KFC Radio - Mailtime Moment: A Look At Jay-Z's Career

Episode Date: December 4, 2019

Happy birthday Jay-Z! Great day for Jay-Z fans. Not only is his entire catalog now on Spotify, the Clancy brothers (two white suburban guys in their 30s who grew up listening to Hov) breakdown his entire discography. From 1996-2019, Reasonable Doubt to 4:44. The most underrated song, maybe of all-time: A Million And One Questions. Did you know Jay-Z stabbed someone and only got probation? Takeover vs Ether. Dropping an album on 9/11. Retiring multiple times. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED??You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/kfcr

Hey, KFC Radio listeners, you can find every episode of KFC Radio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. The only one who didn't give me any pain when I gave birth to him. And that's how I knew that he was a special child. What a weird intro. So weird. And then they did this, like, chipmunk voice. It's a dope song, but have your mom intro it mom you made the album so on and on i'm leaving after this song funny to think that jay-z actually

believed the black album was like his last you know he's like that's it well it's done he he thought volume two he thought in my lifetime volume He's like, I hit you with these last two instead. I'm out. These last two. That was like 15 years ago, dude. It's December 4th, 2019, and Jay-Z is back on Spotify. The second most important person in my life born on December 4th. That's right. Shout out to my nephew.

Happy fourth birthday to him as well. Hova and my nephew on December 4th. And more importantly, the music back on spotify and i believe apple and all the regular streaming services so uh kind of like rip and peace to title we were just looking for his music right we were trying to like edit it into a video yeah i was like i wanted popping tags and i was like oh that's right you can't find any of this stuff because you put it all behind the paywall but uh back in action happy like i don't know 69th birthday to hova he's old as fuck the music is back and it was honestly like christmas morning when i realized i could listen to jay-z's music again was this like a midnight drop like did

he tell anybody i i don't know anybody know i i saw at midnight spotify tweeted happy birthday hove your music's now back on spotify with a uh a gif of all of his album covers like peeling away and you just realize how much fucking music this guy made and i you know you still you still will hear be it on the radio or someone who does have title or in a movie or somehow some way you hear the hits you know right but what you don't hear are those those deep cuts and and even some of the bad songs and those those are songs that i you know you would i thought i will like never hear this kind of shit again you know what i mean like if it was if it was gonna stay on title i would have never listened to guns and roses with lenny kravitz ever fucking again you know seriously and there but there are some good songs that that are like that that are

forgotten and lost and so when i when i saw that we have jay-z back uh and you can listen to everything i thought to myself i'm getting to re-listen to this right there's probably a lot of people who have never heard this right and that just like shows the the changes in the music industry like right like yeah you used to have to buy the album and then everybody freaked out when Napster made everything free and then they decided to go with the Apple model where they're selling tracks for 99 cents this was like he has like the biggest catalog that could be put behind a paywall and have it matter because all these new guys like you know i think future comes out with a something every nine months right so but he like why would

he put that all behind a paywall because his model is like a lot of content quickly you know i don't know how he makes any money off it because it just seems like it all hits all these streaming services but this is that title was like he was like the only one who could really do Tidal. He, when you have the money and the prolific catalog to do so. And you just live long enough. Well, okay. And so honestly, that's,

so what we're doing here, this is a mail time listening event. We're chronicling the entire life and times of s.carter and uh i i i what i first realized was one how there are probably younger people who just never heard these songs and weren't going to pay for title and probably never would have heard this and honestly the sadness is like they might not go listen to it now because i know i'd be stubborn if i was young fucking shout out to billy eilish like whatever I don't know these people I wasn't but there is but maybe somebody will do a podcast about a bunch of old songs there are so many tracks so many albums and soundtracks and moments

and so that was my first thought my second thought was how fucking cocky to be able to do that like title in my mind is a failure but you know he probably made enough money and the fact that he could just stick to it as long as he did is pretty wild i bet he actually made uh like a huge like oh yeah money that we would like be staggered by no it's probably still nothing to him right he probably considers it a failure right that's why he moves back to spotify i mean come on it's funny it's like that's waving the way. He probably views it as a, as a failure. We probably view it as a failure, like, uh, um, figuratively. But if you showed me the bottom line, I think this is wildly successful because he's one of the only guys who could do it. I think what is the most interesting thing about Jay-Z is what you

just said. He fucking survived. Like he was, he was right up there with he came up and was contemporaries with biggie and tupac and those were two guys jay pock put out a bunch of albums he had a lot but to be honest he had a lot that was like yeah you know and the fucking outlaws were just on every goddamn song i mean he had so many features that absolutely sucked well there was one song where he was just like i'm gonna let the outlaws ride out on you and it was like six more minutes and they're like oh well i'm just I'm just going to turn this off. And they're all named after dictators and shit. It's like, shut up.

That wouldn't fly. You know, so for every like classic. Imagine if like Fatal Hussein was like a big star right now. Fatal Hussein, Gaddafi and shit. Like, Jesus Christ. So, you know, for every classic like All Eyes on Me album or classic song, you know, Pac had a bunch of misses, and then he was dead. Biggie cut down way too early.

And the difference with Jay-Z is that he has lived to be 50-plus years old now, and that's what I think is fascinating about him is because you get to see what's good about getting fucking murdered is you ride off into the sunset. Die a hero. Big L. he's the greatest rapper of all time you only heard one fucking album from him in a bunch of mixtapes you know big pun and big pun same way it's it's like you you uh you know you go out on top obviously

tragically but it's the it's it's the equivalent of like you know of like barry sandersing that shit you know it's just like i had my my prime and I was gone. Jay-Z was around long enough to have some misses and have some flops and go through some ups and downs and have changes, and I commend the way he did it versus like Kanye, who like completely abandoned his sound that people fell in love with. And granted, you know, enough people love his new sound, so it's whatever.

But Jay, like he tried, he went went through phases with producers he went through phases with his record label he had a bunch of different uh ideas of who's going to collaborate with and but for the most part stayed true to like being a rapper right but enough so that there was you know uh a full array of you know classics and flops and things in between, experiments, movie soundtracks, and collaborative albums. It's all just fascinating. He's the only guy who is big enough, popular enough, successful enough, good enough, and lived long enough to do all this shit. And didn't go to jail. And that's where we start things off here. I don't think people appreciate the gravity of the situation with Lance on Rivera and entertainment.

I mean, people, there's a whole generation that just does not know that story. Fact. So and it actually ties in nicely to title because. Back in ninety nine, Jay-Z was about to drop volume three, The Life and Times of S. Doc Carter, which was, like you said, one album past what he ever envisioned. It's funny to think of Jay-Z,

like you could tell that when he was doing Reasonable Doubt and then the In My Lifetime albums, he probably was still like in drug dealer mode. So he probably was like, I'm just going to do a couple albums and then I'm going to like get back to the streets. Not realizing that, like it's interesting to me that he wasn't saying all along i'm gonna be a mogul i'm gonna be a fucking like a pillar of media he was like i'm a rapper i'm a drug dealer i'm a rapper i'm gonna go back to it he probably

didn't think he could do that well that's the thing like like you and maybe because of guys like jay-z that's why kanye like is like, I'm going to be Walt Disney. Jay-Z never thought that. He ended up being it more so than I think Kanye is. But he never thought he was going to be that, I don't think. He was like, I'm a drug dealer. And like, okay, I can rap a little bit. So let me do this.

Then I'm going to go back over here and work the streets again, work the corner. He took you through rap being just just about like being a gangster right and two like well now i'm kind of like a a movie star now i'm like i'm like the new definition of hollywood so he he was like i think he thought i only have a certain amount of stories to tell right like i only have a certain amount of things to rap about but then as his life continued to skyrocket he was just like oh i'll just talk about this right you know yeah and then uh and and hip-hop moving into the mainstream yeah like the 2000s which is you know it was the new rock and roll to me that's chicken or the egg it's like you know was that did jay-z make that happen right now like can i get a and

shit like that was you know right but he might have thought in 1999, like, we'll never be rock stars and we'll never be pop stars. We'll just be hip hop. Well, he was just like, oh, wait. I'm the biggest star on the planet. I think even he probably, in 99, was not thinking about Mogul. I don't think he was thinking about fucking rap.

I think he was still thinking about, like, criminal life, gang-related life, because he was stabbing people. In 1999, Jay-Z was so pissed off that volume 3 got leaked a month early this is back like you said like the napster days when pirating was like kind of the you know first with i'm i'm assuming when things became digital is when things could leak you know it's like a file on a computer somewhere and shit like that so uh he got crushed by by uh bootleggers like a month early and he was like

you were bootlegging albums i bootleg volume two no wait i i i boot i bootleg blueprint two right we'll get to that story as we uh chronicle the discography of hova but uh his album leaked a full month early which that's a motherfucker you know know, like a day, a week, whatever. A month early is like you and your record label, your whole rollout is now completely fucked. And then you couldn't do anything about it because you were like printing the CDs and like sending them places.

If something leaks, you could just drop it down. That must have been such, that must have fucked everybody up. You remember like Dre was pissed and the guys from Metallica were pissed and we were like, fuck those old guys. But it's like their whole industry was upside down right well and so he he likened it to uh like straight up like you're stealing my product you know and uh he was at

irving plaza doing a a like a listening event which is that's like the blackout tour unbelievable the fact that pup punk the blackout tour eventually uh probably within the year kfc radio will do a live podcast at irving plaza that's where jay fucking z was and that's like irving plaza is a legendary theater it's you know a lot of yeah that speaks more to the fact that why are they letting us yeah we're the outlier plaza needs to have a higher standard but to think of you know this man is now a billionaire and you know he he was selling tickets or or maybe not maybe it wasn't a ticketed event but he has friends and family in like a thousand person venue to listen to this album and uh like the word on the street was that lance on rivera was the one who leaked the album so jay-z fucking stabbed him i didn't i never really i always felt i was just a stand for him

and i was like he didn't do that shit and then we did some research and it's like oh not only did he do it he like admitted to it in the book he dropped, Decoded. He was like, what was that exact quote I was just reading before? He, without saying, you know, the words, I stabbed him. He basically was like, I ran up on him and I don't know what happened. I blacked out and next thing I knew, the, you know, all hell had broken loose in the club. Like, AKA, I stabbed the guy. Jay, I know that a lot of things can happen in the heat of the moment. But to like, get a knife. like, you just, I mean,

unless you're just, like, traveling around with a knife. Well, again, I mean, at that point, you know, I don't know whether you're cutting open bricks of cocaine or whether you keep it on you for fucking safety or whatever the reason. He's probably walking around with a switchblade, because at that point, he's not a fucking media mogul. He's still, like, half drug dealer, half rapper, you know, and if you live by that like code those guys hang on to that life like probably longer than they ever should

i find it crazy that he's sad like usually it's a gun usually you're shooting someone it's probably better i mean yeah i mean yeah he would absolutely uh who troy ave uh shot a guy in irving plaza a couple years ago. Fucking dead. He went to jail. So that could have been Jay-Z. He pulled the trigger. This and whatever Snoop did for Murder Was The Case. Murdered that guy. I blacked those out because I was like, I don't want to think of those guys as murderers.

I like them and I want to just pretend that they're normal people. But I had always heard, I remember it as shadows in the back of my head that Lance on like has an island somewhere and that like they were just like jay paid him off let's take care of this that that would not surprise me because i have zero factual evidence like that's just like something that i i feel like i heard one well i don't know how that works because so originally uh the the stab occurs, the police show up, obviously, and the initial report was that two black males in their 20s were the assailants.

And Lance was the one who was like, it was Jay-Z. So, you know, at least at that point, he was like sticking it to Jay. I don't know whether – and then after it's in the hands of the law, I don't know if it matters. And that's where I, when you told me that, I was like, oh, so he like, he lied to get to fuck over Jay-Z, but then when you see him confess to it,

he cops to it. So Jay was facing 15 years in prison. And so if you look at his discography, this, this happened in 1999. So at that point, 96 was Reasonable Doubt. 97, 98 was Volume 1 and Volume 2. 99 was Volume 3 coming out.

That means the Dynasty, the Blueprint, the Unplugged album, Blueprint 2, the Black album, Kingdom Come, American Gangster, Blueprint 3, Watch the Throne, Magna Carta, Holy Grail, and 444 would have never come out. He was facing 15 years in prison for attempted murder. And he did it. And

he pled guilty to it. And he got three years probation. He still has to die. Jay-Z, the luckiest person. mean what is is it 99 problems when he uh is 99 no 99 problems with dirt on my shoulder where he takes you through how he got caught with like kilos in his truck yeah 99 problems right yeah i mean like how many cases is this guy skirted i mean i don't know if it's money talks or you know you know the right people or if it's some old school shit like people aren't gonna talk when they take the stand i don't know if it's money talks or you know the right people or if it's some old school shit like people aren't going to talk

when they take the stand. I don't know if Biggie was always rapping about making witnesses disappear and shit like that. I remember Biggie talked about tying up your daughter in the basement. Daughters tied up in a Brooklyn basement. And people were like, we love Biggie. Those guys, they had the real fucking deal, man. So to think that jay would have just

uh you know been another rapper who all right you know these guys got shot and died this guy stabbed someone went to jail i mean who would have taken over they would probably would have been like lance on rivera and jay and ja rule would have like taken over who would be like well now the landscape belongs to us and instead what ends up happening is, you know, $900 million, a, you know, a first couple with Beyonce. And, I mean, the clothing line, the liquor line, the record label. I mean, Jay-Z went on to do so much more that all could have disappeared because he stabbed fat ass Lance on entertainment on Rivera. How bad is your, what's your,

yo, what up? Un. You think like, like when, um, like Jay Beyonce and like, who's their weird friends?

