Words by Max Henderson
“Once I saw a prize fighter boxing a yokel. The fighter was swift and amazingly scientific. His body was one violent flow of rapid rhythmic action. He hit the yokel a hundred times while the yokel held up his arms in stunned surprise. But suddenly the yokel, rolling about in the gale of boxing gloves, struck one blow and knocked science, speed and footwork as gold as a well-digger’s posterior. The smart money hit the canvas. The long shot got the not. The yokel had simply stepped inside of his opponent’s sense of time.” – Ralph Ellison
The decline of Jay-Z is a horrible to witness. Above the admitted faults of his album and his flow, the true pain is that Jay has aged. Dog-years aged. No matter the hype, the media blitz, and the tours, a less than average album was released from a more than average boaster, who gave a paean that was supposed to restore hopes in what was once the nexus of hip-hop. You cannot ignore the sweat between each struggled metaphor over insipid, ineffectual beats and not be moved to shudder or try to recall the year before when his return was just a sense of hope. To hear it was like watching that scene in The Great White Hype where James Roper fights overweighed in the ring or Rocky Marciano in the opening scene of Raging Bull where he is trying to recall his former glory days: both make you do not want to admit to yourself that what was once pristine has begun to age and decay with time. A result of this is Jay’s indulgence in himself. The intro on the Tru life album where Jay spends most of his time incoherently ad-libbing is par exemplar. It insults me as a fan. Am I supposed to be happy to have the crumbs off of his crumbling flow? The only person that should ever adlib on an album consistently is James Brown.
The phenomenon of Jim Jones is that he is an underdog, a lesser rival in this battle. Yet he has arguably been able to do what other rappers have not: which is knock one of the greatest rappers of all time clean out of his S. Dot’s; however, it is not Jim who is hurting Jay, but Jay himself. Jay’s hope is not to restore the grandeur to New York rap, but to prove that rappers can rap past a certain age. Jay is wrestling with his own permanence in an impermanent culture. In “30 Something” he chides guys like me who cannot buy the bar, the car, or fly far to foreign countries. I ask why the need for loathing a type of person he once was? Why must he degrade others who may not have, yet support him, so that he can have? I think those questions are relevant to ask as we watch this battle.
As a result of ego, Jay does not underestimate Jim. But he overestimates himself.
I do not know much about Tru Life but he is not the first guy I would put in for back-up. I would be most inclined to make a call to Philadelphia and ask for Beanie Sigel to go in. Not just because Beanie is that dude, but also he is someone who cut his teeth as being a former battle-mc and is able to speak the vernacular that Jim could understand and possibly fear.
Why wouldn’t Jay put him in or Nas instead of Tru Life, whose strength seems to be spending more time with his Photoshop, than working on his rhymes? It is the same reason why there are no longer any good new-blood rappers on Def Jam, why much of New York and east-coast rap is in a slump, and why Memphis Bleek is able to put out banal albums. Not because he is in the will somewhere, but because people like Jay are too scared too admit that if there is someone better than them, they may usurp attention or fame from an inattentive audience.
It is a point to consider, and for now Jay’s legacy, to himself, may be kept to intact, but I ask you that if the so-called bench-warmer manages to cross-over MJ, what would posses MJ to put in a player who is not on the bench, but someone who has been sitting in the nose-bleed section of the stands?
Az – A.W.O.L. (CookinSoul Remix Album)
Eric Roberson – The Vault Vol. 1.5 (Special Edition)
Havanna – L.I.F.E (Love It For Ever)
Slum Village – Prequal to A Classic
Yahzarah – Blackstar
Lord Finesse & DJ Mike Smooth – Funky Technician
Davina – Best of Both Worlds
Sy Smith – Psykosoul
Dave Ghetto – LoveLife
Omar – Sing (If You Want It)
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Let me be the first to say you’re a fucking idiot.
Why is an idiot I mean dude just expressing his point of view
In first grade, we simply used to say “takes one to know one!” then tauntingly run away.
I won’t do that here though lol.
Damn Nick you riding my man Max real close what are you Jay’s weed/ball carrier?
