Customer Reviews
Classic - By: Mr. B. Oconnor, 10 Jul 2008 
Absolute classic. Jay's second best albumin my opinion. Lyrically flawless, very good concepts & ideas & a near perfect selection of beats. A must have CD
AMERICAN GANGSTER - By: stuart, 21 Jun 2008 
Since 1996, when he released his debut CD Reasonable Doubt, Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, has been putting it down pretty much every year. My favorite tracks from "Reasonable Doubt" ended up being "Can I Live", "Can't Knock The Hustle" w/Mary J. Blige, "D'Evils" which was produced by DJ Premier, & "Brooklyn's Finest", a memorable collaboration between Jay-Z & the late, great Notorious BIG. 1997's "In My Lifetime Volume 1" was definitely influenced by Sean "Puffy" Combs with tracks like "Sunshine" & "I Know What Girls Like" w/Lil Kim, however, Jay-Z still managed to bring us some of the flavor from "Reasonable Doubt" with tracks like "Where I'm From", "Imaginary Player", "You Must Love Me", "Streets Is Watching" & "A Million & One Questions/Rhyme No More". Jay-Z clearly was affected by the passing of his friend Notorious BIG, but he still managed to put out a well rounded CD. A year later, Jay-Z was back again with Vol. 2, Hard Knock Life. The 1st official single, "Hard Knock Life" created a heavy buzz for this CD, as well as, the fact that "Money Ain't A Thing", which was on Jermaine Dupri's "Life In 1472" CD, "Can I Get A..." w/Ja Rule, was featured on the Rush Hour soundtrack & "It's Alright" was featured on the Streets Is Watching soundtrack, were also featured on this CD. My personal favorites included "If I Should Die" w/Da Ranjahz, "Jigga What, Jigga Who" w/Jaz & "Reservoir Dogs" w/The LOX, Sauce Money & Beanie Sigel. In 1999, Jay-Z returned with "Volume 3: Life & Times Of Shawn Carter". My favorites included the 1st single, "Do It Again" w/Beanie Sigel, "So Ghetto" & the 4 tracks that Timbaland produced on this CD: "It's Hot", "Big Pimpin' w/UGK, "Come & Get Me" & "Snoopy Track" which featured Juvenile on the hook. In 2000, Jay-Z released, what ended up being more of a collaborative CD between Jay, Beanie Sigel & Memphis Bleek, "The Dynasty: Roc La Familia". My favorite tracks were "This Can't Be Life" w/Jay, Beanie & Scarface, "Soon You'll Understand", "1-900-Hustler" w/Freeway, "Change The Game" & the 1st single, "I Just Wanna Love U". 2001 brought us The Blueprint, which clearly should bein most people's Top 3 Jay-Z albums. My favorite tracks were "Takeover", which lyrically challenged Mobb Deep's longevity & the fact that Jay-Z thought that "Illmatic" was the only CD of Nas with any relevance, which wasn't true, "Renagade" w/Eminem, "U Don't Know", "Song Cry" & "Blueprint (Momma Loves Me)". 2002 brought us the double CD, "Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse". There were many good songs on this release, but they were clearly overshadowed by the filler tracks that were on both CDs. Some of them being unbearable at times. My favorite tracks were "The Watcher 2" w/Dr. Dre, Rakim & Truth Hurts, "Poppin' Tags" w/Big Boi, Killer Mike & Twista, "Excuse Me Miss", "Hovi Baby", "Meet The Parents", "Some How, Some Way" w/Beanie Sigel & Scarface, & the remix to "U Don't Know" w/MOP. 2003 brought us what was supposed to be Jay-Z's last CDin The Black Album. I figured that Jay-Z would just take a break & come back, which he did of course, but "The Black Album" is definitely one of my favorite Jay-Z CDs of all time. My favorites included "What More Can I Say?", "Allure", "Lucifer", "Moment Of Clarity" & "My 1st Song". 3 years later, Jay-Z returned with Kingdom Come. I personally liked the CD because at the time, it seemed that was the place where Jay-Z saw himself at that point of his career. Fans expected to get another "Reasonable Doubt" 10 years later & he wasn't ready to release that type of CD at that moment.
