If you read the staff page or anything written by me on nappyafro.com, you probably know that Jay-Z is my favorite rapper. I’m no Stan or anything; I admit his last album Kingdom Come didn’t live up to all I expected (That song “Anything” with Usher had me upset).
Well, for this Song of the Week, why not go back to when Jay-Z was almost at his peak. No, not The Black Album. No, not The Blueprint either. While both of those albums are classic, I going back father than that…not that far. To me, if I had to let anybody listen to one song that says Jay-Z, it would be “So Ghetto”. Jigga hadn’t yet got into his whole presidential thing and wasn’t yet look at as the undisputed “King of New York”. He just came off the biggest album of his career (Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life) and was really feeling his self on this one. Not to mention that the beat is by Premier (When was the last time Jay work with him?). Although I like him over Timbaland and Neptune’s joints, Jay’s is at his best when he’s reppin Brooklyn over a New York beat. Need proof? Check out the end of the opening verse:
We spray corners, stand there like you got a cape on ya, fine
You’ll be wearing a black suit a long time
I put your crew in hard bottoms
The priest is like, “God’s got him
He never did nuttin to nobody but them boys shot him”
Brandish iron, outlandish buyin
Bentley Coupes, not braggin just simply the truth
We all from the ghetto, only difference, we go back
Back up in D&D on this Primo track, listen
Album: Vol. 3: Life And Time Of S. Carter
Producer: DJ Premier
Released: 1999
Label: Roc-A-Fella/Island Def Jam