Hey Max much respect to the post you dropping true science for those that don’t know and don’t take hard feelings about Nick a few of us got you loud and clear.
yo what the fuck? http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=2083928&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1
i think the article was from an impossible view point. jay has ALWAYS talked about stuff most could not attain. he has ALWAYS talked bout money and the by any means pursuit of it. dude found a formula and it worked, and once you realize that the easter bunny/santa claus doesn’t exsist you cant get mad at them for not exsisting.
you call jim an underdog, but in the same breath you blast jay for sic’n an underdog on him.
this “battle” is not about lyrics. so why use lyrics to fight back? the battle is won in public perception of who is the most clever, and the most killer/drug dealer/hardest (pause) nigga on earth. having nas go at these dudes is like george bush, sending more troops over to iraq. it’s not about the muscle. no matter how many times nas would say some crazy ass line, or a dope song. all jim jones got to do is say something funny on 106n park or on the newest DVD. he uses guerialla tactics, and nas, and jay are pushing the nuke button. they are too old to do the same games jim does. they got smart and developed their own, suicide bomber, and sent him to attack. fight fire with fire….
i would hate to see jayz going back an forth with jim jones on DVD’s or on KaySlay(actually that would be kind of funny). watching’ tru life do it though is entertaining if nothing else.
i didnt do well in english…..
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Although that piece about Jigga was cool. I was actually hoping to see some entertaining/informative text discussing DJ Drama and Cannon’s situation here. I’m sure that will come soon.
I’m surprised yall didn’t open the day with the DJ Drama/DJ Cannon studio raid
whatever, i thought this article was dead on. remember when jordan came back? he wasn’t nearly as good. same with jay-z. he retires for hype and comes back a year later weak. come on now.
Personally, although I’m not going to call someone a fucking idiot, to say that Jim Jones knocked Jay out of his S-Dots is crazy, bordering on ridiculous.
I know Kingdom Come sucked. It did. Jay was lazy on it and pretty much wasted all of our time. But lets go to subject matter.
Have you listened to Jim Jones’ albums? His flow? It sucks. Sorry. Subject matter? Same old BS. I admit, Kingdom Come is arguably Jay’s worst album, but TO ME, it is better than any of Jim Jones’ albums. At least to me. I’m 31 and come from a time when lyrics, delivery, and flow meant something….
I mean Jay-Z is 37. I just saw him on the Golden Globe awards with all these Hollywood stars (not that I care about all that). You want him to rap about being on the block?
When Jay said he was the “Mike Jordan of recordin’” he wasn’t kidding. Jordan came out of retirement and was a shell of his former self (even though he still was averaging over 20 a game). Jay’s done the same thing. He should have let the Black album be his last album.
The man’s skills have declined and he knows it. But how has Jim Jones knocked him out? Come on.
Yo Spizzy maybe you should check out the Ellison quote at the beginning of the essay which is how Jay got knocked out. And are you saying you’d rather hear Tru Life then Beanie Sigel?
I was hoping to hear TSS say some words about the drama The Aphilliates recently encountered. I would not wish that shit on any dj but I hate to say if shit had to happen I can think of a few djs I could live without ever hearing from again and Drama is not one of them. Not many djs have their own producers (although more than a few djs like to produce they aint got a Cannon)
I know shit will hurt them financially and I’m afraid all we gonna get from Drama in the future is Atlantic official major label mixtapes that might be good but definately wont be the same. I hope somehow someway The Aphilliates bounce back but I don’t see it happening. Shit is sad.
As far as this post I’d rather not even talk about Jay after retirement. He should have retired Jay come back as S. Carter and none of these discussions would be relevant. It would have been his way of saying yes I changed, yes I’m older, and this is me now but instead hes dillusional enough to think hes as hot as he was before and hes hip hops savior. Hes not even NYs savior so how the hell hes gonna be hip hops savior!?
FUCK THE RIAA!
“I’m 31 and come from a time when lyrics, delivery, and flow meant something….”