Well ladies & gentlemen, less than a year later, that moment has arrived with "American Gangster". Jay-Z either did his research on Frank Lucas or he was able to get a very advanced copy of the movie. The reason why I say this is that Jay-Z does an A+ job of merging "Reasonable Doubt", which were the true life & times of Shawn Carter before he started rapping, the life & times of Frank Lucas & several events that happened throughout the movie "American Gangster". Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) from The Wire, who is also a DJ by the way, gets things started along with Angel Wood by providing the intro & Jay-Z takes over from there. As reviewer "Josephll" stated, "Pray" gives you a clear indication of what to expect from this release. Beyonce provides the spoken words, the lovely Cheri Dennis, along with Shannon Jones provide the haunting "Pray For Me" on the background vocals & Jay-Z gives you various moments that happened when he was a hustler & he manages to capture the moment of various scenesin the movie "American Gangster". This is definitely my favorite song on this CD. He also shows you that he was listening to Kanye's "Graduation" CD as he points out that "Everything I seen, made me Everything I Am". "American Dreamin'" clearly has an old school feel to it as the production of Diddy, yes Diddy, LV & Sean C (Grind Music) make excellent use of an oldie but goodie with Marvin Gaye's "Soon I'll Be Loving You Again". The track doesn't do as good of a job of storytelling as "Pray" did but it's still a track worth listening to. I was surprised that Jay-Z featured Lil Wayne on "Hello Brooklyn 2.0" but the more I listen to the track, the more that I like the song. It probably would have been better if Lil Wayne hadn't had 26 mixtapes & 175 guest appearances this year..lol "No Hook" has Jay-Z bringing up several events that led to the fact of why he was hustlin'in the streetsin the first place. His father basically played no rolein his life at all & the streets kept callin' until he finally answered. He does his best to characterize this as a street anthem as he says this is not for commercial usage & to not call it music. "Roc Boys (And The Winner Is...) is the 2nd single from "American Gangster" & features a "sick" horn sample that Grind Music used from "Make The Road By Walking" by The Menahan Street Band. Even your great uncle will be doing a 2 step to this track as Jay-Z celebrates all of the success from the benefits of being a hustler. "Sweet" continues where "Roc Boys" left off at a slower place as you may blink & think you're actually listening to a rap version of the "Superfly" soundtrack instead of "Amercian Gangster". This is another stellar production from Grind Music. The Neptunes stop by to bring us "I Know". Hopefully, you won't think this song is actually about a female. Jay-Z does a good job of disguising what the real meaning of the song is, whichin my opinion, is about how much people actually need "blue magic" & the affects on them if they don't have it at the current time or if they are fighting the addiction of it. I hate to keep bringing this up but Grind Music clearly have outdone themselves with the production on "Party Life". Jay-Z goes back to his "Imaginary Player" days as he officially shuts things down with "Ya Boy is Off The Wall, These other n______ is Tito". "Ignorant S____" features Beanie Sigel as Just Blaze, who has produced several Jay-Z classics & one of my all time favorite Jay-Z collaborations with Freeway & Beanie Sigel, "What We Do", samples The Isley Brothers' "Between The Sheets" for one of my favorite tracks on this CD. One reason why I like this track so much is that when you hear this sample you are use to hearing Biggie & his anthem for the ladies "Big Poppa". Just Blaze samples a different part of "Between The Sheets" to create a track that would pass for being a street anthem, especially with Jay's & Beanie's lyrics on the track. "Say Hello" is another nice track that is produced by DJ Toomp, who produced TI's "What You Know" & Kanye West's "Big Brother" from Kanye's "Graduation" CD. "Success" is produced by NO ID & Jermaine Dupri & features another track that has Jay-Z & Nas on the track. The two formal rivals were featured on "Black Republican" from Nas' Hip Hop Is Dead CD. Both of these tracks are stellar collaborations,in my opinion, but some fans expected better results from songs that featured Jay-Z & Nas. "Fallin'" is also produced by NO ID & Jermaine Dupri as Bilal joinisin to deliver some nice vocals this time around. "Fallin"" would have been perfectin the movie when Frank decided to leave the officer the turkey at his doorstep & then all of a sudden the officer's car blows up shortly thereafter. Frank Lucas knew that would come back to get himin the end. "Blue Magic" is the 1st single but oddly it appears as a bonus track. Regardless, when you hear the Neptunes track thumpingin your speakers & Jay's slick slang on the track, the last thing you will worry about is whether it's a single or a bonus track. The title track closes thing out, however, Just Blaze shouldn't have came up with a track that sounds too much like "Show 'Em What You Got".
