are? Oh, there's a lot. There's too many. There's an album's worth of lowlights on this.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:54

A lot of the first disc is low.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:56

Yep, so the intro on the first disc, which is a song that which is a cheap cheap.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:02

We gotta we gotta bring up your T production video, you made music T production did a video.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:11

So I uh just for some context, just for some context, I made a uh uh TV productions video in high school based on this music or on the intro for this album, uh A Dream, which fit featured notorious B.I.G. Uh, I used my sister as Notorious B.I.G. and all you could see was her back, and I was rapping as Jay-Z to Notorious B.I.G. to the verses to this. Uh she gave me a terrible grade for that. Uh still a little bitter about it, but uh it it I get it now.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:44

But uh yeah, there's so many lows. But that's second, if the second disc and just take a few songs off the first one, take like a few like three songs off the three, four songs off the black disc or the curse, and replace it with like Hovey Baby and a few other and that J album, like it's like, okay, you you are the yeah, you the goat.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:04

Did you did you uh did you like Excuse Me Miss?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:10

I like the remix. Fair enough. Yep. Yeah, la la la. Yeah, I like yeah, I like the remix, but I really wasn't cool. But I ain't gonna say it's a bad song, but it just wasn't one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:22

Why was that Sean Paul song on this album? Yeah, that should have been why did they make two of the same Sean Paul songs for this album?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:28

Because Jay-Z was like looking at where Sean Paul was at at the time, and it's like, who else is on there that shouldn't have been on there? Fuck, yeah, that Sean Paul song.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:37

Um uh really, Ho V Baby isn't that bad, but like it's just because uh Just Blaze holds it up with his production. All around the world wasn't terrible.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:49

Uh Poppin' Tag was good.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:50

I fucked the Poppin' Tag. The bounce, I like the bounce.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:53

I just didn't like Kanye's verse. I didn't like Kanye. It's like early Kanye. You can tell like he hasn't figured out his.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:00

Also, he's trying really hard because it's like his first verse on a major album.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:05

I did take over. Do you have beef with nuts? I did take over the game.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:11

Oh God, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That that album was definitely uh uh yeah, definitely. And then you have like on the curse, you have Dominus Forever. That should have been the intro. Um Guns and Roses, that should have got a video. Yeah, that should have been bigger than what it was. Meet the Parents. Yep. You have You Don't Know with MOP. That's a bonus.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:33

I thought, yeah, that could have been a bonus song more than actually on the album. Replace that with Show You Show You How.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:43

A lot of these songs are rehashes of good songs on his other album. So like when you when you get Meet the Parents, that's a little bit of like you don't understand a little bit, a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:53

But it's more of a story, his he's telling the story.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:55

Yeah, I get the story, but like he's also telling a story on uh soon you'll understand is what I mean. Soon you'll understand. He's kind of telling stories through different concepts or different people's views. Uh somehow, some ways this can't be life part two. Um some people hate. I really like that song. A lot of people didn't necessarily like that. Fuck with it. That's not a re-uh. I feel like that was an ex disc, but you thought of what?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:16

An X DMX disc. I could get that. I could say that. Okay, he's talking about he said something about the beginning. Like, they say they're flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:24

Probably. Yeah. Um and then Blueprint 2. Yeah. Yeah. Uh nigga please featuring young Chris. Fuck with it. Uh also, like, that's when he started really rapping like young Chris a lot. Uh really rapping about it. And then he threw him in the bushes. But that's also young Chris's fault, too. True, true, true, true. Um, I don't like Too Many Hoes. Yeah, yeah. I don't like As One.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:51

Yeah, I definitely don't like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:52

Don't really, really hate Ballad of a Fall of Soldier. I get it though, but Yeah. Um Show You How To. I'll fuck with Show You How to Love It. Wish they would have kept a little uh skitter um Bitches and Sisters.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:06

Bitches and Sisters. I get it, but that song is not A's well. I think it did.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:09

I think I don't see anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:12

As for Jay-Z himself, like while I'm saying like he didn't age. Like, yeah, it's that song A's well, because you know it's a song but Jay-Z saying it like it's like Big Pimping to him now. Like you would probably never hear Jay-Z go album perform Big Pimping again. True, true, true.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:27

Um, and then uh then he had to put on a what they gonna do part two, pointless, utterly pointless. Um The Source gave it 3.5 out of five mics. That's the lowest they've rated any album of his. It's a two to me. It's a two for me, dog. Uh Rolling Stone gave it a three out of five. Pitchfork gave it a 7.5 out of 10. That was wild. Metacritic gave it a 64 out of uh 100. So that's a D. That's a D. And it is a D album. It is trash to me. But he then goes on to release 2.1 after everybody criticizes him about having so many songs, and he still doesn't get the tracks right. No, he still has it.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:15

Like he should have called me up. So I will help.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:17

He still puts that that uh that Biggie song on there, Adrian.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:22

Did he put that on there?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:23

Uh uh He did not. He put uh he put he put Beware the Boys, yeah, a Punjabi remix.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:32

He put that stop song with Swiss.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:34

Yeah, that shit was trash. He put what they gonna do part two on there. Uh yeah, so it was pretty trash. Uh he sees he still didn't know how to put this together. I don't understand why. Um there had to be something behind it. But uh he did put the excuse me, miss. He put both of them on there. Yeah, both of them on there. Stupid. It's super wild. But um yeah, yeah, that's so I mean that's all we have for him for the first part of his career. We'll get into his uh the second, the back half, including his retirement for the second episode or for the second Jay-Z episode. It probably won't be the second episode. Um, we'll probably do some other. There are some other artists that we have that we want to revisit their catalogs as well, but we thought we would start with Jay-Z because he's such a big artist and he had such a time period that is um somewhat of a time capsule in rap that allows us to revisit his catalog um and just kind of hold it under a different light and hold it under a different light in this time period and really see if the classics are the classics, like people say, um, really see what his career and his discography meant up until then. Um can he beat everybody in a versus? Yeah, yeah, that is like people are saying. Yeah, yeah, he definitely cannot. Um there are some people that could hold up to him. Uh, I'm thinking the person that can hold up to him and will probably end up doing his discography next will be T.I. That's a huge uh uh a huge controversial topic. I think T.I. is like they said at the time, um Southern Jay Z.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:13

But that's a different thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll get there. We'll get there.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:15

Yeah, yeah, we'll definitely get there because like he watches Wayne, but we'll get there. We'll get there, like I said. Um but yeah. Well, we'll see you next time for part two.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:25

This is the revision with Scrap Lotto and Marcus Johnson.