Unless you’ve been living under Chris Rock, crack rock, or rock (paper, scissors), you know that Jay-Z has a new album coming out on November 6 entitled American Gangster. Said to be inspired by the identically titled movie coming out November 2nd starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, Jay has allegedly harkened back to his recently questioned drug dealer past and revisited the emotions and trappings of a drug dealer success story.

I like writing pseudo-critic-like. Except I don’t. Which is why I hate that last sentence up there. Oy vey.

L’chaim!

So Jay has a new ablum coming out and allegedly watching the rise and fall of Frank Lucas, one of Harlem’s most notorious motherfuckers, gave rise to Jay’s latent creative spirits. Lucky us since his last attempt at creative spirit gave us Kingdom Come. And we all know how that one ended. In case you don’t though, it ended bad. Though I did like some songs, its just that the bad songs were quite possibly the worst of his career.

And lest we forget, he did make The Blueprint 2 which had like a gazillion wack joints on it. Either way, after Kingdom Come, most of us are a little skeptical about this new album for a few reasons. For one, I HATE(d) Blue Magic. I know some folks love that song.

Two, Puffy is responsible for at least 6 songs on this album. Now that’s not to say that Puffy-induced works haven’t been classic. It’s just to say that Puffy-induced works haven’t been classic since a certain now-waxed-out figure was blocka-blocka’d in Los Angeles.

R.I.P. Christopher Wallace.

Then the snippets of American Gangster hit the net and I’ll be honest and say I was less than enthused. In convo’s with my boy I said I’d reserve judgement until I could hear the whole songs because a snippet really doesn’t give you all you need to know to judge something, though I was even less excited after hearing them.

What a difference a day makes. Word to Esther Phillips. It appears that some sap leaked that damn Jay album onto the net (minus two songs, “Ignorant Shit” and “Party Life”). So like every other nigga, I got it and listened sat outside on the curb while some fellow decided to play the entire album over and over again long enough for me to accurately review and ingrain the songs in my mind.

Can I say I love this album? I can? Good. I love this album. This is some of that real hip-hop shit that folks have been waiting for Jay to make for a while. None of this is really radio-friendly, not even the two Neptune’s songs. Go figure?! So let’s discuss shall we?

Here’s the rundown. Thirteen “album” cuts and two “bonus” cuts. Six joints by Puffy and his new Hittmen Sean C. and LV (so I suppose that means Sean C and LV produced them and Puffy came in and hit a button, said, “take that, take that” and wham, he’s the producer), two tracks by the combo of No ID and Jermaine Dupri (I had no clue No ID was on So So Def), one DJ Toomp track, one Neptunes album cut, some nigga named Bigg D (pause) and one Just Blaze cut. Features include Lil Wayne on a song called “Hello Brooklyn 2.0″ (WTF?) and Beanie Sigel on “Ignorant Shit”. And the immortal Nas.

I’ll just go track by track since I’m starting to bore myself.

“Intro”

Idris Elba is on this. Who’d a thunk just a few short years ago that gotdamn Idris Elba aka Stringer Bell would be the most indemand motherfucker in the Black community? Not me. All the dudes want to be him and all the women want to fuck him. I’m well on my way, he was studying Economics at a community college in Baltimore and I got a degree from a prestgious school in Atlanta. But I live close to Baltimore (enough, anyway) so I can go get that Associates! By the way, I don’t care for this, it’s an intro.

“Pray” (Produced by Puffy, Sean C, LV)

I presume this is Beyonce “praying” on this joint. Eh…I’ll pass. In fact, I don’t care for the first 4 tracks as a whole. All produced by Puffy and ‘nem. I wonder what it feels like to “produce” with Puffy knowing nobody is going to care who you are because you’re working with P. “I added a bell so I’m a producer” Diddy.

“American Gangster” (Produced by Puffy, Sean C, LV)

Yeah, honestly, I listen to this shit so infrequently I don’t even remember what it sounds like. That’s how much I don’t like it. My listening starts at track 5 and this is track 3. Another Puffy ass-sandwich.

“No Hook”(produced by Puffy, Sean C., LV)

But you so needed one. Here’s a good time to mention that the whole “no hook” thing is an over-arching theme on this album. There are no conventional catchy hooks a la everything post Reasonable Doubt. No hooks = hip-hop.

