Jay-Z American Gangster

[bubbachuck]

Re: Jay-Z American Gangster

I like it top to bottom... jay kills it on every track. Gotta love it!

[ipitythafool25]

Re: Jay-Z American Gangster

this is not my review but I pretty much agree on all points made in this...to me this is a great cd that accomplishes what jay was trying to do with it...very long read




I'm not the biggest hov fan but my opinion on this album is that its his 2nd best next to his very 1st album. This really plays like a story right through except for ignorant **** for me but the track titles are pretty blatant so you can pick it up real quick.


Pray - This the young hov basically observing whats going on in his surrondings... Seeing the realities of the streets in his house...


"And that Al Green plays
I see my mother's afro
As Mama taps her toes, as she rolls her J's
And my papa just left the house
in search of the killer of my Uncle Ray
And she's trying to calm her nerves
As I observe this is just one day"


even while he's at school....


"As I head to my homeroom
I observe the ruins
Dope needles on the ground
I hear a car go, "Vroom"
Drug dealer in the BM with the top down
As the girls start to giggle
I ask, "Why you laugh?"
They say, "You're too little"
"One day you'll understand
when you become a man
'bout things you have to get you"


and while his in his neighborhood...


"I just left school
The same BM is pulled over by the boys dressed blue
They had their guns drawn
Screaming, "Just move"
"Or is there something else you suggest we can do?"
He made his way to the trunk
Opened it like, "Huh?"
A treasure chest was removed
Cops said he'll be back next month
What we called corrupt, he calls payin dues"

A young and imprssionable mind that he has, is fascinated by this hustler doing crime and getting away with it and sees himself doing this one day. This life is alluring and its taking place all around him so he sees it as normal...


"I ain't choose this life, this life chose me
Around here it's the **** that you just do"
"Anywhere there's oppression
The drug profession
flourishes like beverages
Refreshing, ahhh! Sweet taste of sin
Everything I seen, made me everything I am"


American Dreaming - this is teenage hov and his friend, presumely after they've finished h.s. probably didn't do well enough to get into the universities outside of the city, smoking weed talking and daydreaming about what they want out of life now...


"This is the **** you dream about with the homie steamin out
Back-to-back, backin them Beemers out
Seems as our, plans to get a grand
Then go off to college, didn't pan or even out
We need it now, we need a town
We need a place to pitch, we need a mound"


the hustle game is still out there and is still alluring to him and sees that as way to get what he wants now.... the girls, the cash, the cars...


"I got, dreams of baggin sni-dow, the size of pil-lows
I see pies everytime my eyes cli-dose
I see rides, sixes, I gotta get those"


but they don't have any connections to the drug game...


"Now see the life's right there, and it seems right there
It's not quite near, and it's not like we're
professionals, movin the decimals
Know where to cop? Nah! Got a connect? No
Who in the F knows how to be successful"

so they have to seek it out...
"Step one in this process, scramble up in your projects
And head to the heights where big coke is processed
You gotta convince 'em that you're not from the precinct
Please speak slow cause he no speaky no english"


After finally finding it, the connect basically pre-warns him about the life he's entering while hoping hov is succesfull...


"You're now in a game where only time can tell
Survive the droughts, I wish you well - hold up
Survive the droughts? I wish you well?
How sick am I? I wish you health
I wish you wheels, I wish you wealth
I wish you insight so you could see for yourself
You could see the signs when the jackers is schemin
And the cops is comin, you could read they mind
You could see from behind, you could redefine
the game as we know it, one dream at a time"


Hello Brooklyn 2.0 - Now he is hustling drugs and is proud of where he came from because its where he learned about the hustle and it taught him how to hustle and he has since gone off to other places like virginia to make a living but he always remembers bk...


