I've never understood the hate for this album. I was jogging to it yesterday and every song was hitting.

Lets break down each song

Holy Grail - Jay is talking about the correlation between being rich and famous to still dealing with real life issues. Very strong opener.

Picasso Baby - One of Tim's best beats. The switch up takes it to another level.

Tom Ford - Banger

FWMYKIGI - Banger

Oceans - Such an ambitious song. It feels like you're on a boat. Jay was spitting.

FUTW - Nice mellow song. Jay is just spitting bars

Somewhereinamerica - This is a bop. Jay is goin in on this.

Crown - Banger

Heaven - This song runs a little long and is very dense. I can see how people tune this out, but Jay is stilll spitting

Part II - Nice song to bump with your girl

Beach Is Better - Banger

BBC - Nice vacation yacht song. Not meant to be a cypher.

Jay-Z Blue - Very mature song that gives insight into Jay's mindset as a father at the time

La Familia - Fun bop. Jay is just talking ish.

Nickels and Dimes - Strong closer to this album. Sums it up nicely.

Flow wise and hook wise it’s another Jay record, lyrically it’s just not up to par with his discography.

Good beats, Jay verses sound phoned in however

I like it more now but its still some songs i dont like

i used to play Beach is Better in high school when i was walking from class to class perfect length for it

Every single Jay x Nas song is amazing

Nope

Yes lotta good tracks! Bottom half of jays discog

Yes

It’s a classic

why do yall keep bringing up this album lol?

Need the full Beach is Better

I think it’s a top 5 Jay record honestly

Only real poon slayers understand

it just happens when ur debut to the peak of ur career is damn near flawless

we're gonna say the same about tlop and donda

i have a lot of authentic criticism for those records but i go back and it kinda washes away sometimes

word 2

Because I don’t think it got a far chance

People were mad at the Samsung deal

Probably the best MBDTF/WTT knockoff project.

Not regularly but it slaps

People hate on this album cause they’re so in love with Jay’s older s***. I love this album personally. Bumped it a lot when it dropped still sometimes here and there

lmao @op I was running one day listening to it too and I was like damn these songs are hard as hell

It felt like the most expensive beats money could buy but idk it felt awkward and lazy

Like hov didn’t quite perfect his laid back “I made it” aesthetic.

Felt a little forced on the artsy side as well(yes I know, hov was into art years before he grew his hair out)

Samsung deal at the time created a lot of hate, plus we waited years for a Hov album and he made us wait through 2 minutes of some mid JT before hearing his voice lol

Never understood when people said he was biting Ye but I revisited recently and it was so obvious lol I really don’t understand how I didn’t catch it before

From the cover, Marina Abramovic in the Picasso Baby vid, some of the song titles (Heaven, Holy Grail, Picasso Baby, Crown). Even his flow on some of the songs felt like he was in his post-WTT bag

Just seemed like a Ye album without Ye. It was a decent project but a lot of it felt uninspired

This