“Hello Brooklyn 2.0″ featuring Lil Weeziana aka Weezy F. Baby (please say the Baby) (produced by Bigg D)

This was apparently a song for The Carter III but Jay heard it thru his old homeboys who now manage Lil Wayne and Jay wanted it. This shit knocks so hard. It’s all 808 knock and old school feelin’. Lil Wayne actually is kind of good as hell on this joint. Though he ain’t rapping, more like sinapping. Not quite singing, not quite rapping. Sinapping. Or Ringing if it suits you. Though ringing might imply he’s a phone. And he’s so not a phone.

“Roc Boys”

Fuckin’ amazing joint where Jay pays homage to all the unheralded elements of the drug game, namely the Duffle bag which has made SUCH the come up this year. Between this song and the “Duffle Bag” song, we should see Duffle bag sales go up tremendously in the next quarter. Yay for drug paraphanelia! The horns on this song are everybit as scrumptious as pie. And Americans love pie. This is one of the Puffy joints that is fire.

“Sweet” (produced by Puffy, Sean C, LV)

Another Hittmen joint (they got like all the first songs save the joint with Lil Wayne). I should not here that this LV is not the fat nigga that was singing with Coolio on “Gangster’s Paradise” but another LV. Apparently L and V are just popular letters. Word to the word Love. And Live. Live Love. Word. Life. This joint bangs like Ricky Martin. Simply, it’s sweet. Has some real 70’s blaxploitation sound to it. Just listen. Or if you’re Musiq and can’t spell or use a space bar, jusslissen.

“I Know” (produced by Pharrell)

Strangely subdued for a Neptunes/Pharrell joint. It doesn’t sound radiofriendly despite sounding radiofriendly, if that makes any sense. Hmm, I just re-read that. It doesn’t make any sense but I’m sticking by it. Here’s an example, in college, me and my boy used to always see this girl who had all the elements of a fine chick (nice hair, nice skintone, nice body, nice eyes) but somehow she just wasn’t fine. We used to call her “All For Nothing”. This beat has all the usual Neptunes radio hit elements but its still not radio. It however is fuckin’ hot in a chimey type of way. Ironically entitled “I Know” since I don’t know what he’s talking about on it since I never really listen, I just skim thru it. Teehee.

“Say Hello” (produced by DJ Toomp)

This shit bangs so hard. Strangely (I guess not considering its DJ Toomp) it sounds similar to “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” except more pleasant in scope. I must say that Toomp is a pretty diverse producer. And he’s a guaranteed hitmaker. T.I.? You listening? When you get ot of jail in 2017, call Toomp back up for your comeback album.

Now is a good place to mention, this album gets progressively better as it goes along. It’s like each joint gets that much more focused lyrically and that much better sonically. That’s some damn good sequencing Jay. Damn good.

“Success” featuring Nas (produced by No ID and Jermaine Dupri)

Dude…this might be one of the best hip-hop songs to come out in years. This beat is uber-fucking ridiculous. And simple too. Simple 4 bar loop. Jay focused as THE fuck and speaking about all the niggas (DeHaven, Calvin “Klein” Bacote) who’ve been speaking about him over the past few months. Fuck them niggas. In fact, he shits on you niggas. Jay thinks success sucks cuz of the stress and he likes the taste of Ace of Spades. I’ve never even had Moet Rose. Guess I’m not successful. Jay and Nas are both great on this shit. They need to do an album together of straight hip-hop banger like this. For real. I’ve had this shit on repeat The dude who’s been playing this out of his car while I listened on the curb has had this shit on repeat for days.

“Fallin’” (produced by Jermaine Dupri and No I.D.)

Despite the beat-jacking accusation by Ski Beatz (of “Dead Presidents” and Camp Lo) fame, this beat is pretty good though I think “Success” is hands down the best shit on the album. Jay discusses the downfall of the drug dealer. Man, being a drug dealer sounds like it sucks. For reals. Word to hip-hop. Wonder why so many niggas do it? Hmm…me no know.

All in all this album is solid like a motherfucker. Every needs this joint to hear Jay back in the clutches of what he does best, speaking from the hustler’s end, not the end of the dude staring at pieces of art in a gallery in Paris. Hell, most niggas can’t tell you where Paris is on a map, nevermind not ever going to an art gallery.

And seriously, I get Gwynneth Paltrow and the Kill Bill chick mixed up all the time. This album ain’t classic, but it’s a banger.

Cop that shit.

Word.Life.