Listen Up! Jay-Z’s American Gangster
After watching an early screening of American Gangster, the Ridley Scott film that stars Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, Jay-Z became inspired to start recording music again. His last album Kingdom Come, dealt with the life of a mature and successful Jay-Z, but he received some backlash from going too far against the grain. With American Gangster, he’s closer to where he started than ever before.
The music writers at Epinions.com have scored the album 4 1/2 stars out of a possible 5. Balogun, a top reviewer, calls the album a proper comeback album, more so than his actual comeback album. Some have called this album a mix of his first classic album Reasonable Doubt and his 2001 album The Blueprint, because it combines the tales of his hustler days from the first album, and the soulful vibe of the latter. It’s also one of the more artistic albums of his career, where the hot single wasn’t as important as the entire work. Speeddemon531 says, “What winds up being most impressive here is that Jay sounds like this time he’s coming back because he has something to say and not because he wants to show everyone that he still has “it”.”
Trey_stone says that Jay-Z is “returning to his roots” with the hustler lyricism, which to many Jay-Z fans, was important. But according to Jay-Z, in an MTV.com article, he couldn’t easily go back to that place and be genuine about it at the same time. With this album, he was able to go back to places he hadn’t been in a long time. Yinyang205 says, “More than just being a good album, it shows that an artist at the latter stages of his career, can still grow.”
Jay-Z might have to go back to making music about being the CEO of Def Jam, or finding ways to bring water to third world countries, but this time around, he made many of his fans happy.
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