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Review: Jay-Z - Magna Carta... Holy Grail

Rating: 6.3

This seems to be the year of great marketing and mediocre music.  Following the example of Justin Timberlake, Daft Punk, and Kanye West, Jay-Z has put out an album that's far more notable for its marketing campaign than for its content.

I can't believe Samsung's already paid Jay-Z $5 million for this. He doesn't deserve it. Never mind The Blueprint 3, this album doesn't even beat out Kingdom Come. Why couldn't Samsung have thrown a few million dollars in Vampire Weekend's direction? I suppose I'll just pretend this is delayed compensation for American Gangster.

Anyways, about the actual music: Jay-Z turns in a pretty good rap on "Jay-Z Blue," but, otherwise, he's just cruising along. There's none of the focus and the joy that he brought to almost all his verses on Watch the Throne. The hooks are also pretty uniformly awful. Jay-Z's never been particularly good with writing hooks, and, without Kanye around, there's just no one who can write a good one.

The beats are definitely best part about the album. They absolutely carry the first three songs, and they're generally good throughout. Timbaland hasn't done that much great work in recent years, but he definitely brought his "A" game to this project. Unfortunately, none of the other producers on the album managed to do the same, and half a dozen great beats just aren't enough to save an album.

Ever since The Blueprint, Jay-Z has consistently followed up every great album with a dud, and every dud with a great album. Hopefully he continues that trend and gives us something great next time around.

Key Tracks: None

Track-by-Track Rating:
  1. Holy Grail - 6.5
  2. Picasso Baby - 6.5
  3. Tom Ford - 8.0
  4. FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt - 6.5
  5. Oceans - 5.5
  6. F.U.T.W. - 5.5
  7. Somewhere in America - 5.0
  8. Crown - 6.0
  9. Heaven - 6.0
  10. Versus - 6.5
  11. Part II (On the Run) - 6.0
  12. Beach Is Better - 5.5
  13. BBC - 5.0
  14. Jay-Z Blue - 7.0
  15. La Familia - 5.5
  16. Nickels and Dimes - 6.0

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