^I’m 31 too and all the above are still important but so is individuality, production, and swagger. I dont think ppl are crazy for thinkin Jim made Jay look like a fool. Jay should have ignored Jim. As much as I like Jim I love Jay and couldn’t believe it when Jay actually got on the We Fly High beat to diss Jim (Jay came with a weak verse too) then Jim being Jim and actin a fool and doin ad libs over Jays verse was not a good look for a legend like Jay and Jay should have known better.
I could not agree more with your opinion. Personally, I think that Jay has only released 1 worthy album (Reasonable Doubt) and I cannot stand his flow and the way he thinks that he is better than everyone else who spits just because he has SOLD OUT. The retirement thing was clearly for hype and Jay should spend less time focusing on his girl’s career and get back into the booth to spit some hot shit. Although you cannot talk about rap without mentioning Jay, I think he comes nowhere near the top 5 because he is just to self-indulged. Ok you have lots of money, a label, your own clothing line, and your own Bball team (that sucks ass right now). How does that make you “better” than any other rapper? He is single handidly ruining rap for us in the Tri-State Area. Go do another bud light commercial you fake ass punk.
^ ^ ^
Isn’t that hip hop though? The whole “I’m better then you” shit? Been going on for as long as I can remember…which would be since the early 90s.
“Personally, I think that Jay has only released 1 worthy album (Reasonable Doubt)”
Go back and listen to the Blueprint before you go running your mouth. And while you’re at it, check out Vol. I, II, and the Black Album. You’ve got a lot to learn. And by the way, what does someone’s entrepreneurship (i.e. the money, label, clothing line, and bball team) have to do with top 5 MCs? Finally, take a look at just about everyone’s list of top 5 all-time and I guarantee that they are all “self-indulged”.
jim sucks. he got one hot song talks samck about jay and he is winning? you guys begged for this reply, he did it, it wasn’t good. we as fans are the worst. next year he will put out another album and blow the roof off of it, everyone will be like “jay is strill bringing it!!!” have fun arguing this, i won’t read it or listen to it again.
Max is minor..What a rubbish post ( Ellison and graphics aside ). Can I have my three minutes back? It’s So? typo time……
Too argue that Jay is in decline is akin to going into a full-blown war armed with nothing but a peace sign. Pointless. We know. Why dress it up? It happened to Ali, Leonard & Lewis ( Joe not Lennox dummy ). Decline is decline. Different arena, same leitmotiv.
WTF is the ish talk about Jay moving away from his solid stance with the have nots. How silly. Jay has always been about the fllossy. Check ‘Imaginary Player’. Ironic when you superimpose Jay’s decline against the gloomy backdrop of a dude whose sole claim to fame is an ode to Baaaaalin! About as water-proof as a cheese grater.
Rapping, too a degree, has always been a case of hyperbole gone wild wih a dash of wistful thinking. It has always been: I got it! You want it! Haters!…So? why draw attention to the flaws in your relatively pointless pseudo-exposition? Your disjointed meandering attempts to inhabit a position that the cognoscenti have already named, framed and claimed.
Throwing Beanie & Nas into the equation surmises that they are Jay’s foot soldiers. Silly rabbit. I mean Jay overestimates himself against Jim Jones. Nigga/Wigga? please. One rode with him ( note not for him ) the other rode against him. Beanz was always a wilding out dude aligned to his 9/44. Jones is and always will be delphic that takes the solo.
As a post this is strictly Bol-lite. Trite. Dressed up as a bol-d statement, when in reality it is a piece of prose that is flabby like Larry Holmes way past his prime. Yeah once upon a time it may have carried a punch but now? So?
Gotty, I have heard about taking it to the Max. This is surely a case of giving it to the Minor. Lose him. It is not like Max/Minor is preaching heresy, more that he/she is sucking eggs. One of the worst laziest pieces of writing I have seen on TSS. For a hot minute I thought I was at XXL? I hope this is not the first fruit from the find-a -writer bunch…Rotten Apple anyone?
so?- just cause you needlessly use polysyllabic words doesn’t make you a fuckin pulitzer prize winner. if this is the “first fruit from the find-a-writer bunch,” then it’s a decent start with room to grow. i ain’t agree with the piece either, but be proud of someone steppin out and startin something, ‘stead of coming down on em on some asshole seasoned vet shit. nah you can’t have your three minutes back, but you ain’t have to waste three more writing your pretentious douchebag comment.
