Opinz

Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3

On The Blueprint 3‘s first single “D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)”, Jay-Z complains about the state of rap and brags about getting back to real hip-hop, but he spends the rest of the album completely contradicting himself: this sounds like Jay-Z trying his hand at a more pop-oriented album – à la collaborator Kanye West – but Jigga isn’t Kanye and his attempts (aside from most of the album’s first third, particularly second single “Run This Town”) generally fall flat and become immediately forgettable, before the album gets downright terrible with the cheese-tastic closer “Young Forever” and the muddled, disgracefully bad “Hate” (possibly one of the worst songs of the year); The Blueprint 3 is clearly the sound of Jay-Z trying to be something he isn’t.
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Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak

808s & Heartbreak is certainly indulgent and the fans and critics are going to tear Kanye West to pieces for it, but the music itself is sound: a collection of emotionally aching tunes built on top of chilly, minimalist beats and mechanical effects, a brave, interesting, and refreshingly focused departure in a music industry where ‘change’ and ‘experimentation’ are four-letter words.

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