Like the, the guy from cold play or something like that. Isn't there like, Chris, whatever. Yeah. Like, you know,

there's like a weird couple that always hangs out. You think they're like when they're sitting around having a wine night, they bust his balls. It's so funny. They bust his balls and they're like you're gonna stab me with a knife jay went on to become yeah friends with glenneth paltrow and coldplay and like sitting with the obamas and you know like i hope i hope they bust his balls like that like just just casually be like don't stab me like don't stab me you set the plate for him and you leave like a knife and a spoon and that's it a fork and a spoon right now yeah i mean those are people who

i wonder if he like laughs all the way to the bank on it being like i am sitting with like the heads of state i'm like a diplomat now i mean i'm getting oprah money and he was like i mean i think i i think of him as like very cerebral, intelligent dude. I think the way he explains it in the book is just like, I lost my mind. I went, it's like, you know. He was so mad about bootleggers. Like, that was my work. And then early, stab, stab, stab. Yeah, but honestly, like I said, even people like Dre and Metallica were bugging out over it

because they did not know how the industry was going to handle this. I mean, it's like a very stupid comparison. It would be like, say a podcast could be leaked and we didn't have time to put ads on it. And it's just like, every time we record a podcast, we can't make any money. We'd be like, I guess I'm going to go back to being an accountant. Now, I mean, when you start out in 96, and the only way to bootleg us an album, I don't even know how you could have done it back then other than like you know stealing the fucking cassette tape but 96 you're 11 what's that you're 11 96 96 i'm 11 years old you i don't i feel like i had to go back to

reasonable i did agree right i i came into jay-z um with sunshine which is always with my sunshine volume one in my lifetime volume one i will i will call this his second most underrated song ever i mean this beat is and i think this is actually regarded as one of his more corny songs. Yeah. And a lot of his diehard fans who want the drug-dealing version probably hated this. But for me, the 11 or 12-year-old white boy, this beat, the music video, Foxy Brown kind of gave me a little jungle fever. This was the perfect... The stars aligned. But this must have been 97, 98? It was 98, I believe. 97, there was, this was the perfect, the stars aligned. But this must have been 97, 98? It was 98, I believe.

97, you're right. In My Lifetime, volume one, 97. This, I feel like, this album, by the way, I think is underrated. I think that there's some fucking bangers on here that I don't think get the love. But, Volume 1 comes out, Always Be My Sunshine, Streets Is Watchin',

and this is when he's in his, you know, little bit of Scarface mode, little bit of like, still gangster mode, you know? Is it Streets Is Watchin' or is it like The City Is Mine city is mine where uh the next one

i was gonna play city is the video is uh your boy kaiser jose yeah yeah the usual suspects right right he's walking away so yeah streets is watching here but the city's mind with black street was probably the biggest single off this album right oh and the whole oh and you know my boy because fucking rapaport is in it. That's right. I didn't know we were allowed to say the name. That's right. Fucking Rappaport, please.

I remember he did an interview at one point and he goes, the only fucking Jay-Z song to not blow up on a mess. I think this was like many years later and he was like, I get the cameo in the one song that doesn't really like, you know, blow. Yep. Yeah, he was playing the detective,

playing the usual suspects thing, and Jay-Z is the Kaiser Soze who walks away at the end. He's the verbal kent. Think about how long Jay-Z's been around. Black Sheep was so huge, and they just disappeared. He was like, I'm going to collab with the biggest stars of the 90s, and

now he's still there. And they're like, you's still there and they're like you know retired and not they they failed they weren't they weren't even like a one-hit wonder they had they had decent amount of success but it was just like i don't know like a good four or five year run and that's like nothing there who you with this beat yeah so fire and all this shit the music videos were still in such a way where he's like I think he's in a Cadillac or some shit like that and this is the classic Jay ad-libs. I know he still

does it but he's like Pappas was one that he abandoned I love that one Pappas This was what Jay Pharoah eventually leaned on for his impression All the Jay-Z-isms.

Yeah, because if somebody sees Jay now and you see him do the impression, it's like, that's not really what he does anymore. But that's what he sounds like in 1997. But the one thing that gets the most overlooked is A Million and One Questions. That was off of this album. Isn't A Million and One Questions, isn't like the really good version of Remix? Yeah, because I think,

all right, so I think the... A Million and One Questions. The version I'm thinking of is fire. Yeah, so... Oh, about Wendy Williams? thinking of is fire yeah so so about wendy williams so i think the best song off this album and maybe jay-z's best song ever yes is embedded in something called medley intro it's half a million and one questions half another song it also uses the the okay i reloaded yeah this beat a primo beat oh is just like lost in the mix i'm sorry i'm like corny white boying right now but i mean this so good and so this was like just a verse and then there's the extended remix

which is just like they made it into a full song okay and is that somewhere else on spotify imagine this not like being like a throw-in crazy and then like halfway through i'll fast forward it's like it just stops and the beat changes. Rhyme No More is the worst song ever made because it took away from A Million and One Questions. Yeah, I remember this used to be listed as A Million and One Questions slash Rhyme No More. And it's just the question and the answer. I have a son. And then I think they put that into, they just did that verse over the A Million and One Questions beat the whole time. So eventually someone was like, this song, I don't know why why you did this but just make this whole song with his beat dmx has uh

the intro which is fire yep um i think um isn't doesn't common have an intro that's b the intro to the album b yeah is the one of the greatest yeah i mean this is back also, though, when you were putting out an album and there was an intro and an interlude and skits. You were meant to listen to the whole thing. And so you figured people were just going to press play on track one. They probably do hear that.

Just make it a song. So that's when I get hooked. And then I end up going back to reasonable doubt which i think for my i i would call the greatest rap album ever see like the greatest like you know like we're talking about hip-hop and and like an album start to finish like and and it's why i really believe that the the jay-z and nas beef was like the best ever because of the two people involved because i think ilmatic is the other album that i would put in that category i think came out like maybe a year earlier and it's one of those like you know

track one through 10 11 or 12 or whatever there were all of them but he he had beef with pock right or i think pock had beef with him because of like association. Because on one of those songs he does say, when he's just like calling everybody, he's calling Mobb Deep out. I think he's like, and fuck Jay-Z too. So I was like, I was a big Pac fan. And this is before I went back to Reasonable Doubt. Now people were talking about Reasonable Doubt.

And I was like, yeah, right. Reasonable Doubt is better. And I go back and listen to it. And I was like, oh. What's your favorite song off of Reasonable Doubt? I'd have to look. I feel like, I mean, the, the you know Can't Knock the Hustle was like you know the

the radio song right I feel like my Brooklyn's Finest I think was that's your first like Jay-Z collab but I think my two choices I think are probably very I think most people would, I think, are probably very,

I think most people would not agree with me. Okay. It's 1 and 1A, my toss-ups here. In no particular order, these two songs. That piano loop on Feeling It is featuring Mecca. Like, who the fuck is that? And why did she not, like, become something bigger or better? She's singing the hook

Yeah Oh okay I mean 22 twos Now that gets meta 22 twos When he just sneaks in The one two

Yeah Yeah We'll get there We'll get there I don't know who Produced this song But deserves A ton of fucking love

And then my other favorite song, another great beat. Can I live? Oh yeah. I don't know if, I don't know where people stand. I feel like a lot of people would say Brooklyn's finest. Can't knock the hustle.

Ain't no, you know, friend or foe, the original. That's another one. Yeah. Friend or foe had the, this is also the,

okay, I reloaded, right? This is the, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like that.

I loved the, the mad rapper. I love the Scarface, Tony reloaded, right? This is the, like that. I loved the Mad Rapper. I loved the Scarface, Tony Montana thing. Like there was fun, like little themes of rappers' albums back then that made a difference for me. Yeah. Friend or Foe is like telling a story, you know? I was like, and again, like that's not, I wouldn't say it's common now,

but it's just like a lot of people have done that. But I was like, oh, like you're really taking me through this. That's what's funny too, is because I feel like rap music is tough. Like, you know, what, what, what can I, a 12 year old white suburban boy like relate to? And it's not relatable, but to me it was like watching a movie. Right. It was like, this is like watching an action movie. This is i i wasn't saying i was like i wanted to be a drug dealer

no but i wanted to be something like that like wow i don't even know what this is felt um like i i i got something out of that for knowing about it like you know when we're in our white suburban towns and like i know urban slang so i felt like a little bit cooler i mean it's it's so corny it's like a 40 year old man i'm like god damn this was kind of sad but when i remember being 17 i was like that was fucking cool that i knew this stuff i i wanted to i played basketball i wore baggy clothes i wanted jordans i listened to rap music i wanted to be a cool black kid i I wanted to be able to dance. I tried to teach myself how to crip walk.

I mean, I was throwing up the west side. I'm doing the bloods. Remember when we tried to breakdance, and the first move you tried to do in breakdancing, you were like, ah, that hurt. Like the windmill? It's very, very difficult. I remember being like, okay, breakdance, let's do a headspin.

You know, let me try to do a headspin and spin around. It's like, dude, you can't even like clap on beat. Crazy. But that's what it, because breakdancing didn't really look like you needed to be on beat, because you could just like do whatever you wanted. You did though, you did need to be on beat. You did, you absolutely did. Peruvians tried to do me in.

And then, yeah 22-2's here Oh what is this? Big Les right? When she was Who the fuck is you? Who called me a bitch? Who called me a B? Or something like that right?

Yeah he's like Yo shut the fuck Who told me to shut the F up? Right Oh man Right. Oh, man. It's just so fucking fire, man. So this is 22 twos in. People don't know this song.

He says two 22 times, but there's one point where he just sneaks one in. No question, Jay-Z got too many answers. I've been around this block too many times. Rock too many rhymes. Cock too many nods. Two. There it is. I mean, he just like throws that in there. He must have went back and counted,

and he was like, 21 twos? 21 twos doesn't sound as good. Two. Love it. And so that's the kind of shit where I think Jay-Z kind of separates himself. He's telling stories. He's got incredible wordplay and punchlines, great production.

And I think ultimately when it's all said and done and we kind of go through all these songs and all the favorite moments we have from it, the reason why Jay-Z is what he is is because he perfected the art of going commercial without selling out. Okay. You know? Like, as I was listening on my commute today,

Big Pimpin' came on, and the Neptunes joint. What's that one actually called? I just want to love you. Whatever the actual, I don't even know the actual title of that one. I think it's Love, I Just Want to Love You. Whatever. But those songs were... Those are his sellout pop songs, right? But they're fucking dope.

Like, Big Pimpin' is... It's not like this lyrical, deep hip-hop classic track. But it's a timbal and beat. And it's great wordplay and a catchy hook. And, and, you know, his pop hits are timeless producers and legendary beats and features and raps. So, you know, when, when most people are like, all right, here's my pop hit, you know, what does he say? Keep the register ringing. And then I, then here's my, my real body of work. Those pop hits are just as good as his, you know, deep drugs dealing storytelling songs. And I think that's where, if you live in that, in that world where you're like

a little bit of both and you never really feel like a full sellout and your, your, your, you know, your indie projects are just as good as your blockbusters and vice versa, that's how you become a $900 million mogul. Big Pimpin' got all the radio play. And I remember as a self-appointed hip-hop head being like, that's not even the best track on the album because it's what everybody was playing. They're like, oh, you heard Big Pimpin'? I was like, of course I heard Big Pimpin'. But I was basically being a hipster before the term hipster was in full swing,

being like, oh, you like Big Pimpin'? Well, what about this? What about that? And I know exactly what you're talking about because that's when we're reading lyrics and studying it. But in hindsight, those pop songs were fucking just as good.

Oh, yes, but still fire. Yeah, no, Big Pimpin' was absolute fire. Isn't there a hidden verse to that, too? Yeah. Isn't it on the canopy? Must there ever be enough for Pamela Anderson to that too yeah on the canopy must there be enough for Pamela that's not on the

regular version that was like a remix or a radio the radio version I think it was just like it was just like a lost verse that sometimes was there and sometimes wasn't

he's done that a couple times too he did that on I think one of the most underrated songs ever was him and Young Jeezy he did it with everybody grab your shades

cause you boys that bright there's another like that he like goes on to another I think it's the radio version right yeah yeah yeah but so this is this brings back the thoughts where it's like where you had to try and figure out the slang where he's like big pimp

in on BLAD I was like Google searches I'm like what BLAD what does that mean? That video, I mean, with Dame Dash pouring the fucking champagne on chicks and stuff, just like that's, that as, again, the little suburban white boy, like, that's what I want to do when I grow up.

I want to be pouring Cristal on these hoes. Even that, I remember wanting... Not good for 2019. I remember wanting to get Cristal, you know? that's why i loved the hypnotic phase because hypnotic was affordable you could go to the liquor store get it for 30 bucks was it when like they glorified that so much that i was like when i drink cristal for the first time it's gonna be like the best thing i ever tasted i'm like regular champagne

tastes like champagne and belvedere yeah belved, Belvedere vodka. Just fucking vodka. Belvedere does not even go down smooth. I was like, there are many better vodkas. And that's why they just fucking ended up making their own. You know? That's where the mogul shit comes in. Well, yeah, it was Chris that they talked shit about. Didn't the owner of Cristal be like, we don't need hip hop?