I think its funny that this is on TSS, yall seem to ride Jay more than any other blg out there. I dont think I’ve seen anyone here except the people commenting to say his album was bad. Just funny cus when it dropped yall were actin like it was the best album of the year, with that came back like Mike and dropped 45 in the Garden bullshit. I liked some tracks off of Kingdom Come, it aint a bad album but it aint good either. Dude who wrote this is on point, good read.
Interesting opinions.
I, for one, never raved about KC. I spoke well of the tracks I liked…and in typical fashion, ignored the rest (I still don’t get the hype over Beach Chair)
But, I find it interesting that So? has so much to say about the post.
So Nas and Beans aren’t Jay’s foot soldiers?
Uhh…Jay was signing Bean’s checks and now Nas’. Not exactly foot soldiers but it’s clear who has the upperhand.
Jim’s rise in popularity isn’t credible?
Have you been to the hood? Better yet, have you heard kids of various ethnic backgrounds yellin out “balllinnn” while wearing wallet chains lol? Jim is settin trends like Jay used to…
I really don’t even feel like responding too full about this. I rarely respond to any comments on posts. I say what I say, then I slide off. I’m not going to start now.
I fucks w/Max. He said what was on his mind and said it well as far as I’m concerned. If you have an alternate opinion and want to start writing on a consistent basis, email me.
lets just hope jay-z rides off into the sunset with a few singles sprinkled here and there like he was doin eg: “summer”
no more albums hov.
Hey, this is music and entertainment, and everyone is entitled to there own opinion.
“The decline of Jay-Z is a horrible to witness.”
Way to go, Max. You discredited your entire argument in sentence one.
Both of them dudes is wack. There is so much great music out there I couldn’t possibly spare any time to listen to either. They shit is worse than the elevator music they used to play at the RenCen.
I’m not a Jay rider but i will say that i enjoyed KC. To me it was what i was looking for a new more mature Jay-Z. It might be a little too mature for a lot of you. So far as the beef between him and the dipset Jim will always be a joke to me. I know “ballin” is all over the place but every since the “Ma$e incident” on hot 97 jimmy has proved that he isnt nothing more than a clown in hip-hop.
this is crazy…. Kingdom Come was a good album to me. People evolve and, personnally, I don’t want to hear J talk about the block or respond to all these dudes seeking attention by dissin him!!!!
Jim Jones is a clown, for real….Jay is right for gettin one of his boys to to handle this light work…. Bosses don’t get in the fight …they fought their way up to have other fight the fights that don’t rise to their level…
Jay’s album was good and showed his growth and maturity….
hip hop is about the block, but even OG’s evolve …. if rappers don’t hip hop will surely die!!!
Anonymous ( 18 ), I do not do E-Beef. Who are you? No literally who are you? Yeah I smashed on Max but I do not think he needs nameless dick-riders.
Less syllables mean I get props? Why are you dropping poly________? You silly little parrot. Fly child, fly. This is a blog not egalitarian city. I did not dwell on the use of language. It is all about substance over form. Wow, polysyllabic = pretentious? You Dip-Set by any chance?
I use the words to convey my thoughts. The lexicon is mine to do with it as I will. And I will.
If you dispute my opinion thats fine. I respect mine. I respect yours. However if your are going to war bring some guns and make sure they are loaded. The joys of metaphor (& cliche). Use your imagination. In no shape or form do you bring anything to the table but the stale old hater! approach.
Dissect it, analyse it, agree with it, smash it, break it, do something, get involved, whatever.. Moving on…
Gotty.. I was a bit harsh and a touch condescending in relation to Max. Max is grinding. I respect that. Dude is strong enough to withstand the occasional whiff of polemic. Apologies or apologists? Nah he doesn’t need or want them. However it is what it is. The piece on Jay was broke.
I appreciate a writer going for theirs. Smart says we stays steady evolving. To do so we must learn. To learn we must bleed in order to gain the body of knowledge.
