Back when they did matter, and successful recording artists could actually get off selling records, the Jiggaman sold four million copies of Vol. That’s nothing you could prove in arbitrary measurements like record sales, but nobody knows what those are anymore anyway. In terms of profile, Jay-Z is bigger now than he was then, especially in terms of being known to those outside of rap culture across multiple generations. Was he promoting on the low, or did he already know? I think it was very important to him to add another notch on his bedpost to show different sides of his music." He wanted to show himself in a serious light, in a respectable light. In Fall ’01, before anyone witnessed Jigga rock with The Roots, Questlove was teasing out thoughts to MTV News, "People have this preconceived image of Jay-Z: 'What was it like working with a jiggy rapper?' Usually, I work with some artist and they're like, 'Yo, it has to be the way it is on the album.' He wanted to experiment. That line from the God MC always sounded like some fly-if-you-buy bullshit to me.īut with Jay as an arbiter of cool, with a BIG strain of rap nerd beneath, while trying to straddle an invisible fence between commoners and Common listeners who thought they were special on Unplugged, Hov found proper assistance to finesse that line of bullshit into sounding something like common sense. “ Truthfully,” I never believed Jay-Z would, then or now, “ rather be Talib Kweli.” “ Is it too early to mourn, is it too late to ride?” The rap game’s then-leader who’d go on to father three with the lead singer from Destiny’s Child knows a thing or two about fate or time. Has it really been twenty damn years since this moment?Īn event reinforcing (pun intended) the takeover of The Blueprint (2001), an NYC album that went on to accidentally define the entire world for a period of time.ĭropping during the height of Jay-Z’s “artistic” prime, on the same day the Twin Towers did, ushering in decades of wartime. The best thing about this listenable affair is that it may underline the musical proficiency of the Roots to those a little too enamoured by Jay-Z's iced-out wrists.For those getting grown around the time, this live performance first aired on a cable channel still then featuring a somewhat reasonable amount of music in its television, this is a time-capsule catapulting you back into that Fall ‘01 vortex. The Philly-based hip-hop crew imbue the affair with tangible soul and Jaguar Wright, who signed to their label Motive, delivers a shining vocal performance on standout "Heart Of the City" that even an appearance by Mary J. Given Nas's recent heated words on a New York radio station concerning the Roots, one can determine he wasn't too thrilled. State Of Mind" and Mobb Depp's "Shook Ones Pt.II" as Jay-Z tears into them and effortlessly slides back into the song's original foundation. Their interpretation of the much discussed Mobb Deep/Nas diss track "Takeover" shows them skilfully weaving timely interpolations of Nas's "N.Y. While Jay-Z relaxes, the Roots grab the spotlight. But the lounge setting seems to work well for Jigga and his laidback demeanour as he trots out a set heavily tipped to last year's The Blueprint and bite-size chunks of his biggest hits. After all, Jay-Z is a notoriously lacklustre stage performer, while the dopeness of the Roots' live stage show has been extensively documented. The only thing more surprising than the fact that Jay-Z is rocking a Che Guevera shirt on the cover is that this "unplugged" project, an intriguing collaboration with the Roots, works so well.
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