Overall, as I stated before, Jay-Z does an A+ job of merging "Reasonable Doubt", the real life & times of Frank Lucas & the events that happened during the course of the movie "American Gangster". I personally feel that "American Gangster" is right up there with "Reasonable Doubt", "The Blueprint" & "The Black Album", which are my 3 favorite Jay-Z CDs. Lyrically, Jay-Z shows that he is still deserved to bein the conversation with the best rappers today. I am not talking about the MTV list that had Jim Jones & other non lyrical rappers that find their ways up the popularity charts these days. I am talking about legitimate lyricistsin 2007 like Jay-Z, Nas, Common, Phonte from Little Brother, Talib Kweli, etc. If you have been a fan of the majority of Jay-Z's releases, you should also add "American Gangster" to your collection.
The Emperor's wearing no clothes - By: Marvin King, 09 Jun 2008 
This is music for the easily led, easily pleased, johnny come lately losers, who only listen to what MTV dishes up & what's unjustly promotedin rap mags (commercial suck ups). I love rap, but i just can't listen to Jay z, it's just soooo contrived, commercial & formulamatic, it's just rap by numbers. But hey, the pop fans love him don't they.
You know this fella was bornin the late 60's & couldn't break through at the time of hip hop's zenith (late 80's early 90's), he just wasn't good enough for real rap fans. It was only when pop fans & European kids started listenin' to weak rap & after most decent groups had split or the main players died that Jay Z strolled on the scene with "Reasonable doubt" 1996. He was an old man at 27 years old making a debut. Tupac had just died & hip hop was at an all time low. There was a small window of opportunity for mediocrity to break through, & Jay Z took it. His music just so lame, contrived & predictable, i could honestly next guess his lines on 99 percent of tracks, it's that predictable. The guy has nothing to say that i haven't heard a million times before.
The irony of the reasonable doubt album is that most of the beats were by the brilliant dj premier & yet Jay z still sounded too one dimensional & monotonal for my likin'. Having said that i will say "Reasonable doubt" stands out as his best work, & is the closest he's ever been to making true hip hop without spittin' inane boring lyrics, only entertaining to the easily pleased & intellectual pygmies.
Since then it's been downhill all the way, but uphill with the council estate kids, hard men wannabes & the fake rap fans. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
His subject matter is just so bland, trite, lazy & repetitive(money, B..........itches,Nigs, mo fo's, blah, blah, boring, boring, oh & don't forget to mention how amazing you are Jay Z),is this really thought provoking to anyone with a brain.
So Jay Z had hit the jackpot, the 90's were the time that the music industry was throwing rap skits it every other song, & quickly music exec's realized serious money was to be made now pop audiences( Jay Z fans) had a taste for watered down rap.
