But West staggers, slices and slows the hook, turning it into a unique backing track with those Motown strings. Puffy’s guilty of this on “Bad Boys,” working everyone up with the blaring horns of “Let Me Clear My Throat” and then treating them to his own song instead. Any jackass with an 808 can just take a recognizable hook, get the crowd excited, then repurpose it for your own song.
Sampling an R&B classic like the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” is a bold move for a producer. The results were powerful: catchy beats that evoked the soulful sentiments of prior generations, while still providing ample room for Jigga to work his lyrical magic.Ĭonsider the smash single “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”: Liking what he heard, Jay-Z gave him more tracks to work with on The Blueprint. Dynasty was intended to be a showcase for Jay-Z’s indie label Roc-a-Fella Records, but Jay-Z had to step up when Beanie Siegel and Memphis Bleek proved unable to carry an album on their name alone. West had already mixed a track on 2000’s The Dynasty: Roc la Familia. For his sixth studio album, Jay-Z found that producer, a young man from Chicago named Kanye West. The strength of the samples depends on the strength of your producer, though. To put New York back on the map would take a classic album, one that revived the East Coast technique of funky samples with profound rhymes. But Jay-Z had the mainstream success, stepping up with several MTV-friendly hits and embracing the glamorous aspects of the gangsta lifestyle. Nas had the critical depth, having produced one of the most acclaimed hip hop albums of all time just a few months before Biggie’s own Ready to Die came out. And by critical consensus, attention fell on the two most prominent MCs in New York: Jay-Z and Nas. Someone needed to step up and become unofficial chairman of the East Coast once more. The shadow of Biggie’s absence was growing more and more notable. And while “I Just Wanna Love You (Give It to Me)” was certainly catchy, you could only say it evoked childhood memories if you were a child while listening to it. East Coast was all about proficient rhymes over memorable tracks, meant to call up one’s childhood while adding a new lyrical sentiment. And while sampling didn’t die out in the late 90s, its fade from the East Coast sound was particularly notable. The birth of hip hop, though, is sampling, not the studio. It’s tough to imagine the Dirty South producing something as bittersweet and optimistic as “Juicy” in the mid 90s, at least while adhering to the Dirty South sound. And (this is as much personal preference speaking as objective Overthought have at it in the comments) it limits the range of emotional responses that hip hop can evoke. While there’s nothing wrong with stomping rhythms and artificial horns, it does contribute toward all hip hop sounding alike. Consider Jay-Z’s first big hit, “Big Pimpin’.” Behind such uber-producers as Timbaland and the Neptunes, the Dirty South was known for brassy, synthetic sounds and grungy beats.Įven rappers north of Hotlanta adopted this sound. It was during this time that Southern hip hop, a/k/a Dirty South, rose to prominence. and Tupac Shakur left a power vacuum in the world of hip hop. So while the rest of the world reflects on loss, we’re going to reflect on triumph, picking apart what could have been Jay-Z’s funeral dirge and realizing why it catapulted him to the success he enjoys today.Ĭast your mind back to the late 90s. And it was recognized as such at the time, receiving the coveted five mics from The Source. It is widely considered one of Jay-Z’s best albums, if not his best outright. Who was lining up outside the record store for Jigga’s latest when fighter jets were buzzing Manhattan?Īnd yet The Blueprint not only did well, considering its unfortunate release date, it thrived. Given the tremendous cultural upheaval America’s been through since then, it’s hard to imagine anything born on the same day lasting. It also marked 10 years since the release of Jay-Z’s sixth album, The Blueprint. This past Sunday saw a happier anniversary than the attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
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