I think Vol 1 is highly underrated and better as a whole than Vol 2. Unfortunately, Sunshine and (especially) I Know What Girls Like really disrupt the flow of the album.
444.tidal.com Use "Sprint" as the code and get a free legal download of the album without having tidal!
Vol.2 is just so long. There's one hell of a single album in there, but like most double albums (for me), the two hour commitment isn't worth it.
I have posted about this album in the Hip Hop thread before, so I'll just repeat it here: 4:44 is amazing. Really, really good. It's exactly what I wanted from Jay. It's my favorite relesse of his since The Black Album. I don't understand some of the backlash the production is getting. I think it's great and exactly what this album needed. No I.D. is a genious. There is also a lot of praise for the production out there though so apparently it's divisive. Also, this is great:
Anybody else able to do this? Every time I click the link it just redirects me back to the tidal homepage : (
Jay definitely sounds conversational here. The lyrics aren't bad (although I side-eyed that line in "The Story of OJ" pretty hard). I just think it's funny how mismatched the energy feels here...the beats are at like, a 9, and Jay sounds like he's at a 6 lol Regardless, this is good and will probably continue to grow on me. That "Smile" beat is pure sunshine
take my opinion with a grain of salt considering I just listened to my first full jay z album last month (reasonable doubt), but I love this. The length of the album makes for perfect listening. His lyrics are on point pretty much through the whole thing.
Jay's like my #2 of all time and I love it too. Probably number four on my list of favorite Jay Z albums, which doesn't sound impressive, but it is, haha.
I'm enjoying it a lot too. Jay has been one of my favorite rappers since The Blueprint came out. I'll admit that most of his albums have some filler on them, but I enjoy the majority of all of them. It's too early for me to properly place this, but it's definitely in the top half of his discography. Behind RD, Blueprint, Black Album, and American Gangster for sure, but might sit solidly at number 5.
I want to take this opportunity to say Streets Is Watching is an underrated Jay Z album that isn't actually a Jay Z album