Oh, yeah? He was like, oh, fuck you. I think it was that. Well, I mean, remember, there's the, you know, he, when he was talking about, like, inventing Chris, right? He's like, I was in the speedboat with Puff, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like, who, which rapper, like, co-signed this first? Right, right, right.

The rap world and stuff like that is just so petty and stupid, but I fucking love it all. But you know what was happening. They were just like, give me the most expensive thing. Oh, I'm sure. Whatever the most expensive thing is, I'm going to talk about Kristoff because nobody else can talk about Kristoff. Because they can't afford it. Yeah.

Right. So then volume two drops, and that is where it's just next fucking stratosphere. Can I get on the what? Is that money talk soundtrack that was that was from a movie right blue streak maybe is it blue streak i know there was a jay-z blue streak look that up because i don't know which which one it is but can i get it comes out and it's got ja rule and it's got this beat and the chorus is catchy but this is where we see jay-z's first and probably worst in my mind misstep of his whole career the whole emil emil experiment

that chick she looked like a um she she looked like a in ancient egypt she looked like a in ancient Egypt she looked like a pharaoh not a pharaoh that one animal half animal half human thing I think it was like the gatekeeper of the underworld in ancient Egypt is it a sphinx?

no it's like a it's in all the hieroglyphics ancient Egyptian I feel you though I do think of it as just like a, it's in all the hieroglyphics. Okay. Ancient Egyptian. I feel you though, but I do think of it as just like a, because the way her hair like kind of framed her face looks like that weird. It's like a kind of a cat thing, kind of a pharaoh with the pointy ears. I can't even find it, but whatever that thing, that's what that bitch looks like. Yeah.

She was the worst rapper. I can't even find it, but whatever that thing, that's what that bitch looked like. She was the worst rapper. Fuck. I mean, how? How does that girl get co-signed by J fucking Z? Is that just him like, I had my falling out with Foxy Brown. That didn't work. Like Lil' Kim is Biggie's girl. Like I need a female in my camp and this girl like can't keep a beat.

Or does Dame Dash fucking her and needs like you have to put her on. Like how does that happen? female in my camp and this girl like can't keep a beat like or it is i think it was dame dash fucking her and needs like you have to put her on right like how does that happen because this chick sucks on the dynasty album they uh he did either jay or dame did an interview and they were like what's up with emil and he was like she's got four bars on the whole album so that tells you a lot and i was like is that i took that as she isn't, like, committed enough and, like, doesn't want to work hard enough. But it could have been, like, she's not that good. No, phrasing her out, yeah.

But I'm like, either way, like, if she just couldn't keep up, like, if she was trying, I always took it as she's, like, not putting in the work or she wants to be her own star. I was like, wow, that is very, that is a poor decision. No, I think that was more like we, we gambled on this chick and hope to have like a female hip hop star and she fucking stinks. Cause then he had that line, you know, you got to drop a mill. Yeah. So like that was him like hand up, you know, but honestly,

I love about him that he'll cop to that. Yes. Yes. I mean, Jay-Z has been running a charity since the beginning with Memphis Bleak. What's he say about Bleak? He literally says, as long as I'm alive, he's a millionaire. Like, you are good.

I wonder if that still holds up, because again, I don't think Jay understood his own longevity. Like, if he's cut a million dollars to Memphis Bleak, because I said that once. I mean, I mean... That's like the Bobby Bonilla deal. Memphis Bleak is the Bobby Bonilla. This song, by the way, fuck, I still gotta pay this guy. Because I said that once. That's like the Bobby Bonilla deal. Membleak is the Bobby Bonilla.

This song, by the way, though, with Membleak. This was the song that made me be like, Membleak is good, man. Then I bought the Membleak album like a fucking moron. Well, Membleak is... Terrible. Terrible. He was so bad.

What a terrible name. But I mean, Jay was constantly trying to put people on and make different camps yeah and i really feel like that's actually one of the more he was like he was really trying to build like a dynasty yeah he wanted all these guys beanie seagull like he was like if i the more i have like you know he always had the like the owner mentality instead of just like the star player right well I mean he he did it from the beginning and and what I really like on top of uh the way I said he was doing like he can do the pop hits just as well as like the deep cuts I think the other thing that Jay-Z did is like experimenting and working with uh collaborations

working with record labels like even just having Rockefeller Records. It was like, boom, we're doing our own thing. But it ended up being the Dynasty. It ended up being Memph Bleak and Beanie Siegel and, I mean, Amil for a second. There was that Chris and Neif mode, Freeway for a minute.

But prior to all that, there was Murder Inc., which would have been unbelievable. That was a super team. It just doesn't work out when you put too many superstars together. Or it would have been Durant, Steph Curry, and Clayton. It could have been a super team that dominates. But super teams didn't work until the Miami Heat.

But it was weird to be able to put that much together. So Murder Inc. Again, people probably don't even know that Murder Inc. was supposed to be Jay-Z, Ja Rule, DMX. And if you're talking

late 90s, early 2000s, it's them. That's it. Jay was, you know, like the greatest. DMX was like the, like the hardest and the most like

burst on the scene. And Ja Rule was like the pop king. He was doing fucking Ashanti tracks that were getting billions of records. So those guys all came together. And there's just the one song, right? I think the song is called Murder Inc. too. I don't know if that's even on Spotify

because I don't know if that was a real song, was it? Yeah, I don't know. I feel like that was one of those. It is disgusting. That's the one thing I really don't like about the new age of Spotify and whatnot is that you don't get oh it's murder there yeah yeah that is there what i was gonna say is you don't get the the remixes and the the um the the blends and all that shit like all the stuff you could find on napster you can't find right right right

like the freestyles that like cannabisabis used to jump on, you know? This though, It's Murder was off, this was on the Ja Rule album. I think it was Betty Betty Vici or whatever the fuck it was. Oh, right, okay.

With this hard ass beat. And these raps are from that famous Hot 97. Yes, the freestyles. Freestyle, quote unquote. Oh, yeah. Those guys were like, they just jump in the booth.

It was still freestyle because you figured out how to put your lyrics over a different beat. Right. You know? It's more like a remix. This

as much as even emulating Jay-Z is ridiculous us listening to DMX screaming and barking talking about

bloody dicks from fucking corpses and stuff it's murder like we were ridiculous dude. But so this song dropped and it was like talking about bloody dicks from fucking corpses and stuff. It's murder. Like, we were ridiculous, dude. But so this song dropped, and it was, like, a big deal. Imagine if there was an album of this.

Yes, yes, I mean. So that never came to fruition because of, they said, Jay-Z and DMX. Did they give Jay the last verse on this, or did Ja take it? Ja, what a fucking asshole. Like, you are not last verse level, dude. Because I think even Jay ends it with,

it's Murder Incorporated. And it's like, that's the perfect name. Murder Incorporated, real thing. Yeah. Like a group of assassins. Yep.

Bruce Springsteen had a song too, Murder Inc. Funny story about that. My buddy Paul, huge Springsteen fan, he too, Murder Inc. Funny story about that. My buddy Paul, huge Springsteen fan. He had downloaded an album onto his iTunes back in the day. And he was labeling the songs.

And he mixed them up. And he labeled the Jerry Maguire song, Murder Inc. You know what I'm talking about, though? That very famous, that was like the Springsteen album, the slow one. Fuck, what's the name of it? It's one of his biggest.

Secret Garden. This is a Jay-Z podcast, I'm sorry. But real quick, like this one, he had in his in his itunes murder ring i was like dude i don't think that's the name of that song and he was like i'm a diehard springsteen fan i'm like no bro that's not right anyway uh so there was supposed to be uh the the uh murder ink and that just didn't work because of dmx and jay like not getting

together prior to that though was supposed to be the commission which was an even bigger super team that was supposed to be jay biggie puff little c's and of all people charlie baltimore these girls sneak in there i don't know she was just fucking biggie yes so i mean little kim like could could you know rap herself and was on charlie baltimore has like one hot song right horse and carriage yeah yeah because then she had a fucking camera on too, so she had a thing with him. Right, right, right. But Biggie obviously gets murked and that doesn't come to fruition. I don't know how

they would have done that. I guess that's kind of like Puff Daddy and the Family-esque. Right. But the thing about Puff was always like, that works because Puffy was like a producer

and a businessman and then he had like the locks and the real rappers come on. If you have that many real rappers, like Jay and Biggie and Lil' C's and, you know, and Puff trying to get his, it would have been a mess. And I just don't know if people really get the feeling of it

because now you can do so many collaborations. You know, like, it didn't used to happen. In fact, everybody used to hate each other. Right, I know. It was all, like, death and beef and murder. The way it should be. You know, so when you saw that, like, Jay-Z and Biggie were cool, it was all like death and beef and murder. Right. And it was just like. The way it should be. You know, so when you saw that like Jay-Z and Biggie were cool, it was like, oh.

I mean, and from, right from Reasonable Doubt, like they did a song together. It wasn't like, you know, finally they collaborated. But it was. You know what's funny though? At the time, it was like every, there was camps and you didn't see a lot of crossover. Would you not agree that the Biggie and Jay-Z songs are kind of underappreciated? Yeah, I mean... Nobody talks about I Love It, though.

Right. Nobody talks about Young G's on Pop Daddy's, you know? I mean, they're the two, like, by many people's accounts, the two biggest rappers ever. Yeah. This song is fucking fire. Like, this should be played all the time.

Yeah. And it really never is. No. I don't know why. Like, I mean, there was so many good songs on Life After Death that maybe it gets overshadowed, but it shouldn't be.

No. Such a good song. And then even more than that, Young G's on Puff's album? Yeah. This is the dopest song ever. This beat. I don't even know what that instrument sound is.

What's making that sound? But it's got Biggie, Puffy, and Jay. I forgot about the Puffy album. I mean, this is like if, this is like a super team getting together. This is like, you know, LeBron and AD got together for a couple seasons. Like, they did a few songs, and nobody really talks about them. Right.

Even Brooklyn's Finest. That doesn't get, like, a lot of play. No, no. It's very strange that, you know, if Jay-Z and Tupac did, or Biggie and Tupac did shit together, you know, everyone's talking about it. I know we don't want to go down

the, like, old rap versus new rap, but isn't it weird to think that, like, some, like, 18-year-old kid might be able to, like, go listen to Reasonable Doubt

and be like, meh. I know, which is disgusting. What? And they probably would. What are you talking about? I remember when I was making, when we were first legitimizing the podcast,

and I was looking for intro music, and I had my boy, the same guy who made the second round TKO beat, he made a couple versions for me. And I asked for one that was old school West Coast, and one that was old school East Coast. So one had the Dr. Dre, like weird like synth noises. And the other was kind of just like a raw, like beat break, like East Coast rap. And I played it for Caleb.

And I was like, you know, which one do you like or whatever? And he was like, I don't really like either of them, you know. And I was like, well, this one's like old school West Coast death row records. This is more like bad boy death jam over here. And he was like, no, yeah, I don't really like either of them, you know? And I was like, well, this one's like old school West Coast death row records. This is more like bad boy death jam over here. And he was like, no, yeah, I get it. I know. And I just like, I'm not, that doesn't like do it for me. And I was just like, what?

What do you mean? Like both of those are dope. You don't like either of them? My thing was like, which one? And he was like, neither, you know? But I mean, so you look at the ideas from the commission to murder rank to the dynasty. And a lot of that shit, I think the Arkelia experiment, we'll talk about that in a minute. I think most people would agree that the Watch the Throne Kanye experiment did work.

But at every step of the way, he was like, not like, hey, let's do a song together. Let's do an album together. And not like, let's do an album together let's do an album together and not like let's do an album let's be a group together let's make a new band you know right that sort of shit i think is what that's you know that's what separates you from being like another this the next guy rapping about it's weird because how about how about this this would be the real one thank I mean, when they did this? Oh my god.

Linkin Park? Yes. It was like, holy shit. And it's not just this one. This is the one. But they did a bunch that were all pretty fucking dope. But shout out to the producers who could figure out that these things work.

That's more whoever actually put it together. J-Fi didn't have anything to do with this other than like saying okay right right but like smart enough to say okay i mean when you open up now this is weird because it's spotify for the first time but like numb encore is listed as the number one song yeah yeah it's got 423 million public service announcements by the way you might not even know this yet, because I don't know if you've dug in the same way I have. They have the Blueprint acapella. How weird is this? Listen to this.

Wild. Was this like on time maybe it was just like a title exclusive and that's why it's there now moving it still sounds dope i know there's no music it's so weird hearing it like fresher than the whole riddle me that it's wild i don't know't know. Maybe if you're out here making beats and you want to try to make your own version having the acapella out there. I think it's more of a funny little thing. No beat.

It's so weird. You take for granted if a beat drops at a certain point. You can hear it. You can still hear it in your head. Mm-hmm. I got you. Yeah. If you're feeling like a pimp, nigga, go on, brush your shoulders. You know how slow it is? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

How about Threat? Does it have... Threat. Play it. Yo, that's the... You can play it. Who did the beat on that? Damn, I can't remember his name now.

