Highlight Song/s: Takeover, Girls, Girls, Girls (Part 1), U Don't Know and Renegade
This is my first good listen to Jay-Z. I had previously listen to a couple of his other songs such as "Dead Presidents II" and "Empire State of Mind"; I am a big fan of Dead Presidents. In other words I am saying that this review comes from a completely new perspective and not a Jay-Z fan perspective.
The production is pretty good, it makes some songs sounds really big and powerful (for better or for worse.) Jay-Z's rap and flow style is a bit difficult for me to get into; I am not too sure why. I don't believe it's something that I could come around to either. Not everyone is for everyone I guess.
The track that stands out the most is "Takeover" which is a diss track about Nas and Prodigy (from Mobb Deep,) one of my favourite hip-hop songs is "Ether" by Nas, so it was a bit of a surprise when Nas took the flow of the chorus "we running this rap shit" as the outro, I was like "Oh!, that's where the thing is from." Nas mocking Jay-Z by using parts of the his songs, reminds of Eazy-E doing the same thing with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg; mocking them and their songs "'Nuthin But A 'G' Thang" and "Dre Day" on Eazy's song "It's On." Conclusions for the song, It's not too bad, but it isn't as great as "Ether." Having had listened to both songs now, it has made me appreciate both songs and the entire feud with Nas and all the great songs that have come from it.