"Like a mama you birth me, Brooklyn you nursed me
Schooled me with hard knocks, better than Berkeley
They said you murked me, by the time I was twenty one
That **** disturbed me, but you never hurt me
Hello Brooklyn, if we had a daughter
Guess what I'm a call her, Brooklyn Carter
When I left you for Virginia, it didn't offend ya
Cause you know I only stepped out to get dinner
And I'm eatin, so much i bought extra"


Lil' Wayne kind of throws off the track but it defintely goes with the story and production being that he is a young man at this point listening to hiphop and this samples a Beastie Boys track by the same name i think not really sure...but he talks about his hometown and the things that happen out there while shouting out some hoods in bk....


"Brooklyn we crazy, look how you made me
Razor blades in my mouth walkin 'round behavin
Or demented black hoodies and Timberlanded
Always schemin you see the green on that niggas pendant
Hello Brooklyn, you bad influence look what you had me doin
But I ain't mad at you, look at my attitude
It says my life too real, check out my ice grill
Baby I'm cold as ice, like I'm from Brownsville
But my Bed's in the Stuy so while I Flatten your Bush
Till we smoke a C.I. what up to the boy B.I.
You know I handle B.I. I dont half step on a Kane
Ask the dreads 'bout I, how you gwaan so?
She like it hardcore, So I grind slow
Iller than Albee Square Mall back in the 9-0"


if you 21, 22 and up u could remember when Fulton Street Mall was called Albee Square Mall i remember when the Macy's was the A&S Department Store... memories...


No Hook - Now Hov is getting money and its just starting to sink into his mind that he's a drug dealer... he has to let his family konw what it is he's doing on there and why he's doing it... and why he's not going back to a regular life....


"Poor me, dad was gone, finally got my dad back
Liver bad, he wouldn't live long, they snatched my dad back
God as I never had that, streets was my second home
Welcomed me with open arms provided a place to crash at
A place to study math at, matter of fact, I learned it all
Burned it all, this music is where I bury the ashes at
Flash back, not having much, not having that"


"Stay outta trouble, momma said, as momma sighed
Her fear her youngest son be a victim of homicide
But I gotta get you outta here momma, or I'mma die
...inside
And either way, you lose me momma so let loose of me
I got the rain our direction will soon change
To live and die in N-Y in the hustle game
Hustle caine, hustle clothes, I hustle music
But hustle hard in any hustle that you pick
Skinny *****, toothpick, but, but I do lift
Weight like I'm using, rhoids, Rolls, Royce keep my movements
Smooth while manuevering, through all the maneur in
The sewer that I grew up in
Choices, we make trying to escape"


mixed with what was going on wth dehaven and the youtube situation he seems to allude to a reason why he and dehaven have had a falling out... who knows if the lyrics are talking about the videos or something else personal... its all on the listener to decide...


"I'mma follow the rules no matter how much time I'mma get
I'mma live and die with the decisions that I'mma pick
So **** Dehaven for caving, that's why we don't speak
Made men ain't supposed to make statements
End of the story, I followed the code, cracked the safe
Other niggas ain't in the game so they practice hate
Leave that boy Hov alone, why don't cha?
You don't have to if you don't want to but don't say I didn't warn ya"


Roc Boys - The production and the lyrics are pretty celebratory. At this point he is enjoying the fruits of drug dealing. He got the cars the broads the money plus more feeling grateful of the entire situation he's proud he finally made it...


"First of all I wan' thank my connect
The most important person with all due respect
Thanks for to duffle bag, the brown paper bag
The Nike shoe box for holding all this cash
Boys in blue who put greed before the badge
The first pusher whoever made the stash"


"Thanks to all the hustlers
And most importantly you, the customer"


"Let ya hair down baby, I just hit a score
Pick any place on the planet, pick a shore...
Pick a time, lets pick apart some stores
Pick a weekend for freaking for figure fours
I figure frauds never hit a lick before
So they don't know the feeling when them things get across
Put ya hand out the window, feel the force
Feel the Porsche, hit the frost
Ice cold, jewels got no flaws
Drop got no top, you on the top floor"


Mazel tav, it's a celebration bitches!!!!!