Is it Just Blaze? No. It's like somebody I thought Was gonna end up bigger But He was like I think it's the Threats beat That he's like You gotta make this

You gotta make this In like five minutes And there was like An R. Kelly CD And he like Samples it 9th Wonder 9th Wonder

Is that the song? Is it that or it's Threat I mean 9th Wonder did do Threat Yes yes yes 9th Wonder Yeah yeah I'll always If you haven't seen the video of Jay-Z listening to Timbaland's offerings for the Black Album,

it's one of the coolest videos in hip-hop history. It's just Jay-Z and Timbaland in the booth, and Timbaland's just playing all the beats he's got. Offerings. Yeah. Brings these as tribute. I believe I, I don't know if I got this exactly correct, but I'm pretty sure the way Tim one does it

is he's like, here's a box of my $500,000 beats. Here's a box of my quarter of a million. Here's a box of like my hundred thousand and you get to like pick from them. And so I'm sure, you know, Jay-Z is like,

give me the cream of the crop. Yeah. And he's shopping. Yeah. And, and then like when he finds one in like the hundred thousand, he's oh i'm gonna take this and then bargain shopping like shit i should have been like but when he when jay-z hears dirt off your shoulder he is like physically moved by it he's like he's like kind of grossed out by it like he disgusted at how good this beat is and you can

just see like the wheels start spinning and you know he's got like a classic in mind already so funny for timbaland to like make that stuff and have no idea what kind of song is going to go over and then like well and then famously with kanye kanye wanted dmx to do heart of the city right and jay-z was like no no that's mine and kanye was kind of like ah fuck all right man i had like a different idea for this, but, Oh, I bet that actually destroyed Kanye. Like knowing him and how controlling and how he wants everything to go, how he wants it.

And I can definitely see DMX doing a song like heart of the city, but I can't imagine that song to me. It's like, so like smooth and kind of laid back that if DMX was like growling on it, it wouldn't have really worked. but yeah, I mean, the producers probably have certain things in mind and then someone comes along with the check and it's just like, okay, nevermind.

That belongs to you now. But yeah, the Black album was, I guess we got to back it up here because volume three drops after Hard Knocks. Oh, I mean, volume two was, Volume 2 was... Where are you in Volume... Like, what year is that? So Volume 2 for me... I'm pretty sure I'm freshman year college.

I'm pretty sure. Yeah, because I was like... You're probably freshman year high school? No, I think you're maybe a little bit earlier, because I think I was like 7th, 8th grade, 8th, 9th. I think it was like... Because I was hanging out with Al Popolardi a lot. Right.

That was my guy. So I think you're in like 8th or 9th, because I'm pretty sure in Loyola, freshman year. Because you were a freshman when I was a lot. Right. That's my guy. So I think you're in like eighth or ninth because I'm pretty sure in Loyola, freshman year. Because you were a freshman when I was a freshman. Right.

So I'm pretty sure I was at like a house party in fucking Baltimore and that's where everybody was playing Big Pimpin' on loop. And I'm like, let it run.

We need to listen to the whole album. And they were like, play it again. I'm like, no, no, no. Well, that to me was, I remember, remember okay it was definitely middle school because there was something called friday night live and it was

it was like a school dance like every friday night for like uh for the fall or something like that we would go to we go to the school there was like it was so it was so like funny one they opened up one gym where you could play basketball it was like you could play hoops or you could go like grind on chicks played a lot of ball because i was like that's back when i was good at it so i was like you know the girls gonna be watching i'm gonna play a little bit basketball and i'm gonna try to like grind up on some hoes let's do a little freak dancing you know and i remember yeah so i'm mixing up wait big pimpin is volume three big pimpin is volume three okay Big Pimpin' is volume three.

Okay, okay. All right. So that's why you're right. You're right. Volume two is like seventh grade. Volume two, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so.

Yeah, yeah. No, that was definitely like junior, senior, my junior, senior year. Because that was Money Cash Hoes. And that was all of the, like, we had the preppies and the homies in our class. And all the preppies who were like you know all about pearl jam they were like disgusted at money cash hoes and i was like this is the best fucking thing i've ever heard i was in like seventh or eighth grade and i went up to the dj and i got him to play money cash hoes

like you know simplicity of just like literally remember by the way his name was like dj robbie or something like that remember him uh vaguely he was like a local kid yeah yeah and he just like had like the setup right he would like dj all these things like graduation parties and shit and uh i got him to play about one verse of money cash hose and then he was like oh never mind because it went from fucking, you know, Annie. Yes. Now, this is the perfect example. Like, this song I couldn't even listen to after a while.

Right. But it's fucking amazing. Yes, yes. Like, he took a show tune. And it's a little bit cheesy and corny. But when you listen to the lyrics and the picture he paints, it's fucking, it's magnificent. It's a masterpiece. I feel like nothing took, like, a bigger leap.

I kind of feel like the regular preppy white kids were like, because it was catchy enough. And they had heard it before in other places. I feel like this was, like, I can't say the biggest crossover, but I feel like this did so much for them. This was the biggest commercial album probably, like yeah yeah by you know like not not by record sales because like eminem came along and did crazy shit right right but as far as he's the missing link i think it was the biggest leap yes like he bridged the gap of like gangsta rap and and and like

west coast gangsta rap east coast gangsta rap to commercial trl, gangsta rap, East Coast, gangsta rap 2, commercial, TRL. And I think this is a weird song to have done it, but this just got so much radio play. Oh, but it makes sense, though. It's like, you know, oh, it's a gimmick to go. A big, tough rapper talking like Annie is funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think Money Cash Ho is obviously very big with the DMX future because at that point he's on top of the world.

Can I Getta being the soundtrack hit. But some of the deeper cuts on this. Kid Capri. This beat. Yeah, I mean, this literally transports me back to Pelham. I can picture exactly where I am. This is one of those, we had a, in our house, we had a outdoor porch that was converted into an indoor porch.

Right. But it didn't have any heat because it was podcasting. Yeah. It didn't have any heat because it used to be outside. So we had an indoor fireplace type of heater. Yeah, very weird. It was like gas fired. When I play this song, I can smell the gas.

I'm picturing the Nintendo 64, and I can smell it, and it's too hot because we left it on overnight. These are the types of songs that take me back to... Is Ocarina of Time the right time frame? Exactly it. of songs that take me back to... Is Ocarina of Time the right time frame? Exactly. This song with Big Jazz was the first guy he rapped with who put him on. And then a couple weird ones that you don't

really remember. Ride or Die? This song. This beat. These are the things I'm talking about where I was never going to go back and listen to Ride or Die off of volume 2

I was never going to listen to If I Should Die with Deranges but remember this this beat is heat this is when like Swiss Beats

like world started to collide I'm playing Nintendo 64 right now because that that was also when you just left an album on

because like you didn't have oh and then of course I mean I can't believe you left an album on yeah because like you didn't have oh and then of course I mean I can't believe you forgot about this oh yeah because this was like it was on J.D.'s

it was on Jermaine Dupri's album right but also on this album yeah I think it blew up because Jermaine Dupri pushed this harder than Jermaine Dupri ever pushed anything

on the Life in 1492 album yeah the worst album name ever terrible Life in 1492 talking about J The worst album name ever. Terrible. Life in 1492? We're talking about GD. Underrated, though.

Yeah. Man to Free has a lot of fucking heat out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So Volume 3 comes. And then I think the Dynasty album, I think, is where

things went a little bit awry. Right. Because you've got this banger. You've got one of the most underrated Jay-Z songs, I think. What is this? This is The Scampi Life with Scarface. Oh, yes.

Because this is when he was doing... This is when... This is when he's getting Kanye beats. This is the Kanye beat. It started, and he's not like Kanye, Kanye yet. It's not Blueprint when Izzo bumps, but this is the first... I might be confusing Scarface songs, but isn't there one where Scarface is like,

I just walked in the booth and got some bad news? Is that this song? I don't think it's this song. It might be Smile. It kind of looks like that, though. No? Smile is definitely... There's a song where he's just like, and then I read about it later on, and Scarface was like, I found out my friend died.

And it's like right before I was rapping? Yeah, like right before the song. But this was like an introspective song. A lot of Scarface stuff is like that. And it's like where you let yourself kind of feel emo. Because the beat just lulls you into that. Lull is a good word for it. You feel sorry for yourself, feel angry.

And that's like an emo teenager. And that's why I like this one. I love the Neptunes one. But other than that, on this album, this is where he gets... It's the Dynasty album, so it's heavy... Right, everybody else. Memphis Bleak, it's heavy Beanie Seagull. Like, Change the Game.

It's like, these are songs... Parking Lot Pitman? No, that's on here, though. Okay. Oh, Change the Game, yeah, yeah, yeah. Parking Lot Pitman's hot. It is. And that's why I was saying in my tweet earlier

when i went back but i i remember thinking like the dynasty album was kind of like a misstep yeah and then i'm start to listen and i'm like you know what i'm kind of dope like it's uh 1-800 hustler on there uh-huh well 900 or 900 this is so weird freeway. Still fire. Like, at the time, I remember thinking... Yo, Bleak Line 1. Like, what the fuck is happening here? And also, on this album... Oh.

Now, I... Wait a minute. This album is fire. But it is. No, it is. There's no question. But when you think of the Dynasty album, were you ever like, yo, that was one of Jay-Z's favorites?

No, but I don't know. I just forgot. There's so much. This is where I'm like, I'm mixing up Volume 1 and Volume 2. Like, I don't know what it's like. This album is fire. And that's why when I was so happy to get the catalog back, because it was like, oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Oh, wait. Yeah. And things that maybe even I was like down on, I'm like, it's almost like talking about Game of Thrones, like season final seasons, like comparatively speaking, it's still a good show. Right. Right. Right.

Compared to volume one, two blueprint one, two, like maybe not, but these are all it gets tainted by like the other stuff around it that you're like, oh, this is a straight skip. And you know what? Yet again, we see an intro this is just called intro this beat is one of the hardest beats ever

and he goes so hard on it like give this a fucking title man like how are people even supposed to talk about this song you should just make an album called the intro album and it's just all songs that didn't even get a name. But, so for all the heaters that we played, like, I don't know, Stick to the Script with Beanie Seagull.

Right. Oh, You, Me, Him, Her, I hated this song. I hated this song. Yeah. But it was, I mean, it's everybody, every song has a ton of features, and Soon You'll Understand was a good one. And that's the thing about Jay is like, even, you know, even when you don't like,

even when you think it wasn't better than it was, there's some fire to it. So was the Dynasty album between volume one and two, volume two and three? The Dynasty was between three and Blueprint. Okay. So that's where I think Jay, if you had to rank his albums, not all of them, but like your top, like 3, how would you do it? Oh, God, that's so hard.

It is, but I think that it has to be some sort of combination of Blueprint, Black Album, Reasonable Doubt, which sucks because you're leaving out volume one, two, or three. Volume two, like we said, was like the commercial greatness, but it's,

I don't think you can put it up there. Yeah, so we're, no, to me, my top two are Black Album and Reasonable Doubt. I have to just, I have to, I would have to look through it all. I mean, when we go through the Blueprint,

it'll probably like win me over. Well, yeah. You know what I'm saying? The blueprint's got... I guess it's just because I haven't gone back and listened to the blueprint enough. But to me, I love the blackout so much. Well, let's see.

But wait, are we skipping over three then did we talk about three oh no all right so yeah all right three volume three comes out after so i guess volume three is maybe where i thought i think that dynasty was tough for me because i think volume three was a bit that was maybe the first misstep I felt. Okay. So volume three comes out. The only thing is I think the Snoopy track is underrated. I, okay. Snoopy track. Cause that Snoopy track is what, so I'm in

Baltimore and I'm like dying for them to play this and they keep playing Big Pimpin'. So this has The beat is so weird. This has Big Pimpin', Is That Your Bitch, Oh', Is That Your Bitch, Oh, Is That Your Bitch is fire. And it has the single most underrated Jay-Z song ever.

Ready? You're not even going to remember this one, and it's one of the best songs ever. So ghetto. Anytime Jay-Z and Premier get together, it should be the most important thing in the world. And a million and one questions goes under the radar. So ghetto goes under the radar.

And I'm like, how? This part right here. Oh my god. Dope man. You know what? It's not a bad album. The verse he spits on this song, do it again.

Beanie Siegel starts it. Emile ends it, so it's terrible. But listen to this verse from Jay here. I mean, it is like the cockiest, hardest, and easiest thing. He probably did this in like 10 minutes.

You know, like like What the fuck ever He's alright But he's not real Level 5 for Warthog Squeeze that still Fuck you gotta blow He's alright, but he's not real. Cool with me. Cool with me. Minus two degree. Minus two degree. This intro.

Yo, you know what I remember from this? And when he spits bubble time on this, it's like, holy shit. I think he was in your grade. Poppy? Uh-huh. He did a... Poppy, Poppy. He was like a...

Oh, yeah. Hip-hop kid. And he did at a senior talent show. So I don't know if it was like you were the grade before. Yeah. He did a dance to this. Yeah. And he was doing like pop and a lock-in. it was probably trash but it was like the most impressive thing i'd ever seen at that time i remember him uh he he told everyone

to call him poppy and uh our basketball coach was like i'm calling you dennis i'm not calling you poppy i refuse to call this child Poppy. But Snoopy track. This shit is that your bitch. So ghetto. Do it again. Dope man, where he tells that song, like he tells that story. Yeah. I mean, and again, these are the albums that I remember being like, ah.

