American Gangster

[Fobb]

Like? Not like? Indifferent?


Personally its not bad, I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was.

[kenshinbebop]

Isn't it a movie?

[Westlo]

It's also the name of the new Jay-Z album, you might remember hearing the Jay-Z song Heart of The City on the American Gangster trailer. Anyway it's easily his best album since Blueprint and the Nas track on this album was much better than Black Republicans on HHID.

[Fobb]

Nas track on this album was much better than Black Republicans on HHID.

QFT

filler

[Westlo]

I'm surprised by how many tracks Puffy and his Hitmen (aka just hitmen) did on this cd, still it has way better production than Kingdom Come did easily. I think I'm liking this better than Kanye's, need to give it a good spin, been busy since it leaked.

Nice to see Toomp get on one of the tracks, he did some great stuff with T.I (wtf at no Toomp track on thelast T.I album) and did the baselines for a few of kanyes tracks on his last album. Nice to also see Kanyes mentor in No I.D on a few tracks.

1. Intro
Performed by Idris Elba
Produced by Chris Flame for Earbrain Productions
Co-Produced by Idris “Driis” Elba for HEADSHELL/HEVLAR Recordings

2. Pray
Produced by DIDDY and LV & SEAN C for Grind Music/The Hitmen/Bad Boy Entertainment

3. American Dreamin’
Produced by DIDDY and LV & SEAN C for Grind Music/The Hitmen/Bad Boy Entertainment
Co-Produced by Mario Winans for Yellow City Entertainment/The Senate

4. Hello Brooklyn 2.0 feat. Lil Wayne
Produced by BIGG D for Bigg D Entertainment, LLC.

5. No Hook
Produced by DIDDY and LV & SEAN C for Grind Music/ The Hitmen/Bad Boy Entertainment

6. Roc Boys (And The Winner Is)…
Produced by DIDDY and LV & SEAN C for Grind Music/The Hitmen/Bad Boy Entertainment

7. Sweet
Produced by DIDDY and LV & SEAN C for Grind Music/The Hitmen/Bad Boy Entertainment

8. I Know
Produced by The Neptunes

9. Party Life
Produced by DIDDY and LV & SEAN C for Grind Music/The Hitmen/Bad Boy Entertainment

10. Ignorant Sh*t featuring Beanie Sigel
Produced by Just Blaze for F.O.B. Entertainment/N.Q.C. Management, LLC and Hip Hop Since 1978

11. Say Hello
Produced by Toomp for Zone Boy Productions

12. Success feat. Nas
Produced by N0-ID for So So Def Productions, Inc.
Co-produced by Jermaine Dupri for So So Def Productions, Inc.

13. Fallin’
Produced by Jermaine Dupri for So So Def Productions, Inc.
Co-produced by No-ID for So So Def Productions, Inc.

14. American Gangster
Produced by Just Blaze for F.O.B. Entertainment/N.Q.C. Management, LLC and Hip Hop Since 1978

15. Blue Magic
Produced by The Neptunes

[Kai_�‡]

If I'm correct, didn't Ignorant **** come out before or during the time when Sigel got locked up?

[Westlo]

Yeah Ignorant **** was from The Black Album era, might have been an issue with clearing the sample or something. Everything up to "first thing i'm gonna do is free sigel" was on the mixtape version (crap quality though) you could get for the last few years. Sigels bars and the imus/scarface thing were new for this album.

Now if only I can get a cd quality version of freeway and memphis bleek - nightshift /sob

[Westlo]

No one in 2001 would've thought Nas and Jadakiss would ever be in a Jay-Z video but they're in Roc Boys. Oh yeah Hello Brooklyn bangs in the whip, Wayne better come harder on The Carter 3 though, his feature here and on Kanyes album were both weak.

*listens to Wayne freestyle addictive*

That's the weezy that needs to come out for his album, original carter album was nice too, carter 2 missed mannie fresh.

[Fobb]

Weak is an understatement. He's overusing that "I'm am the ****" phrase.

[ryushe]

Anyway it's easily his best album since Blueprint
you know, I was ready to call ******** when I read this but I actually got a chance to marinate and listen to the album, and....

It's really good, Really really good. I was honestly shocked how tight everything was. I don't know if I can say it's his best album since Blueprint, but I will say it's the best Jay album in a loong time. I don't know, it just felt like old Jay, Reasonable Doubt or even Vol.1... In My Lifetime Jay.

