Let me start this post out by saying, no, I don’t hate Kanye West or Jay-Z.  For some reason whenever I make a statement about these two individuals that doesn’t correlate with the hype bandwagon culture that we live in (yes, via my Tweet on Sunday you guys do suck) it comes off that I hate them both—I don’t.

I loved Kanye West for a huge extent of his career, even before he went on his solo rap tip.  I still think, College Dropout, is one of the best debut albums from any artist.  I think he had rather successful follow-ups to the album with Late Registration, and The Graduation.  West and I kind of parted ways with 808’s And Heartbreaks, a project that I still don’t fully understand—and then with his latest project My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, that at first, was stellar, amazing, eclectic, innovative and etc—don’t get me wrong, it still is all of those things however, it’s overly produced so I rarely—well, actually, I don’t listen to that project anymore.

Than, there’s Jigga man, who I can honestly never say, was one of my personal favorites—I think that’s because my mom constantly sings his praises over, and over again saying things like “that new Jigga is the bomb” or throwing up the Roc sign in the most odd of times.  I have however, been partial to a huge chunk of his work—The Blueprint is a classic Reasonable Doubt is a classic, “Beach Chair” as a song is one of my personal favorites, he’s very smart, and after reading Decoded, I become to realize he’s a lot more cultured than I initially thought (no, that wasn’t from a rap stereotype).

Okay, now back to the subject at hand.  When I initially heard that Jay-Z and Kanye West were putting out a collaborative project—I wasn’t amped at all.  For one, I wish Kanye West would work on the CRS project with him, Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell more than I wanted collaboration with him and Jay-z.  Furthermore, Jay-z’s collaborative projects always suck to me—hence that whole R.Kelly era which made zero sense then, nor now.  I also thought this album was going to be overly produced like West’s latest installment, however—this project kind of surpassed my expectations, but I won’t say it’s the album of the year or anything like that.

No, I don’t like every track on the album, however, there’s some pretty cool elements to this project.  First and foremost, the production on this album is pretty solid.  With production featuring the likes of Kanye West himself, 88-Keys, Hit-Boy, Q-Tip, The Neptunes, The RZA, Swizz Beatz, and etc the production palette is pretty diverse.  I guess its cool that Frank Ocean’s on two songs since he’s new—but I myself am over the whole Mr. Ocean fad.  I think its cool that Jay-z put Beyonce, his wifey, on a track—but aside from the production I don’t really like this song at all.

I love the production of “Niggas In Paris,” perhaps the most on the whole project kudos to Hit-boy.  This is the track that makes you feel overly aggressive, and then when you mellow out— the track changes to something more mellow dope.

“That’s My Bitch” produced by Q-Tip, is SICK!  The lyrics don’t do anything for me, however Q-Tip produced a crazy beat.  I do love this part that Kanye says however, “My dick worth money, I put Monie in the middle.” I also find it funny that Charlie Wilson is in this song—he’s become the voice of hip-hop for the last years.

“Murder To Excellence” is honestly, one of the only tracks on the whole album that I feel they are really saying something of substance.  This track was produced by Swizz Beatz and S1 of Strange Fruit Project fame (one of my favorite groups).  This track has dope lyrics that really make you think and are actually sadly true.  I think also what makes this track dope is how essentially its kind of like a switch speaking of issues like living in the murder capitol and black on black murder, to the more materialistic in a way aspects of being black.

Overall, here’s my opinion ready—first, as far as collaborations come, this is a cool album—however, I think you can tell whose more seasoned—meaning, Jay-Z kind of needs to stop.  He’s been relevant for years of the Cabbage Patch, The Bankhead Bounce, The Butterfly, The Harlem Shake, Going Dumb, The Superman, The Cupid Shuffle, Jerking and Douging meaning that perhaps he’s extended his welcome.  The older he gets, the less irrelevant his rhymes become… and dare I say it, the more unrelatable he becomes.  No, the average American doesn’t have a Maybach so rapping about it and your wealth repeatedly becomes redundant.  No, I rather you not be poor I actually like the fact that you aren’t but its just blah.

Also, this album doesn’t match the Album of The Year nods that your fans are putting out solely based on the fact that this is neither of yours best work.   If I had to score it, I’d definitely give the production a 9/10.  The features, aside from Frank Ocean, and Mr.Hudson who I actually adore (that’s the production I am discounting as well) I’d give an 8/10.  Lyrically, I’d give this project a like 5/10 there’s no lyrical depth minus one track.

 the end, what are your opinions?