Right. And it's like, this is a thousand times better than anything I've heard in the last decade. At the time, you thought that you didn't like this as much? I mean, in comparison to Volume 2? Yeah. Volume 2 was like front to back number one hits, you know? Come and get me. Anything?

Remember this one? This was like Annie Part 2, right? This is like, well, we're just going to run that one back and see if we can do it. But I feel like I actually like this one better. Yeah. But they definitely did just try to capture that one and capture that lightning in the bottle.

So then, so to me, Dynasty was a continuation of this and it was like, got a little bit off track and then the blueprint comes along. September 11th, 2001. Ohth 2001 wild crazy that that dropped to the same fucking day and this is where like the kanye jay-z era like truly begins this is wild i can't it's so weird to think that this is on september 11th i mean forget about dude you were mad when when blueprint 3 got leaked a month early how about when you dropped an album on the fucking worst day in American history? Imagine trying to, like, was he, like, out there promoting?

I mean, I know 2001 you couldn't do it with, like, public promotion. No, they probably just put it on pause. But, yeah. They probably just started promoting, like, December 11th. Like, give it a couple months and we'll fucking... Right. It does sort of feel like that. It does sort of feel like Christmassy.

Like, I was listening to it, like, around this time. And this was probably the last album I think uh the album mattered the the blue plastic okay yeah and like the album art like that it is like well it's definitely it's already in the Napster phase because that was like freshman year my freshman year like 99 but like we went to Sam Goody and bought that album right because I remember having the blue it was a blue album and that wasn't remember it was blueprint Because that was like freshman year, my freshman year, like 99, 2000. But we went to Sam Goody and bought that album. Right. Because I remember having the blue. It was a blue album. Remember, it was blueprint paper was the booklet.

It was like they put some, they went all out. Because it was like, you didn't think you were going to be able to get a brand new album on like Napster or Kazaa or Rhymewire. You were like, I'm going to be able to go back and get it. But you couldn't just be like, I'm just going to wait on this. It's like mid-2000s, you're just like, well, I'm just going to download the whole thing. Bro, I mean, the ruler's back to start. You have Izzo from Kanye. You got Heart of the City.

You got Girls, Girls, Girls. Like, this is the perfect album. You know what? As much as I say that Volume 2 bridged the gap, I think Blueprint was the perfect... All of these are commercial hits, but are hip-hop classics in my mind. It was a little bit corny and cheesy, but you bring in Biz Markie,

and you bring in his beat, and it's funny, but it's also like when you listen to the lyrics, Red Dot or Feather, stupid shit like that. And then you mix in a little timberland oh my god right like this is an out this is a song that's kind of forgotten and it's like another jay-z timberland classic

just plays with this and then they did they eventually did the remix with mlp which is like the angriest just screaming on the track song cry which is the most like introspective heartfelt fucking song ever oh yeah this is yeah i mean this song made me cry yeah like i don't know what jay-z was going through but it was tough. Now the nostalgia factor does, I mean... I mean, come on, dude. Listen to this shit. And then, of course, Takeover. Yes, oh man. So where are we in the beef

with this? Is this the first track that he brings to response to? Because it's Takeover versus track that he this is response to because it's Takeover versus Ether right? so Ether dropped in 2001

which is obviously the same year but we gotta figure out so that dropped December 4th so this came after no yes so he dropped Takeover in September 2001. Ether drops December 2001.

Right, so Ether's the response to Takeover. Correct. But is the Super Ugly remix, where's that in this? That's after Ether. That's after Ether. So I think of that beef as Takeover versus Ether. Super Ugly was like, you probably should have never done it. Right.

I do remember this came out of nowhere, because it was justly was like, you probably should have never done it. Right. I do remember this came out of nowhere because it was just kind of like, wait a minute, because we hadn't heard Ether yet, so we didn't know there was, I don't think I knew

there was beef. Maybe like, hip hop heads knew. I'm trying to remember how I found out there was beef. Well, that's what's funny too. I just listened to the song

and was like, who's this about? And then we figured it out and we're like. I feel like this is, I knew myself, I probably learned from like Hot 97 and we're like i feel like this is i i knew myself i probably learned from like hot 97 and andrew martinez like talking about it oh yeah because i don't think i would have had the understanding to listen and be like oh wait a

minute although he does just come pretty fucking right out there with it i'm a jay-z fan i'm a jay-z stan so i'm biased here I know most people would probably say Ether won that battle. I don't think it's close. I think it's takeover in a landslide. I think Ether had the word. I think the name being Ether is invaluable. It became the verb.

That to me was super important. The beat is great. That's a weird thing to work though. Ether, it's so scientific. I know. It's such a weird thing to work though. Ether, it's like, so scientific. I know. It's such a weird thing. To turn it into a verb,

like Ether did, is so important. But, when I hear Ether, let me pull it up. When I listen to like that kind of shit, cuts so much deeper.

Like, and I've always thought this, I thought this with, I mean when he breaks down the albums. Right, like you, you know, you put thought this with right like you you know you put out one good album you know

there's a one hot album every 10 year average like I thought this with even Drake and Pusha T everyone Pusha T murdered him because he exposed this baby whereas Drake was like you are not a successful rapper you know that to

me is way more cutting than like, all right, yeah, I had a baby that I was trying to hide. That's not like a personal affront. That's just like, you put my dirty laundry out there, but you didn't cut it. This stuff... His jokes about AIDS... Yeah.

And they're wrong, right? Yeah, he mentioned Rockefeller had AIDS. It was Rock Hudson that had AIDS Rockafella didn't have AIDS, you fucking moron Moron And Gay-Z and Cockafella Records That's some Michael Rapaport shit Yeah, right

Gay jokes is where you're coming And I mean, when I I mean, that's funny It's funny and it's corniness but I mean AIDS Jay-Z

Cockafella and you rock hoes I rock fellas is like we're just doing gay jokes he was just doing gay jokes

and I mean I guess you know cool that's funny but to me I didn't I can't point

I'm trying to look at like the lyrics and look at Genius here and point to you know that line and I feel like Jay-Z had many more of those I can't point I'm trying to look at like the lyrics and look at Genius here and point to you know that line and I feel like

Jay-Z had many more of those where it's like recalculating your your success like breaking down who stole what from you made a hot line I made a hot song

I know who I paid Searchlight Publishing like I don't know they told the story much more it's a lot like Eminem and MGK

I remember those two like that's just I don't know. They told the story much more. It's a lot like Eminem and MGK. I remember those two. That's a low-hanging fruit to me. Eminem, you need it to like... It's like a combative beat, so you feel like, oh, we're going in here. But other than that, I just don't think it's like...

You need to know the story to get it. When Eminem had some rhymes, when I first heard it, I was like, that don't think it's like you need to know the story to get it like that like when eminem eminem had some rhymes when i first heard it i was like that wasn't that good and then when you know what he's talking about it's like oh wait a minute right like when you know about who had the rights to the song and yeah you you had the you i took that hook but my my version of that song did better than your song and when you know like the actual backstory jay-z was talking like real truth on that shit whereas ether is like i don't like you you're gay you know it's like i i he he i think he played the card of like you know i i came before you and like that sort of shit the tech nine and your dresser sort of thing like right right right but that's it to me that's all he has cause KRS

already had an album called Blueprint I'm like alright nice to know I didn't know that I didn't remember that I guess if you put stock into that that's a big deal but I'm looking through here it's just kiss the ring

it's a lot of like I'm the best and you're not but why tell me like give me some substance so uh either way no matter what side you're on here uh it was one of the coolest things ever yes i mean this to have have top guys go out of like this i think the ether benefited from going second because there was a build-up you know 197 they were like who's gonna get it funk flesh it's like i got it in the building and it's like this it was like takeover was just a song on an album it might have been like the first time at least for me it was like appointment radio like well they used to do um on like what was it on 187 like Friday night

like battles or some shit like that right yeah remember people used to like call up and they would like freestyle over the phone

right and you would vote it was like something about voting was and then like a hot night at 9 I used to

I mean the radio used to be dope yeah like it's great that you have everything on demand now but like I used to have

the cassette deck ready to record when a new song dropped yeah and when those people would call in and battle each other what was that called something with battling yeah but then it used to be people calling in but then when there was like actual battle yes it was unreal yeah um that and like the basement on BET and Freestyle Fridays and all that shit. You know where? It was a few years before that the LL Cool J and cannabis stuff went down, right?

Because that was like – That was probably like mid-2000s, right? LL Cool J and cannabis? No, I think that was before all this. Was it? I'm pretty sure I was in high school when that happened. 4321 was really when that began, right? Right, right.

That came out in 97 yeah but when i think by the time let's see second round my that was my uh my inspiration yeah second round knockout yeah second round knockout was in 99 in... I want to say 99. Why don't we put it under... Come on! Cannabis... Second. I think for my... That was 98. Yeah, so I guess that was first.

So that set me off to be like, oh wow, we can really... You can go at each other but like and I really I kind of I fell in love with cannabis for like a period of time

because of that but then but these are the two much bigger names not bigger than LL Cool J but like you know having the other guy

be an A-lister too they I mean they're the titans of rap you know right I'll tell you what. Cannabis ended up sucking. Yeah.

And he cried at that one battle. But this, as much as it's cool that Jay-Z and Nas were like heavyweights, this was like David and Goliath. Right. He was kind of like a nobody, but he came at him. Right, right, right. And then what was really cool was that LL came back. LL at that point was like a pop culture actor. He was dropping F-bombs.

Ripper Strikes Back. I was like, and the heart just like, not even in a rhyme. He just called him that. At one point he's like, you like dick in your mouth or something very blunt like that. Which is funny because it's like, but I think he went hard enough because we're just saying that Ether was not great him that. At one point he's like, you like dick in your mouth or something like that. Very blunt like that. Which is funny because it's like, you fuck dudes. But I think he went hard enough because we're just saying that ether was not great for that.

Well, but I also feel like there was, I feel like that was maybe more than just like a, I think it was like a rumor. Oh yeah. You know what I mean? Like there might've been some truth to that. Yeah. Calling Jay-Z gay,

unless there's a rumor I don't know about, it's kind of like, no dude. Right, right, right. But the backstory of this with like, you know, we did that. The weirdest part was he dissed him on the track that he was on. On, right. On 4-3-2-1, he was on that.

And it was, like, a harmless, like, yo, man, I'm a fan of yours. I'm going to get a tat like you. And he was just like, you fucking, you know. Yeah. Like, you bitch boy. Don't fucking do that. It's like, holy shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This, that set the tone. And then, yeah, I mean,ay and and naz and then what's crazy is they just end up like squashing it you know yeah and that's where the business man comes into play where it was just like listen everybody everybody's looking for record labels now everyone's trying to gang up and super team up come with me dude and we'll just be titans of the rap game but the the super ugly remix is that where he says like i i skated on your baby seat that was pretty uh that was pretty personal it was just like and who's that about is there like isn't it calise is it calise oh well that's where uh the end of uh takeover being like because you know who did

you know what you know who should keep that between me and you and then it's super ugly it was like well we're not gonna keep it between me and you. And then in Super Ugly, it was like, well, we're not going to keep it between me and you. Right, right. I fucked your baby mama. And that's when Jay-Z's mom got married, right? Yes. Yes. Which I love that, too. And he apologizes somewhere. And then on Blueprint 2, he comes back and says, because it's not dead by Blueprint 2.

What song is it on Blueprint 2 where he's beefing? I don't know. He's just like, your mama can't save you no more. Because, because, my mama can't save you no more. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah.

I mean, Blueprint 2, and that's where we're at right now. Blueprint 2, The Watcher. Wait, where's The Watcher? Watcher's on Blueprint 1? The Watcher. Watcher 2 is on Blueprint 2.

The Watcher, The Blueprint 2, look at how many fucking tracks how stupid is this how dumb was he to put out this many songs look i'm still going i'm still scrolling it is absolutely preposterous and so a dream is on there how about though did you remember blueprint 2.1 i mean i remember it happening but i couldn't tell you what's on it right now well it was brilliant what it's what he should have done from the jump he just took the best of each cd and put out one album which would have been another classic like i think people thought

of blueprint 2 as a big step back from blueprint one right because there was a lot of cutting room floor shit on there i think he probably wanted to just put out a double album i feel like that was something like you know a lot of people had those to their name at that point we were telling a double album all eyes on me was double out it was almost kind of a thing to do back then probably sell it for more right yeah i think it was like 24.99 or whatever and he's like all those tracks what probably happens is you have you do have a bunch of Cutting Room Floor. And they were just like, why don't we just put it all out? And we'll sell, and we'll double the price. Which,

I get, but Blueprint 2.1 would have been A Dream, Hobie Baby, Watcher 2, Bonnie and Clyde, Excuse Me Miss, All Around the World, Guns N' Roses, The You Don't Know Remix, The Bounce, That would have been a great great a great 12 song album and instead blueprint 2 it was a 25 song like they cut it in half like that should have just been a single one

this song is blueprint 2 where he's where he and you know what, that ended up getting, like, they didn't even put that on Blueprint 2.1. So it was like good, but it wasn't, you know, great. But,

isn't that the one where it has like religious music though? It sounds like, what a move, by the way, to be like, Dre,

part two of your song is going to be on my album. Oh, right, right, right, right, right.

