Seemingly
lost amidst the controversy and hoopla surrounding the release of Magna Carta Holy Grail was the fact that
Jay-Z was releasing a collection of new songs. Of course, Jay-Z is on the kind
of level where he can record a conversation with his orthodontist and release
it as a single, but since there wasn’t a single preceding the release of the
album the primary focus of MCHG was
the means through which it was being distributed: a freaking app.
Please
correct me if I’m wrong but if this isn’t the first album to debut as an app,
it’s at least the highest-profile. I’ll get to the songs in a minute, but to properly
discuss the album I think it’s important to consider the business side of MCHG. Jay-Z is a business, man. We all
knew that already. The fact that he just made $5 million in album sales before it even officially came out only
reinforces that. Critics might chime in
by saying that a corporate partnership between a rapper and an electronics
company is a complete joke and a disgrace to art, while proponents will say
that he took advantage of a great opportunity and made a really smart business
move. Obviously, I am a proponent of the move from a business standpoint, but
it makes the question of whether or not MCHG
is a good album very complex.
Jay-Z made
his decision to pre-release his album that way, so it makes sense to listen to
the album within that context. I don’t think ostentatious is a bad word to
describe MCHG. I realize that calling
a Jay-Z album “ostentatious” won’t exactly win me a Pulitzer, but here is a
list, in order of appearance, of what he has/wants/calls himself in the second track “Picasso Baby”: a
Picasso, a Rothko, a Jeff Koons, Jean-Michel Basquiat, a bunch of Warhols, twin
Bugattis, Leonardo da Vinci, Givenchy, a house like the Louvre or Tate Modern,
the Mona Lisa, and a Basquiat (second reference) for his daughter. I really couldn't tell you what half of those things/people/concepts are but it sounds like good living!
The most profound song on MCHG is “Oceans,”
which features the silky voice of Frank Ocean. I’m not sure if that’s a
coincidence or not, but it’s hard to imagine anyone else singing the chorus to
this song. I think the stars just happened to be aligned for this one. “I hope
my black skin don’t dirt this white tuxedo/before the Basquiat show/and if
so/well fuck it, fuck it,” Ocean sings. These gentlemen sure seem to love their
Basquiat, but this time the reference is a little more tongue-and-cheek. The
rest of the chorus describes him observing an old slave ship docked on the
Ivory Coast as he’s driving down the road in a Mercedes. It’s a powerful image,
made more powerful by the passion Ocean sings with. But here’s where I have
trouble with it: I’m listening to him sing about this on my Magna Carta Holy
Grail Samsung app. Does the overt commercialism take anything away from the
lyrics? Is Jay-Z able to sell these lyrics after having so obviously sold out?
The best
avenue to stroll down while having this debate is on the song “Somewhereinamerica.”
It’s one of the better beats on the album, starting right from the beginning
with the heavy drum and old-timey sax. I actually love the song; at two and a
half minutes it’s a fun, short and sweet, non-stop flow. But that’s not why it’s
interesting. It’s interesting because it contains the line “A million sold
before the album dropped.” So let’s talk about what he’s doing there: he’s
rapping about how well this album has already done. In other words, he is using
the success of the product to help create the product itself. By doing this, he
is actively promoting the fact that he can do whatever the fuck he wants, and I’m
not necessarily sure that that’s okay.
From a
strictly musical standpoint, MCHG is
enjoyable but clearly not his best work. Highlights of the album include “Picasso
Baby,” “Oceans,” and the oddly-punctuated “F*ckwithmeyouknowigotit.” The latter
song contains the line “Hov keep gettin’ that dinero/got it/Even if a nigga
gotta Robert/get it” which is so creative and flows so well that I can forgive
him for being such an asshole with the song title.
Whether or
not you like Magna Carta Holy Grail
depends almost entirely on how you feel about the way it was promoted and
distributed, and probably how you feel about Jay-Z himself. It’s unlikely that
this album will convert any Jay-Z skeptics, but there are a lot of really good,
catchy songs and it’s hard to imagine any true fans being put-off by the
quality of the beats and rhymes. It’s just the small issue of, you know,
rapping about how well the album has done on
the actual album itself. If you can get past that, you will probably like Magna Carta Holy Grail.
Grade: B
Yeah rappers are just now getting cocky ...
did you seriously call Jay-Z a sellout?