Sweet - Still celebrating his success and how sweet it is (kind of a corny pun,it wasn't intended) he starts to see that its wrong but he accepts it because its the life he has become to know...


"Though I wish you could separte the two things/ I can not so my answer to you remains/ I could walk down the hall of mirrors in Versailles/and be so satisfied when I look myself in the eyes"


"Couple of mistakes here and there/not always right/But I'm always real/thats how I sleep a night"


taking from the scene in the movie with T.I. and Denzel where he says " I wanna be like you Uncle Frank", Hov starts it of with...


"Still there's pain....If would've grow up to be a doctor my nephews would grow up to do the same"


And it may not be what you call perfect but its my life....he's hustling but he feels un remorsefull because the fast life is blinding him.... theres more quotables but i gotta get to the next track cuz sweet is probably my fav on the album.....


I Know - basically at this point in the story, Jay is basically addicted to the life just like the addicts he's supplying...


"Cold sweats occur when I'm not with her
My presence is a must, must-must
Bonita Applebum, I gotta put you on
If I didn't when we cuttin', the feeling would be too strong
In any form, I'm giving you sweet dreams
That Sugar Hill, she call me her sweet thing
That Black Rain that take away your pain
Just for one night, baby, take me in vein
Now that feelin' got you trippin'
You no wanna feel no different
Said lust has got you itchin'
All wide open and its' drippin'
I know what you like, I am your prescription
I'm your physician, I'm your addiction"


He basically personalizes the drug he is selling into a woman that he doesn't want to let go of...


"Don't ever leave me
Don't ever let 'em tell you that you'll never need me
My China White, 'til we D.O.A.
Its Montega forever, baby, lets get away"


Party Life - Now he meets a woman thats intriguing and attractive, just like in the movie when Densels character meets his girl, and courts her like a major player would....


"Your boy's "Off the Wall" these other niggaz is Tito"


he gets the girl of course and shows her the finer things in life while shunning anybody who makes an attempt to try to get his girl....


"I'm on the bra strap, she's on my dick
Ain't nothin' wrong with that, that's my biiitch!
I be the boss of that, I'm on her shiiit
So all you niggaz fall back, I'll split ya wiiig
She's my little quarterback - ya dig?
Cause I'm all that in the sack, yeah, ya dig?
I spoiled her, foiled it if you fakin jax
She's used to million dollar vacations
**** y'all gon' do with that?"


Ignorant **** - I only feel that it doesn't totally fit in with the story because I heard ths track in 2004, but it does at the same time because at this point Hov just doesn't give a **** anymore...


"When them tops come down, chicks tops come down
Like when them shots come out, make cops come around
When them blocks come out I can wake up a small town
Finish off the block then I make my mall rounds
Stares get exchanged then the fifth come out
The tough guy disappear, then the bitch come out
"That's him!" I'm usually what they whisper 'bout
Either what chick he with, or his chip amount"
He still enjoying the life but things are getting a little bit shaky now.... cuz the haters are out the cops are watching.....
"I'm so bossy, bitch get off me
Trick get off me, you can't get **** off me
I'm so flossy, no 6's or Sprees
Laid back, Maybachs, don't even talk to me"


Beanie Sigel lends a hand with a quick 8 bars that describes the attitude that Hov's character has at this point...


"Take off the cuffs, unlock the gate
It's that ignorant ***** that you love to hate
The oh-seven Ice Cube, B. Sig' so rude
Tell a trick get these nuts, eat dick like food
Now see if I care if this verse get aired
Even if you mute it, the curse is there, yeah
I'm so rauncy, bitch get off me
Keep my flea collar on, you lil' ticks get off me"


Say Hello - At this point he has accepted that what he does is hated and society at large doesn't agree with what he does hence the title and hook which is inspired by the famous scene in Scarface...