You know, I was on your album, I featured, now like, now I'm taking this one. And Rakim right him who this the verse rock him i know rock him is like i don't think he's like in the greatest of all time conversation anymore but there was a time when he was when i went and found his old stuff i wasn't as impressed but like the the newer things that rock him sneaks into, he murders. Dude, guess who's back when he like the song where he got back on the scene. Right.

And I think he was one of those guys who bridged the gap of like he can spit fast in multiple syllables. Right. It wasn't just like bup bup bup bup bup bup bup. Yeah, it was like that Sugarhill gang. Right. But his verse on this shit is... I just drank. But his verse on this shit is... That was Dre. That was Dre.

Even just the beat pausing with that. Oh, what a collab with this. It was just like, Dre made the sickest beat. And I don't think Truth Hurts went on to do much, but her voice is great for this. Right. For the chorus of this. This song is so

fucking good. Where is the rock and roll verse though? He goes super hard. Do you remember on the original

watch where there was that noise in the background that was just like I can't listen to that song anymore. I always focus on it. There was that noise in the background. I was just like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't listen to that song anymore. I always focus in on it. I think that this, too, was like a flex where it was like, I'm just doing things with the

greats. Yes. All the greats, you know? Yeah, yeah. It contains graphic things. It's an animatic scene. Woo! and things it's like watching the movie I can see the whole planet in the scene and then where is

so we haven't even gotten to the R. Kelly collab yet that I don't know that no that definitely had to be in the mix let me find out you know surprisingly that's not included in the Spotify I think that is like actually let me see if that's even possible that was called what

best of both worlds yes because I think I don't think you're allowed to see if that's even possible. That was called what? Best of both worlds. Yes. Cause I think, I don't think you're allowed to say it anymore, but some of those songs are fire. I mean, I don't think, I don't think I'm allowed to say that, but yeah, you know what's funny? He didn't, he didn't include it. Yeah. And, and it's not even, you know, guilty until proven innocent is on there.

Okay. But, uh, let's see. What was it? Honey was the one. Yeah. Let's see if I can find that. Yeah. Honey. Okay. But, let's see, what was it, Honey was the one? Yeah. Let's see if I can find that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Honey?

Nope. So he really just said, fuck it. Like, that just didn't happen. That to me was one of the, Fiesta was like the jam. Oh, yeah.

Right, Fiesta and the Fiesta remix. Let's see if I can even find that. That's gotta be on there under like R. Kelly, no? You can't not. I don't know. It could I can even find that. That's got to be on there under like R. Kelly. No, you can't. I don't know.

It all I could have all been scrubbed. I mean, again, here we go again. Not saying that any of these songs are any personal. Yes, my bed. Stop. Yes. What a great idea That I mean

So you remember We were at the concert When So the famous Best of both worlds concert At Madison Square Garden Where R. Kelly Has like a meltdown

Says that like People were trying to shoot him I think he said He got pepper sprayed Right And he runs off the stage I'm sorry I'm sorry And he runs away and we're up in the upper deck like this is part of the show what's happening because it was a cool concert yeah jay does his set art

kelly does his set they both come out and do their songs together and they're all hits yeah i mean all of them bangers and at the time we were like oh yeah like there's beef right it just didn't work when really probably what was going on was like jay-z was probably starting to learn things maybe you know maybe i feel like he had to be like wait a fucking second and you know what i feel like uh nobody is willing to admit their concern because then that paints them in the light of like well you should have fucking did yeah yeah but you know it's just like you see i don't know it depends on how much you could really see you know like if you if you if he was just like lounging backstage i don't know if it was that but i i bet you i mean r kelly was a weirdo yeah because of all that and i think that jay

probably started to notice you go on tour with someone and they're being a weirdo and like yeah he's just noticing other weird yeah and then i think you know you probably do hear some rumors you start to see some weird behavior you start to think yourself those rumors are probably true yeah now i'm on tour with like a fucking pedophile right like you probably just eventually want to pull the plug on the whole thing and wipe it from existence which is basically what he tried to do and i mean to be on a song with robert kelly called guilty until proven innocent and they both put out their versions of like we're both being like harassed by the law i'm like you can't hold us down we're innocent and like we're gonna kill it and he's talking about his shit and r kelly's talking about like well it was all fucking real yeah that is not a good look yeah

if i were i don't blame him at the same time like i mean i blame it was all fucking real yeah that is not a good look yeah if i were i don't blame them at the same time like i mean i blame it was an institutional failure in like the music world and like the justice system i don't i don't think you can blame individual people unless there's people who went back after the fact after everything was out there then those people are scumbags but it's just like boy that's bad luck you're like you know you chose you chose the wrong guy to do a hip-hop r B crossover with. You should have done it with, you know, a fucking,

uh, white clap for someone else. Like, uh, someone who's not a fucking rapist. Imagine that one dude, whoever was like second in line for that. The other,

like the, the second most popular R and B singer of that era. And he's like, shut up in me. What were the, what was the other, like from that out from what was on that album? Yeah. Um, I loved it. Ain't personal. I love that. I don't even know if I remember that one. what were the what was the other like from that out from what was on that album yeah um i loved

it ain't personal i love i don't even know if i remember that one how does that go let me pull it up i'll get it on like youtube probably because i don't know if any of this shit is like do people even like uh uh stream r kelly music anymore like don't think you're allowed to do that yeah really i mean like if i were allowed to say that i wish is one of my favorite songs of all time i would say but i'm not allowed to say that yeah i do not say that I Wish is one of my favorite songs of all time, I would say it, but I'm not allowed to say that. I do not say that. It is not one of my favorite songs. I will never say that.

I believe I Can Fly and all that shit, too. That song is not that good. It Ain't Personal is on. Nope. There's a link to it on Google. It's been scrubbed. You can pull up the Best of Both Worlds album, but it's all in like... It's grayed out. It's gray scrubbed. You can pull up the Best of Both Worlds album, but it's all in like...

It's grayed out. It's grayed out. Holy shit. Somebody's Girl, Shake Your Body. There's one song just called Pussy. That is a tough look. Okay, imagine you put out an album with a fucking rapist,

and there are songs called Naked, Pussy, Honey, Somebody's Girl, with a fucking rapist and there are songs called naked no no pussy honey somebody's girl and shake your body that is not what you want no i mean because it's just like that's all about 12 year olds oh man that is such a bad look um i can't let's move on wait i just want to see a black album is it time to talk about the black album but I mean even like YouTube this music is unavailable yeah like they really

straight up fucking cancelled that guy he does not exist anymore because you probably think they're like you know every time like if you

if you could track it back like somebody somebody would do this expose and be like how many streams has R. Kelly gotten since that moment

since that documentary and maybe it's a lot less but still if it's like a million streams and he's made how many streams has R. Kelly gotten since that documentary? And maybe it's a lot less, but still, if it's like a million streams and he's made X amount of dollars, Spotify, why are you doing this? That's a great point. You've got to cancel them, you know? Yeah. So, yeah, we're on to the Black Album, which was supposed to be the next final album.

The retirement album, right? This was it. Retired. How many times has he retired? You know what? As I look at it, it's great. But just running through the track list, I think I would give The Edge the Blueprint. Yeah.

I mean, again, the nostalgia play. I haven't listened to The Blueprint nearly as recently as I listened to Black Album. But when we went through it, I was like, oh, wait a minute. To come out of the gates with What More Can I Say? With the gladiator cut in the beginning. So smart. And you know what I love about this? This song is five minutes long.

You listen to rap songs now, it's like two verses, a chorus, and you're out of there in two and a half minutes. And to have multiple verses, a bridge and an outro. It's so weird that the Spaniard chant, that's very weird. So weird. Spaniard. But it works. I guess if you don't love the movie Gladiator, which I don't understand how you could possibly not love that.

I think everybody who was listening knew what it was. You got it, and you could picture him doing the arms up in the costume. But this, this was like the. What year is this? This is 2003, which makes sense. Yeah. So this is my freshman year of college. And I remember I had a desktop computer.

Yeah. And I had changing the desktop art backgrounds was like a thing. Yeah. And I, for the longest time, had Vida Guerra. Not bad. That fat ass. Not a bad choice.

Kind of a bad choice, but it was just like, if anyone used my computer, there was just a fat fucking ass. Yeah, but when you were a freshman in college, it was like, I'm about it. But I changed it to

Jay-Z, like, the Black Album. Yes. Album cover. It was that important to me. Oh, you know what? His, um, his The White? No, The Grey album. The Grey album, where it mixed with all to me. Oh, you know what? It was the white, no, the gray album.

With the Beatles songs? Because I think you run into the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Beatles, who owns those songs? Would that have just been like a LimeWire special? Some DJ did that, though. Remember? It was Green Lantern.

Mighty Mouse? Something like that not not not dead but it was yeah maybe my mouse what a brilliant jay mighty mouse or something and it all worked right it was like all the all the blends worked pretty fucking perfect yeah i mean i don't think they worked as well as the lincoln park one because that was like sanctioned and like real producers worked on that right but there was a lot of stuff that worked. You know what's funny? It's just like, like, if you just match the beats per minute,

you can do that with almost anything. Like, it's really, it's like, meh. Yet again, we see an interlude. This is not technically, this song is called Interlude. This is not...

This is called, like... This is not called Public Service Analysis? It's called, like called Interlude. This is not... This is not called Public Service Announcement? It's called Interlude, colon PSA. This is wild, dude. Four of his best songs ever are not real songs. It is two and a half minutes. Now it's a full-time song. This song is not called Public Service Announcement I think it's called Interlude

Colon PSA or Interlude Without it just being called Public Service Announcement That's a problem That's back on to me This was the peak For me of Just Blaze That organ

Whatever type of drum that is You can hear You know a Just Blaze. That organ and whatever type of drum that is, you can hear, you know a Just Blaze beat when you hear it. He also did all those Just Blaze, he had a ton of them. But the Jay-Z ones are like perfection.

It's like movie directors. Alright, I'll give you the rundown of all these songs. You tell me which one your favorite is. December 4th, What More Can I Say, Encore, Change Clothes, Dirt Off Your Shoulders, Threat, Moment of Clarity, 99 Problems, Justify My Thug, Lucifer, Allure, My First Song.

Your favorite? Oh, man. It's tough. Like, Dirt Off Your Shoulder, you don't want to... Dirt Off Your Shoulder is not my favorite you don't want to answer that because it's again like the pop hit yeah

but it's not it is sick but it's and this is a great party song because you can just do you can like literally just brush Dirt Off Your Shoulder

I have I have a clear answer here though I'm surprised yeah I mean especially when you are when you were listening

to his album thinking that it was the final album and this is his victory lap like this here's the victory lap and I'm leaving it was like

this is the exclamation mark if I had just to listen to one song off the album it's gotta be Encore but like I don't know but PSA

I mean 99 Problems was the the pop hit I'm gonna say and this too when you're a hip hop nerd and you know Rick Rubin was in the mix

and it's an old school you crazy for this one Rick but I love Moment of Clarity I love Threats like Threat it's the Threat pimp

it's so funny it's the Threat what does he say about trash bags or something like that I'll cut you up and put you in a trash bag like drug money like what Ramp pimp. It's so funny. It's the threat. What does he say about trash bags or something like that? Yeah. I'll cut you up and put you in a trash bag like drug money. Like, what?

But it's hysterical. Moment of Clarity was the one that, did Eminem make this beat? I think he did, right? Did he? Yeah. And actually, we'll go back to it in a second because we did skip over from Blueprint Renegade. Oh, God. How did we do that?

Which is actually considered one of Jay-Z's low points, which did we do that? him on his own song, fine. But to be like, Eminem's better than you, it's like, okay, third party. Like, what the fuck? And Eminem, it's not like you lost to... But the weird thing about Renegade is that Em did that whole song with, I think, Proof

or Royce Da 5'9". That song exists somewhere else. And Jay just put his own verse on it. It's like his song. I did not know that. So that's a little like, but that's what Jay being like. Jay must have heard that song. He's like, how does everyone not know this song?

Well, you know what that is, too, though? That is Hey Dre. Remember when I wrote Still Dre for you and pretended to be you and relaunched your entire career? And remember when I did a second draft when you didn't like the first one? He said, Dre said that he wrote the first one. It was too much like Jay-Z. And it was about Bentleys and Diamonds.

It needed to be like Cadillacs. And he was like, I need this to be West Coast. And he didn't tell him what, but he said like, he put the lolos in there. Yep. Like, he was like, oh, okay. I mean, he's very stereotypical. So that was like a makeup call. Like, you know what?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I gave me the song. I relaunched Chronic 2001 for you. I'm like 90% sure that that's how it went down. That Renegade just exists and there's somebody else's verse on there that Jay just puts his verse on.

And, but then, and then remember, when is it in, where he was like, he gives, the song where he goes through everybody, it's like a Passing the Torch song Dizzy?

Yeah and he says like your flow on Renegade fucking awesome we'll get to that on Blueprint 3 and it's not like Jay was bad on that song

no it's just that Eminem I think is the greatest rapper of all time so we're gonna have to do this with Em's albums. Because Em has some low points.