Favorite Tracks:
*American Dreamin'
*Hello Brooklyn 2.0 (ft. Lil Wayne) (The production is great on this track)
Roc Boys (And The Winner Is)
*Say Hello
*Fallin'
Blue Magic (ft. Pharrell) (I can't believe this song actually grew on me)

* = Best tracks on Album


*listens to Wayne freestyle Upgrade You*
Fixed :P

Weak is an understatement. He's overusing that "I'm am the ****" phrase.
I'm always the person to defend Wayne whenever someone says he's Hip Hop's Karrine Steffans...(Well I guess Karrine Steffans is Hip Hop's Karrine Steffans lol) but I guess I'll just have to face the realty, the Fireman maybe burned himself out with all the tracks he's been spitting on. I hope thats not the case though.

[Fobb]

Wayne is nice, but he didn't come good at all on his Kanye feature.

[Westlo]

My top 3 Jay-Z albums at the moment is looking like this

Reasonable Doubt
Blueprint
American Gangster

AG is a great effort considering he was thought washed up after Kingdom Come. Fav tracks being Pray, No Hook, Ignorant Shyt, Say Hello and Fallin'. Since he's no really interested in dropping typical singles anymore I'm hoping Fallin' is the next single.

Wayne's a friggin monster at times on tracks (mainly freestyles sadly), he outdid both Andre 3000 and Big Boi on that Hollywood track and not many people can say they have done that. He should've easily had the best verse on Kanyes album at least in terms of flow but Barry Bonds was just a wack song overall.

The original Carter is a personal classic, I think I've only listened to Blueprint more this decade.

[Evil_Koala]

Aint no loooove in the heart of the citaaaay. I like that Jay-Z song.

[ryushe]

Wayne is nice, but he didn't come good at all on his Kanye feature.
No doubt about it, But most of my favorite Wayne songs are freestyles. I'm just saying, with all these feature's, I'm just hoping he saved all the best stuff for himself.

Since he's no really interested in dropping typical singles anymore I'm hoping Fallin' is the next single.
With the way "Roc Boy's" ended, I'm thinking "Success" is the next single. if not "Success", I'm hoping for "American Dreamin'" or even "Say Hello".

[Kai_�‡]

My top 3 Jay-Z albums at the moment is looking like this

Reasonable Doubt
Blueprint
American Gangster



Replace American gangster with Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life and you have my top three. Even then I would put The Dynasty before AG. AG is definitely a solid album though.

[ryushe]

It's a great album, but I don't see it having and longevity with me. I mean I'm still bumping Blueprint to this day. 6 months down the line I doubt I'm still gonna be blasting this album.

And I don't know, Ignorant Sh!t just really seems dated and out of place on this album....Meh, maybe I'm just spoiled by Lupe's Ignorant Sh!t freestyle.

[Westlo]

lol @ Cassidy

Jay-Z is now hip-hop's answer to Elvis. In this week's Billboard charts, Jigga nabbed the No.1 spot for the tenth time with American Gangster, tying The King for the most No. 1 albums behind The Beatles.

American Gangster, the hustler's diary inspired by the movie of the same name, sold 425,000 in its first go-around according to Nielsen's SoundScan.

Also debuting this week was Cassidy, who landed at No. 10 with his album B.A.R.S. (The Barry Adrian Reese Story), which sold 63,000 copies and features heavy production from rapper/producer/Full Surface Records front-man Swizz Beatz.

As SOHH previously reported, the Philly rapper advised Jay-Z to push his album release date back to avoid a head-to-head sales battle.

"I think right now, the way that I got the hood on smash and the way that my song is poppin' off, I don't think it would be a smart decision for Hov to drop on November 6," Cassidy told SOHH.

In the non-battle, Jay-Z outsold Cassidy by approximately 362,000 albums.

[ryushe]

I'm glad Cassidy didn't do a Kanye West and try and compete with Jay :P

Thats good for Jay though, being tie with Elvis and all, but lets face it, Hov have the fanbase enough to drop a whack album and still debut at number 1, just look at Kingdom Come.

Oh, and Cassidy if you reading this, Stick to freestyles. I don't know if you'll do any better, but still...

[Westlo]

Any Jay fans check out the new Freeway album, When They Remember & This Can't Be Real are tight as ****, reminiscent of that early 2000s Rocafella sound.