Jay-Z

I Guess me going to see this guy for the third time in Concert sparked me to write about him like I did Tupac last week. What's weird is that I didn't like Jay-Z at all when he came out at the end of freshman year in 1996. I thought he was on the corny side and the only NYC rappers I really listened to at that time were B.I.G and Wu-Tang Clan. It started to change when I heard his Cameos on Lil' Kim's Big Momma Thang, Shaq's No Love Lost, and of course Love The Dough On B.I.G's life or death. It was gradual....I liked City Is Mine, but the OG version (Glenn Frey's You Belong To The City from the Miami Vice Soundtrack) has a big part in that.

Everything changed though in 1998.

Anyone who know's me knows that I LOVE SOUTHERN RAP!!!! I just do. The beats are just different and more to my taste. I was all about No Limit from say...1996 to 2000, and Master P was really the only dude out there owning his own shit, and making movies and all that. When I saw Jay-Z doing the same shit with Roc-A-Fella in their early days, I (with my 17-18 year old mindset) thought he was jocking Master P's Ideas....much like Cash Money Records would later do (That however, is for another blog at a later date!!! LOL), but again, everything would change.

Enter the Streets is Watching Soundtrack. Now....Vol. 1 in my lifetime was sorta popular....you had City Is Mine which I mentioned earlier, and Sunshine....another of many countless duets with Inga Marchand, better known as Foxy Brown and a Babyface sample (Though the video and CD say featuring Babyface), but Streets is Watching was more gritty but not overly New York Gritty.....and It's Alright with Memphis Bleek put Jay in a lot of living rooms and airplay that I don't think he had before....then right after that, you have Money Ain't A Thing on Jermaine Dupri's Life In 1472 that got constant airplay....and Then....

Volume 2 Hard Knock Life. Jay-Z's bread and butter. That CD that made him a mainstream star. People can say Reasonable Doubt all you want, but this CD is what got Jay constant videoplay on MTV. Volume 2 was so successful and boosted his popularity so much higher, they reissued Reasonable Doubt in December 1998.

OG Reasonable Doubt Cover.

Reissue Reasonable Doubt Cover.

They also changed the design on the disc and the spine.

Can I Get A.. and Hard Knock Life were two of the biggest songs of 1998 and the first jumpstarted Ja Rule's career.

We all know what came after.....and then like MJ, he retires and comes back to regain the top spot! In My Opinion Jay-Z is one of the greatest because of his perfect blend of street cred and mainstream appeal. I don't think a rapper has had that on such a universal level. He's not an all around entertainer like Tupac was, and I don't feel that he's better than B.I.G, but he's definitely the closest one to him. When I say universal, I mean an artist that can pretty much go anywhere in the world and sell out a concert.

Universal Artists.

The Rolling Stones
Michael Jackson
Madonna
Prince
Tina Turner
there are a few others I usually can think of but for some reason I can't right now.

If you were to pick a rapper though, I think It'd have to be him.