Some real low points. Yes. I think that people think of Renegade as embarrassing. But like I said, he was not bad on that. What song he is bad on, and it is one that they point out, is Monster. Okay. This, Gobbins Ghouls, like it's all like off beat kinda and it's the problem is everybody else goes extremely hard that is nikki minaj like nikki minaj probably is the

best song best verse on the album on the song which is not you don't want to you don't want to be a song nikki minaj as as the one with the greatest of all time and not. Right, right, right. Kiss my ass. So this is, I think, probably regarded as like Jay-Z's worst verse, maybe ever. Interesting, wow. This part's weird. So weird.

Like the love part there's one part I like about this though I can't remember I mean yeah I mean again it's very like Game of Thrones-esque, where it's just like we're still talking about the greatest, you know?

Yeah, and it's just tough when I hear it. I mean, I can't listen to this and then be like, this is so much worse than what I... I don't want to be the old man yelling at the clouds again, but it's just like... Other people don't even write lyrics like this anymore. There's just nothing even to it. If you look at some of the massive stars of today,

there's like 15 total different words in it. I know. So I'm like, I don't know. That flow is not at his best. I feel like Black Album also has underrated songs. Like,

I mean, nobody talks about Lucifer. No. And it is such a heater. I think the only song I don't like is this Madonna shit.

I hated this song. Yeah. Right? Madonna's on this rock? I think so. Yeah. I did not need this in my life. Justify my thought. Yeah, this is not. Andonna's on this rock i think so yeah i did not need this yeah justify my thought yeah yeah this is not and i feel like this was like uh definitely a skip

you know i'm gonna do a weird collab that you never expected and like and it's probably when you do something with madonna she's so big like you get it you get in the studio and you think like this will probably be fire and then when it's not good you're like well we gotta put on the album it's madonna yeah there's like, well, we got to put on the album. It's Madonna. Yeah. We just buried a track with Madonna at the time. You know, he mailed it in just thinking the feature is going to get the buzz. All right.

The good rap, bad rap doesn't really matter. Allure's another one. This is smooth. Smooth, baby. Make a souffle. Like, what are we talking talking about you still talk about two ways two ways had to be over by then right 2003 maybe not this little double time like spit on it i mean it's it's a masterpiece it's front to back really good. I think I would go like Reasonable Doubt being like the OG,

Blueprint being like the actual best, and then Black Album being like what was supposed to be the end. Yeah. I don't know. This was 2003? Yeah. See, I think what part of this has to do with me is the timing of things. As always.

I think how you view music is all about where you were, how old you were, what you were doing. I mean, I was in college listening to this, and I loved it. So you were, right. But see, so for me, college was weird. You were probably graduating. Because I transferred. I went to Loyola freshman year. That wasn't that great. I lived at home sophomore year

so that wasn't really like a college experience and then like my last two years I had a lot of fun but then like getting at like I

you know we always say like 22 to it's either like you love 18 to 22 or 22 to 26 those are usually like your best periods in life so I was like

out working all my friends came home and like so that's like that it's a time in my life where I was like I. All my friends came home. It's a time in my life where I was like, I just was doing Manhattan. We're going to cheap-ass dive bars. It's not like I was balling out. But it was like I didn't really – my last two years of college, I did college, college.

But I didn't do four years of it because I transferred so much. So then I was just like, we we're just gonna party in the city when this album was coming out and that so it's like the time of my life but when i when i look back at blueprint i'm like oh yeah this is it's a memorable fucking album to me it's like like the like blueprint is about like the album where it's like black album where you were what you were doing like i remember the music because i think if I had to say my favorite album, I'd say the Black Album. But it doesn't mean I'm necessarily calling it his best.

Yeah, I feel you on that. Because Reasonable Doubt is definitely not my favorite because I was just like, I remember we said I had to go back to it. Yeah, it was just like a different time. But when I look at it, I'm like, all these songs are so hot. Then there's the pause.

There's like a brief hiatus. It goes from 03 to 06. He had to sell the retirement yeah he had to be like it really was yeah and then he comes back with kingdom come uh yeah what's on kingdom come okay i'm gonna give you the track listing oh my god kingdom come show me what you got lost one do you want to ride 30 something i made it anything hollywood trouble dig a hole minority report beach chair God. Kingdom Come. Show me what you got. Lost One. Do You Want a Ride. 30 Something. I Made It. Anything. Hollywood. Trouble. Dig a Hole. Minority Report. Beach Chair. I don't remember anything. Beach Chair was with the dude from

Coldplay. Weird ass track. I don't know if I remember this. Let's do the 06. 06 I'm just watching. Jay-Z,z usher and pharrell that's all that's happening it's just like this jay-z usher and pharrell should be number one smash yeah i don't remember the song at all what's lost one i feel like lost one is oh yeah i like this song definitely see and that's the funny thing like this album sucks yes and i play this song like this is one of my favorite songs of all time yes i love this song and he's the funny thing. I'm like, this album sucks. Yes. And I play this song. I'm like, this is one of my favorite songs of all time.

Yes. I love this song. And he's got the joint with Beyonce, which we kind of glossed over 03 Bonnie and Clyde. But yeah. And then he did the features on Beyonce. It is funny that like they started out as just like artists collaborating. Right. You know, it's funny to like if you were married to someone and you go back to like a song

you made together where it was like and they you were married to someone and you could go back to, like, a song you made together. Where it was like, and they probably were fucking, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, they did it for the music video and they fuck. Yeah. And. Yeah, I think that they probably were like, this won't work. We're both too big of a star. This is the album, the title album.

Kingdom Come. It's terrible. I think Show Me What You Got was like this single, right? Yeah. Sucked. This song sucks, bro. Come on. This is a...

Who else? This is an old beat. Queen Latifah, right? You and I, team wine. Didn't they do like an intro? It was like this? You're right. This sample, I think, is very famous and old.

Yeah. But this kind of... This felt very like Crazy in Love, kind of like, again, like Just Blaze-ish sort of. It's going through that phase. But I mean, I think this album absolutely sticks. Yeah. And this might be the one that hipsters kind of came back around on and said it was good. I think this is absolute basura.

American Gangster follows that up which is the album soundtrack hybrid experiment he did the entire soundtrack right yeah great song awesome song oh man this is a great great song

not that I think everyone thinks this is a great song yeah it's not like that. Blue Magic was the first single off this one, which had a funky vibe to it. Yeah, and I think that this was to sell the movie, too. Yeah. Because that's a big part of the movie. Right.

That was Frank Lucas' Blue Magic was his thing. And then they had Lil Wayne with Hello Brooklyn. Yeah. How you doing? Has his moments. I think this album is revered. Yeah? Is it regarded?

I think this was when Jay and Nas got back together. Oh, yeah. They did a song together. I think there was that one in like My President is Republican or whatever that one was black republicans yeah yeah um i i think i'm not sure i or i i think that this album is rated higher than i would have put it this is i'm not i'm not sure about that this was the phase for me of jay-z's career that was kind of forgettable yeah blueprint three comes back yeah yeah. And that's got, that to me,

I think Blueprint 3 is underrated. Yes. I think there's a lot of songs on Blueprint 3, really. Obviously, Empire State of Mind. This, you know, you gloss over this one, but this is a great,

this is a perfect example. Like I said about Big Pimpin', I said about his commercial hits. This song is now synonymous with commercials and corny movie scenes. But when it came out, Alicia Keys has this voice and Jay is spitting about New York. And he is from New York and in New York. No doubt.

I feel like, you know. And I mean, it gave me. Oh, everybody wants to be me because I'm here in New York, you know. It's like corny in that way. But that's like, I think that that added a little something to it when you're when you like live. I mean, I use it for the blog. I mean, how many times have I said now you're in New York? It became a blog thing for me, you know?

Yeah. And this is a classic misheard lyrics, right? People said wintry tomatoes. Yeah. And and wet dream tomatoes. Wet dream tomatoes. Let's get to the chorus. I mean, I hear Concrete Journal, but...

Concrete Journal? Jungle. Concrete Jungle, wintry tomatoes. And wintry tomatoes and wet dream tomatoes? Yeah, wet dream tomatoes. I hear wintry. If I think about it, I hear wintry.

It definitely sounds like tomatoes. And it's not, it's what dreams are made of. Yeah. Which is a weird sentence. You know, it's like, I think you should be like, where dreams are made. Or it just, I don't know. Yeah. where dreams are made or it just i don't know yeah what dreams are made of i'm gonna play two songs here which one do you think is more underrated this is what i was talking about this is uh yeah stars born is uh where he goes through this

i cannot okay like this song anymore. Or, Hova. And it's one, Stars Born has J. Cole, Already Home has Kid Cudi, so kind of like a new age, like he's incorporating the new blood. I think both these songs, criminally underrated.

Yes, yes. I think I'd give the edge to a Stars Born, because like you said, he is, yeah. But, this, H.O.V, I got my own lane already, is such a fucking great line.

And on to the next one that's on here, right? And Young Forever, too. Oh, Young Forever. I love Young Forever. Mr. Hudson was... Mr. Hudson, if you followed me way back in the first Sure Not days and the early Barcelona New York days, K Marco was running

his music site. He was doing One Night in Bangkok and then he was doing Hype Floats and Mr. Hudson was always all over there. Yeah?

It was the Kanye feature. I don't think I know another Mr. Hudson. Yeah, it was mostly him on other people's songs, other hooks, but he had a couple where, I mean,

just like this, he's singing a great hook. Yeah. But he looks like Powder. He looks like the guy from the Da Vinci Code, the bad guy. Oh, yeah. He hits himself. Yeah.

Looks like that weird looking guy. Not a great look. No, not great. But I think Blue Can't Wear You. This lets you be emo, you know? It's like, I don't know if this song is like, I love this song. Oh, yeah. I don't know if people think of it as.

Death of Auto-Tune was the first. I think he messed up by making this the first single. Yeah. Because I don't think this song is that good. And I think it was kind of weird. And I think had he just gone with like, or maybe not the first single, but one of the singles that I think was, there was better songs. Yes. If he'd done J. Cole, if you've done stars born uh and how

about this though do you remember the jay-z and drake song off this album no it is super bad like if you you know back then jayZ, Drake, like let's fucking go. And you play in This Is It. This song is horrendous. And what year is this? This is 06? This is probably 08, 09, 09. Yeah, because that was Empire State of Mind was the Yankees World Series. That kind of ruined it for me, you know.

I mean, how bad is this? Like all time bad. Wow. That's embarrassing. Yeah. I mean that, that was a chance to be, you know,

an absolute classic. And I think that, uh, blueprint three is a perfectly acceptable album by almost all other standards where there's like, there's like four or five like good songs. And like the rest is like, like you just don't expect that with jay-z coming off of blueprint one yeah blueprint two is like you know a mess but like you're you're expecting black album blueprint and you get like a regular album right where it's like these songs are kind of okay yeah yeah uh

and then but it is it's crazy and i guess this also speaks to like us being Jay-Z stans where I'm like an album could come out you not really think it's all that good and love like three songs of it

well that's as I if there was a contemporary artist right now that every time he drops something I love

three of his songs he's a classic but there's no one like that for me as I've gone back and listened that's what I have noticed the most is that like even when I was

like oh this stinks oh wait a minute I loved it and that's a testament to how fucking good he is what a move to put Will Farrell in there I don't know I have to imagine that's Kanye yeah he's

making the beat and he's the one who one who drops the Will Ferrell blades of glory. That's when he's still a genius. He'll always be a genius. My most vivid memory of Paris, let's call it. Fuck you for making this so hard to talk about for a white person, Jay-Z. How am I supposed to talk about this song? N-words in Paris. Like, Dante the Don.

Mad River, Philadelphia. Blackout tour. I'm there. Casey McDonald's there. Philly is there. We're in Mad River. Dante gets blacked out. He's hammer drunk.

Can you play? Because it was like I came They had been on the road all together But then me and Marco came Because it was Philly, it was close enough So it was like a big one And Dante, we all party so hard

Dante gets so fucked up He can't remember what he's played and what he hasn't played And he plays this song Like eight times in a night That next weekend Is when they're on tour He hasn't played. And he plays this song like eight times in a night. That like next weekend is when they're on tour and they decide to do this thing where they play it eight times in a row. Do you remember that? Yeah.

They were on stage and they just were like, let's do it again. Yeah. Let's do it again. And the joke was like Dante was like, you know, ahead of Jay-Z and Kanye. Right. He was the one, the first one to do that. Right. Now.

Now is there's a song called Ham, right? That's on here, right? Because I remember going ham. That was so weird but that became a thing. But it came from an album and I think even more so than the song was the expression. I mean, that's when you're

that's more important sometimes than the song. It's like the lexicon and the last thing in front. Now, Watch the Throne, I will fully admit, was where I... Hater KFC came out in me a little bit because that was when I started to sour on Kanye in general. Yeah.

So 2011 for Kanye. Let me look at Kanye's discography because I feel like that was when I started to not like him. He had to be coming out with some other stuff that you didn't like. Yeah, so like 2000... No, that doesn't make sense. What is it? Because 2010 was my beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which is like my favorite.