"Say hello, to the bad guy..they say I'm a bad guy
I come from the bottom, but now I'm mad fly
They say I'm a menace..that's the picture they paint
They say a lot about me, let me tell you what I ain't"
of course in true form he just doesn't give a ****...
"They sayin, I'm a bad guy, why's that?
Cause when my back's against the wall, ***** I react
Secretly though, I know you admire that
You wish you had the balls to fire back, brrrap"


the track sounds like it could've been on Life After Death... he even mentions dark-skinned Jermaine from the track "You're Nobody ('Till Sombody Kills You)"


"'Member dark-skinned Jermaine
Who swayed in the rain, we sorta kinda the same
'Cept, I'm no lame, and you gonna know my name
Before I go the world gon' feel my pain"

continuing to express the fact that its his life and he aint going back....


"Can't complain 'bout what they ain't gon' give ya
That ain't gon' get ya ****, might as well give up
Or get up, get out and get somethin *****
Get a job my *****, or get to dumpin"


at this point he feels he not doing by choice anymore, but he has no other choice but to do it....


"We ain't thugs for the sake of just bein thugs
Nobody do that where we grew at, ***** duh
The poverty line we not above
So I come to mask and gloves cause we ain't feelin the love
We ain't doin crime for the sake of doin crimes
We movin dimes cause we ain't doin fine
One out of three of us is locked up doin time
You know what this type of **** can do to a ***** moms
My mind on my money, money on my mind
If you owe me ten dollars you ain't givin me nine
Y'all ain't give me 40 acres and a mule
So I got my glock 40 now I'm cool"


Success - The intro to track is a scene form the movie,which if you seen, sets the mode for the song at this point the success is bittersweet...


"I use to give a ****, now I give a **** less
What do I think of success?... it sucks
to much stress I guess I blew up quick
'Cause friends I grew up with
See me as a pre'me but I'm not and my nuts big
I don't know what the fuss Is, my career is illustrious
My rep is impeccable; I'm not to be ****ed with"
"I use to give a ****, now I don't give a **** more
Truth be told I had more fun when I was piss poor
I'm pissed off, and this success song is about
a bunch a niggas acting like bitches with big mouths
All this stress, all I got is this big house
Couple of cars, I don't bring half of them ****s out
All of this ace of spade I drank just to piss out
I mean I like the taste coulda saved myself 6 hours"


from the scene in the movie this is after Denzel's character and his wife were shot at and Denzel getting hit in his arm protecting his wife.... he was upset and wanted to kill any and everybody who could've had anything to do with it.... Hov kind of expresses the emotions and things that weren't seen in the movie...


"I'm way to important to be talking about extorting
Asking me for a portion is like asking for a coffin
Broad daylight I'll off your on switch
You’re not to bright, goodnight long kiss
bye bye my reply... BLAH, BLAH
Blast burner then pass burner to Tye-Tye
Finish my breakfast, why?
I got an appetite for destruction and you're a small fry
Now where was I?"


Nas comes and gives the best featured verse, and only full length, on the album describing his own bittersweet success...


"Success, McLaren, women staring
My villain appearance sacred blood of a king
and my vein ain't spilling
Ghetto Othello, Sugar Hill Romello
Camaro driven, I climax from paper
and ask why is life worth living?
Is it to hunt for the **** that you want?
To receive's great, but I lust giving"
"They gotta brag about the FEDS young man
Old cribs I sold, y'all drive by like monuments
Google Earth Nas, I got flats in other continents
Worst enemies wanna be my best friends
Best friends wanna be enemies like Daz was in
But I don't give a **** walk inside the lions den
Take everybody’s chips, about to cash them in"


crack ladies & gentleman this is a better collab with these 2 guys... they didn't go in on black republicans like this track....


Fallin' - This is the end for Hov. He finally got caught, he's in jail and he's looking back at the mistakes he made, the things he did that got him there that is and isn't remorsefull for....