I just think it is never wise to bite off more than you can chew or (fit in your mouth). At least not in public.
I have a lot to say beacuse it is Jay. He represents one of the last semi-functioning links to the art form back in the day. Nas the other.
If you are going to do Jay you need to approach it from a, shall we say, macro ( as in the decline of Jay/Hip-Hop in relation to the halcyon days ) as opposed to micro way. No really. He is (or was) that b.i.g. Statements of the obvious mixed with proclamations that belong in a theatre of the absurd are not a good look.
Yeah Jim has a movement of sorts. Its not that fast, strong or smooth. It is dirty and it will be short (kind of like sex with a nasty ass hooker). Watch the wheels fall off.
Jay writes checks. Yeah that is it. Jay writes checks. Check receiver is not my defintion of a rider. Bleek is a rider for Jay.
For the record I think KC is ok. In the context of todays product I would even go as far as label it good. Yeah boo if you want. I know I am right. It is just that we really wanted Hov to show the way but he did’nt shine a light. He flickered, but against the dullest backdrop a flicker can appear to be bright.
I come here often. I love it. It means a lot to me ( thank you for Lupe! I heard him hear first). That does not make me a fool. It just illustrates the fact that I have damn good taste. The mix of music, musing and stylin is perfect. Perfect. Numero uno in the i-world.
As for writing? I am mostly a reader. I may take you up on the writing thing. I can do it. Not arrogance, merely a statement of fact. I would want to do it on a regular basis. Like a commited batchelor I need to change my lifestyle in order to commit..
As for me beasting Max. TSS made me do it. The standards are so high that, like Lauryn, I get mad when they walk away. It is all subjective at the end of the day.
Max is putting his name to a body of work with a million strong army observing. He is a standard bearer. The load is great and he must be able to withstand the pain of scrutiny. All eyez on anybody who writes for TSS. Whether they like it or not.
To me TSS is Hip-Hop. Real Hip-Hop. The essence, ethereal, intangible yet solid at the same time. A mix of intoxicating ingredients that no one individual can define. I may not agree with all of the people all of the time, but I definitely Respect Your Fresh…. Speaking of which any chance of another podcast??? Peace.
So? – I see what you’re saying. Not to say I agree or disagree but I do see your stance.
KC was good by today’s standards. Easily and I’ll be the first to acknowledge that.
As for TSS, we’re trying to add different voices into the mix. It’s time IMO. The platform is established so now is as good a time as ever to give other cats a chance to shine. I like to read other people’s opinions as well as there’s fun in that for me as well.
Podcasts are coming. Slowly but surely. We had to reup and get focused.
For the record, Jake La Motta was the protagonist of Raging Bull, not Marciano.
Peace Gotty. I appreciate you taking time out respond. A true Don knows his people. Never alienates and always participates where deemed appropriate. I think it is time to try and get involved. No point being an occasional rock thrower.
May take me a while but hopefully it will be worth the wait. I am going to cook something up and hit you on the email. Let me know what you think… Oh and given the Drama situation maybe podcasts are going to become a touch more relevant to an artist trying to blow…
like he said on his lead single, and i know what he means now…
‘this aint a good song, this a real song’
overall, in a mature way dude basically puts out the attitude like ‘i know yall want the usual upbeat “youthful” oriented album, but i’m wiser now and you mofos gonna deal with it’, all while sharing newfound wisdom I and I’m sure other purists can relate to, and in a steez astray from the standard shyt.
and prolly not his ‘lead’ single but the one bout his nephew
I personally dont like Jim Jone one bit but I agree with the article, I was very disappointed by KC and wished that Jay had stayed retired, at least I would still view him in the same light as before…
While I agree that Jay-z is not as good as he once was, I do think Jay at his worst (Kingdom Come) is better than Jim Jones at his best (Certified Gangsters, We Fly High). Notice that Jim Jones at his best is only 2 songs. Ive always been a Dipset fan, but I know that 3 verses from Jim Jones is pushing it. He’s really only good for a mediocre 16 bars. Also his american gangster mixtape was horrible, it went straight to the recycle bin like 5 minutes after I downloaded it.