Which is also why 4:44 was so great as he could see and watch the rap game from an outside perspective and taking more of a "teacher"-role dropping wisdom instead wanting to be nr 1.

He came to terms with his legacy and doesn't need to prove anything anymore. I see Nas heading the same route but Eminem stuck somewhere in between.

Discuss

Ur brain always work like this?

eminem is trash

This rap fanfic ?

Rap game, crack game, ain’t that different ya know

Hmm

this is actually a good thread

It might be true, 4:44 was definitely the right approach for him at that point (whatever the perspective he had actually was)

this is why we can't have good things!

Dinner with Jay-Z

No it isn't op is just extrapolating nonsense from the fact Jay z went from a trendy pseudoart album to a mature classically inspired rap album

“Work” is not the word id use

Yeah let's just forget the fact that he became a billionaire between those two albums and act like music is not a secondary (probably not even that) priority for him nowadays.

Kamikaze was better than anything his peers (Jay and Nas) have dropped since their primes

You understand that your post implies Jay z cared about his music before mchg right

I'm surprised you're not roasted for this take yet 😂

Jokes aside as more of an Em Stan I prefer 4:44 over Kamikaze but rest of Jay solo albums since '09 are just eh.

I’m surprised too. I really fw Kamikaze tho. Not all the way through but the standout tracks are really good imo

Lmao good one op

Yes I am fully aware of that, and I think he did care about music to a bigger extent than what he does now.

Look at the producers and artists he got for that album (Frank, JT, Nas, Ross, Beyonce, Pharrell, Timbaland, Mike Will, Boi-1da.. etc) and compare it to 4:44. It was also only two years after he and Ye dropped WTT, so yes he did care a lot more about music at that time.

Now I'm not saying it was it was his top priority back then either, obviously it wasn't and he didn't need to prove anything by then. But considering he has a family now, officially is a billionaire etc, I do think that album was the "last one" we got from him while also "in the game". That's just my take on it.