And 13 was Jesus. So I don't know what it was, but I remember kind of being like, I was afraid. I was like, guys, I don't like this. I'm afraid to say it. Because some of it, it just didn't hit me the way I thought it was gonna. But in general,

this was regarded as one of the greatest crossover collab albums ever. Made in America was a big one. Frank Ocean was a big deal on this. Otis is on there? Otis and Paris were like... Otis was the first single off it.

It was a fun song, but it didn't... I don't know. Liftoff was the one with Beyonce. Yeah, that's not memorable to me. I feel like this is where we, you and I, we got very similar music tastes. I feel like the general public will not agree. Yeah, yeah. I think, you know, for the most part, you're talking, this song was dope.

This joy was dope. You're getting a full album of, you know of 16 songs from Jay-Z and Kanye. That's a big fucking deal. I just think that I was comparing it to My Beautiful Dark Twins. Maybe that's what it was. Maybe Dark Fantasy was so good, and I'm thinking of Monster, and I'm thinking of songs like that, and none of them lived up to that hype for me. I just think if you're getting 16 songs with Jay-Z and Kanye before that album drops,

you're like, I would have... Yeah, like absolute classics. And I don't know if any of those songs I'd consider classics. For you. But you know what I'm saying? I do believe people think of that as... No, and Paris. Yeah, I mean, like, is...

But it's just like, Otis, it's just like a song I like. And, you know, there are certain songs like this that I think are like not good. And to me, it's almost like I would be shocked if you told me you're going to get a full album of Jay-Z and Kanye. But all of those songs are going to be good, if not great. Right. And so when you hear ones that, in your opinion, are bad, you're kind of like, whoa, that's a big whiff. What's tough is that like Kanye, as much as I am a bit of a hater now, he would always try new and different things. And when it worked, it changed the culture.

Yeah, paradigm shift. And I think the only way he knew how to do that was to be like, I love this. I love this weird noise. I love this weird sound. I want to do a song like this. And then sometimes you just don't like it because it's not what you're used to.

Right. But that's how Kanye changes how kanye changes the game yeah which i respect i'm also just i don't like when you totally abandon like what you were you know it's like there's really no elements of his old his latest album he started to like there was a couple rap songs again right but for the longest time you know and and you want to call it innovation and and and all and growth and all that fine but i think there's you can take that too far right sometimes where it's like yo i think the worst thing about kanye is kanye fans yeah that's so true that's so true it's like yankee fans too it's like it's like you you make me have to rally against this guy because you guys are

fucking assholes and i'm learning that about scorsese too by the way uh on to magna cara holy grail this is a good song Yeah Tim Blake I like him It was a cool crossover I went to I went to the tour I like this song

At Yankee Stadium Two of the best concerts Well no This was not one of the best concerts I've ever seen But Jay-Z Eminem At Yankee Stadium

I watched them like Their control room Because I had a buddy Who worked for the Yankee scoreboard operator That out That concert Incredible Yeah I mean because both sets Are timeless hip hop classics I watched them like their control room because I had a buddy who worked for the scoreboard operator that out that concert.

Incredible. Yeah. I mean, because both sets are timeless hip hop classics and they do their shit together. This was similar. I went with my ex-wife at the time. And then, you know, it was weird because it was like there was like NSYNC type fans. Right. And Jay-Z fans. And we're in the Bronx.

And it was just a strange, strange setting. This is another song though. I really do like this song but like, as a Timberlake fan, as a Jay-Z fan, like, you think it's gonna be better.

Yeah. You know, your expectations are too high. Yeah. But I do like, I listen to this song a lot. You become a victim of your own success.

Right. Where, you know, you're like, I can't, it's not gonna be a classic every time, guys. Yeah, yeah. So why not? I like, forced myself to like this song. Like, I just played it enough success right where you know you're like i can't it's not gonna be a classic every time guys yeah why not i like forced myself to like this song like i just played it enough to be like you know

like when it drops it's like yeah holy crap i like that they like right here timberlake has his intro yes holy crap yeah right but you know the rest fuck me you know i got it But, you know, the rest, fuck me, you know I got it. It was, you know, him and Rose. But. There's something else good on here, isn't there? There's the other Beyonce joint, which is part two on the run. I didn't really care for it. Beach is better.

Yo, this is further back. Tom Ford. What? Oh, yeah. Tom Ford is catchy. Yeah. He did a song. I'm pretty sure it was Jay-Z.

To basically like the beat of like tennis balls, right? Wasn't there a song that sounded like a tennis match going back and forth? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the squeaks and the... Yeah. See, those are things that are probably hard to find because... Where was Dear Summer? I think that was like a freestyle.

Yeah, yeah. Like these weird random songs. I think that was probably in the middle. What is this? Called The Game Is Mine? Yeah. Yeah. Love DJ Clue. Oh, maybe it was on the DJ Clue album.

This is just on YouTube, though, because it's like you can't. Little tennis. Yeah, just like weird random stuff we missed. That and Dear Summer. I don't know what that was. Dear Summer fucking goddamn YouTube ads these days. It's just like, come on. Don't you know we're trying to rip music for a podcast?

And crisp tease. You know. I feel like Beach Is Better was an alright song. Yes. I did not care for almost any of this album. And that's why I was thrilled that 444 exists. Yeah. I don't know if I love it as much as a lot of people did.

The song about. But I'm happy that it. This is one of my favorite Jay Z songs of all time. I love this song. And I kind of glossed over this album and I missed it for a while and had to. I think I was playing on shuffle or it was on like fucking Pandora or something. I don't know where I stumbled across it. I was like, what is this song? Whether or not I personally love it, whatever, I'm just happy that it almost erased the Magna Carta, Holy Grail, and Kingdom Come in my mind.

It's like reminding, I really, really pull for Eminem and Jay-Z. I feel likeinem gets so disrespected now yeah like his music may some didn't hold up but some really does and people don't act like it does no there are three people who get disrespect on the internet it was jay-z for a while it's eminem and fabulous black twitter hates fabulous really hate him huh a lot of it's like they pick out corny lines like when he said shoe aside. That's a tough one. He does have some. He's so obsessed with wordplay that sometimes he overdoes it.

He's one of the best in the world at it, though. Ever. He can rhyme like a whole sentence. Mm-hmm. But, yeah. I'm a big Fabulous fan. Me, too. He's got a new song out.

It's by Black Twitter. Definitely. If we like it, Black Twitter hates it. This is music for these guys. He's got this shit featuring gloria carter i like that one yeah um yeah i just it was important i think and i i hope he maybe stops yeah i don't know what's next he's either got to like keep up 444 type shit right you can't have another magna card right you can't have Come and My I don't understand why especially rappers do

albums anymore unless it's just so much more lucrative. I would just be like work until you have a banger and just put that one song out. There's no singles.

And then stop. Yeah. Or do like EPs you know. Yeah. Do like quick you know Kanye albums are kind of like that now.

They're like short songs. Yeah. Few songs. 25 minute albums. Yeah. I mean that's this this one 444 I think is 10 songs long. songs. 25 minute albums and shit like that. I mean, that's, this one,

444, I think is 10 songs long. Yeah, 10 songs, 36 minutes. So, you know, you watch like a sitcom,

you heard this whole album. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Yeah, I remember when Jesus is King dropped, like,

you know, somebody was like, I'm going to take 25 minutes to just listen to this whole thing. Right, and then you're done. It's like, I'm going to take my dog for a walk, listen to the whole album. Right, And then you're done. Yeah. It's like a walk around. I'm going to take my dog for a walk.

Listen to the hall. Right. Right. This is, I think this is my favorite song. Very short podcast. I, uh,

yeah, it was important for Jay-Z cause, cause it got the, the, the cliche was like, I can't, I can't listen to Jay-Z just rap about like the art he hangs on the wall. Right.

Everyone's talking about that. And it was just like, yo, he's always been real. He was rapping about drugs when he was a drug dealer. He was rapping about hose and Cristal. And that's what he was on the wall. Right? Everyone's always talking about that. And it was just like, yo, he's always been real. He was rapping about drugs when he was a drug dealer. He was rapping about hoes and Cristal

when that's what he was doing. He was rapping about his wife when he got married and now he's talking about being a rich media mogul. And, I mean, as much as we've been talking about the music,

like, I loved Rock-A-Wear. Yeah. I loved Rock-A-Wear. And I, you know, if you put his liquor in front of me, he's not Sir Rock. He's, which one is his? D'Ussé, right? Yeah.

Like, I'll fucking drink it. D'Ussé Palooza, our guy Kaz runs that shit. I'd be down with that, like, no problem. He just made, I think, like, what we learned from, like, this era of music. If you were a popular rapper and you don't get murdered, you're a billionaire. Dr. Dre, Puff Daddy, Jay-Z, billionaires. You just got to persevere because at the end of the day,

they are the coolest fucking cats in the world. And when you're cool, people want to dress like you. They want to eat and drink like you. They want to listen to your music. They want to go where you go and do what you do and they are like the the coolest and best parts of rap music have always kind of like set the tone for culture it's like what what the white people are eventually gonna steal it corny white guys like us want to be that it rallies like their people our people people want it, their people have it. We all kind of come together

and it's like, it is the barometer and the benchmark for what is fashionable, what is cool, what is in style, all of it. It must be weird too

to be like, Jay-Z is like the oldest man in hip hop. Like he's, like a lot of guys didn't make it. Snoop, Eminem, and Jay are all like 50 something, right? Yeah, well what's, like, cause a lot of guys didn't make it. Yeah. Eminem and Jay are all like 50 something,

right? Yeah, well, what's weird is Em is like sneaky old because, cause he got like a late start. Like Snoop started

when he was 18. I think Snoop and Em are like the same age. Which is, which is that Eminem from like 18 to like 28 was like, you know,

struggling. Right. Snoop was just on the track right away. Right, right, right. But,

you know, like this is, you know, you have lots of old rock stars and like lots of rock stars who just died of old age, you know, like they got around longer. But now, like this is, you know, hip hop was like the 80s, you know, like started there. Now you're seeing these guys grow up and it's just like, how are guys gonna deal with you know like uh like rolling stones and you know van halen shout billy eilish like they just like keep touring just keep playing like their old old old songs well that's where i think you know those guys they just make music

like jay-z is now you know uh owner of the nets and he's a uh fashionable he's a fashionista and he's uh he runs a liquor company it's like he became full-blown business, man. What else could he do? You know, it's like, you think like, oh, maybe one day. He's owned sports franchises for a long time. Bought and sold. He runs a fucking sports agency now. It's politics.

I know. I was thinking that, but I don't think he even wants that. But the only thing is, it's like i know i was thinking that but i don't i mean i think it'd be weird i don't think he even wants that you know like yeah but the only thing is it's like politicians are like in their 70s so he's got time i could see him being like something to do with brooklyn you know like yeah you have love for your hometown and also let's not forget who ended up running the whole goddamn country like stranger things have happened well and now he's doing the nfl shit He's getting involved in that politics with Goodell and Kaepernick and all that shit.

I wonder if he could start a league. No, I mean I will not doubt Jay-Z for anything. If it could happen, it would be him. Doesn't he have to scratch the surface of his features? As long as he was on

Fucking Diamonds are forever On a Kanye track You know like Yeah I mean that's where I thought that Just because I said

Business man It's like one of his Best lines ever Is not even his songs Right How much are we missing That's not technically In his discography here

But he was a part of So It's not like It's not like I forgot It's not like I didn't know what Jay-Z was, but even just opening up Spotify today, scrolling through,

seeing how prolific he was, remembering how many hits he has, realizing that things you thought were not hits are absolutely fucking, fucking mint. You realize he's one of the most successful people in any genre of any work ever to live. And what I really love about him, like I said,

you've seen his ups, you've seen his downs, you've seen his wife slap him in the elevator, or his sister-in-law, not even his wife, along with the rumors of Rihanna. And then you see he puts out an album clowning her husband. And he's there by her side. And he was so big, so successful, so popular, that his wife put out an album clowning him.

And he was just like, it's cool, man. We're good. And he's bulletproof. And he just keeps it moving. And I think one of the underrated things about him, and why I think politics itself sucks but he's the kind of guy that you

could potentially want because he's like... You're gonna vote for Jay-Z? You're voting for Jay? President Hove? President Carter. Throw up your fucking dynasties. If you listen to him, he did Letterman's show and it's just like he's thoughtful

about things i think he is what kanye thinks he is yeah well that's what's funny is he kind of does it in a quiet way and there's a reason why there was that riff that ended up between them where it was just like you go with your wife kim and me and you know beyonce are gonna be over here billionaires right you know like have a good one you're fine you're good too but uh you know slow your roll with all your fucking walt disney talk yeah to me uh you know maybe have a good one you're fine you're good too but uh you know slow your roll with all your fucking walt disney talk yeah to me uh you know maybe a little recency bias out of all this shit now but i gotta call them the greatest of all time maybe not like lyricists or strictly music but because of everything we said because of the the the successes and the failures, the openness, the whole story from the drug dealing to the

President Obama type shit, he's just one of the most intriguing people to ever live. Musically, maybe you have a different taste or whatever your difference of preference is there, but it's undeniable when someone is that successful and that interesting that they're just one of the most intriguing, important people to ever be, to ever exist. It's Hov, baby. It's Hov. And the nicknames, the slang that's coming with it, the ad libs, all of it. Fucking unbelievable.

For a corny white boy who wanted to be a young, cool black kid. It's Hov. It's Hov. He is the blueprint. We're out of here.