There's a massive difference between pop rap & real rap & if people realize that i ain't got a problem with popsta's like Jay z & P Diddy making bucket loads of cash out of albums with generic raps & endless guest appearances from popular singers on every other song (that ain't rap). Yeah there's more sales, but only by prostituting yourself with a pseudo watered down R & B, hip hop hybrid, throwin a few mo fo's the odd Nig here & their, oh & don't forget to mention the B.......itches, just to keep the halfwits happy(yawn), &in rolls the money. Imagine Chuck D doing a duet with Beyonce or Christina Aguilera to boost sales(i think not). It makes me laugh to read that Jay Z & P Diddy are the richest guysin hip hop (allegedly 1 billion each), no they're not, cos that ain't hip hop, true hip hop fans don't buy this horses backside, robotic, formulamatic, cliche infested, R & B, tick every box for maximum financial gain hybrid rap.
The really worrying thing is that the people that buy this kindergarten rap (and there's enough of em') are actually allowed a vote' & have a sayin how the country is being run. frightening or what? Let's I Q test these freaks.
Worst still is the rap magazines (we all know who they are), these fella's should really be defining real rap from fake watered down pop, R & B nonsense, but they don't bother, they seem to bum these guys realizing there's more support from pop fans the johnny come lately & the intellectually stunted who listen to this posturing, self glorifying bull.... This means more sales & money for their mags if they suck up & sellout to the plastic rappers.
Is nobody gonna stand up, get a back bone & speak up for real rap (now underground)or is it lost to mtv & radio forever?
Even now Jay Z & P Diddy are about "40 years old", you'd think, "right, move over let the young cats in", but no, these two are not happy bringing rap down themselves but now they're washed out, they're producing the next generation of hip popsta's (when will it end). Listen for yourself, see what you think? If your a real fan of rap, you wont like this monotonal self-indulgent tripe, if you like it, you ain't a real fan of rap, just a sheep listenin' to "media darlin" FM, where commercial rap's spoon fed from a plate. Free your minds, if you're a rap fan, search for the real talent, don't be lazy & listen to what the media want you to listen to, be an individual, break free.
Keep it real, lose the wack rap. Sales & profit don't make it rap, they just mean it's popular with the masses, & that ain't the same thing.
Jay Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz move over, it's sounds tired now, i think you've got away with it for long enough. If you bought American Gangster don't forget the best of "N sync" while your at it & maybe Britney's latest to complete the collection. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. True, this is popular music , just ain't true rap though.
American Gangster's just a movie cash-in album that sounds real tired.
I can see through this album like an x-ray, & if you can't, keep watching MTV & listen to what they tell you to, cos' remember you ain't got a mind of your own. It's a shame really but if Jay Z is your thing, you don't know true hip hop an all.
Jay Z, 40 year old guy's should move over & let the true talent half yer age take over, coz' hip hop needs pushin' forward bigtime & u ain't gonna do it bro.
Hova's best since The Blueprint - By: Mr. B. Lalsing, 15 Feb 2008 I haven't heard Jay-Z on fire from start to finish since The Blueprint. Each tune is a storyin its own, with thought provoking bars backed with jazz/old-schoolesque beats. The standout tracksin my opinion are Brooklyn 2.0 (with an unstoppable Lil' Wayne providing a flawless verse), Say Hello, Success (with Nas spraying his usual fire..need I say more?), Party Life, Blue Magic & of course Roc Boys. Add this to the list of Jay-Z's best LP's; Reasonable Doubt & The Blueprint.
Doesn't live up to expectations. - By: P. Roden, 28 Jan 2008 
Handful of really good tracks - Pray, No Hook, Roc Boys....,
I was going to list all the 'ok ones' - then realised all the rest
are okay. But too many 'ok' tracks equals boring & dull.
There's too much self congratulation here to for such a mediocre effort.
To be expected with JZ i know - fine when he's on form but not here.
Overall it just doesn't live up to expectations. Certainly notin the same league as Blueprint or Reasonable Doubt. Can do better - should tried harder.
On the other hand it just may turn out to be a slow burner, so I reserve the right to change my mind !!!