"The irony of selling drugs
Is sort of like you using it
Guess it's two sides to what
Substance abuse is
Can't stop won't stop
Addicted to this new ****
Brand new convertibles
I'm so roofless
Front row fight night
See how big my tube is
**** HD *****
See how clear my view is?"


his old girlfriend in his old life is doing great for her self...the girl that was there when he had it is gone because he's in jail....


"Now let's pray that arm candy
That you left ya ex for stay down and come in handy
Cause come January it gets cold
When the letters start to slow
And ya commissary low
And lawyers screams appeal
Only thinking about a bill
And ya chances are nil
Damn gravity's ill"


he's pretty has to come to grips that he is in jail now and everything caught up to him...


"And ya can't get up
All you do is push-up
Pull-up sit-up"


"And ya arm candy sweet on em'and the women
That you left for this heffer got a college degree coming
Bad news keeps comin'
Hard to keep something on ya stomach
Your sick 'bout what ya life is becoming"


He's gotten older in jail and has he final realization that he'll never get that life back....


"But your use-to's has-beens
Ragging bad 'bout all the new dudes
Talking tough on the Youtube
Bout what you use to do
But that's old school to the new crew
They doin' numbers like Sudoku
There're the new you
And it's damn near inevitable
They'll experience deja vu too
Fight and you'll never survive
Run and you'll never escape
So just fall for Grace"


Damn this album plays as a whole story separate but somehow intertwined with the movie. Jay gives you the ups and downs of selling drugs. Regardless how good or smart or slick you are, eventually, you end up losing in the game because you can't win either way. You either die or go to jail, in a way in jail you dead because you have no life there.

[CMH]

Re: Jay-Z American Gangster

Jay gives you the ups and downs of selling drugs. Regardless how good or smart or slick you are, eventually, you end up losing in the game because you can't win either way. You either die or go to jail, in a way in jail you dead because you have no life there.

Really? Because Jay seems to be doing quite well for himself.

[the_future420]

Re: Jay-Z American Gangster

I have to admit, the more I listen to it, the more it has grown on me.

[ipitythafool25]

Re: Jay-Z American Gangster

Really? Because Jay seems to be doing quite well for himself.

Wasn't my review but I'm assuming that he means if you stay in the game of selling drugs eventually you are gonna lose no matter what

[CMH]

Re: Jay-Z American Gangster

Wasn't my review but I'm assuming that he means if you stay in the game of selling drugs eventually you are gonna lose no matter what

Well, that's true.

[BTB]

Re: Jay-Z American Gangster

Say Hello is sick too

[Graphik]

Re: Jay-Z American Gangster

I have to admit, the more I listen to it, the more it has grown on me.

Same here. I couldn't stand Party Life at first but I got wasted one day and fell in love with it. Say Hello is still that ish tho.

[the_future420]

Re: Jay-Z American Gangster

Same here. I couldn't stand Party Life at first but I got wasted one day and fell in love with it. Say Hello is still that ish tho.

Party Life was my favorite track from the first time I heard it. I was sipping on some Remy too... so swanky.

[bubbachuck]

Re: Jay-Z American Gangster

Really? Because Jay seems to be doing quite well for himself.

I was watching an interview he was doing and he said at one point in his life he came to a fork in the road: Left was stayin in the drug game and Right was using his god givin talents to make it in music. Well we obviously know he took a right but he was sayin how this album kind of backtracks to that fork in the road and takes a Left. I like that concept.

[CMH]

Re: Jay-Z American Gangster

I was watching an interview he was doing and he said at one point in his life he came to a fork in the road: Left was stayin in the drug game and Right was using his god givin talents to make it in music. Well we obviously know he took a right but he was sayin how this album kind of backtracks to that fork in the road and takes a Left. I like that concept.

Seriously, a guy like Jay is someone I can respect for that. He had two options, though it's almost crazy to even think someone had to make that decision. Then again, lots of people think they do but really they just walk right down the middle of that fork and end up killing either their rap careers or themselves.