>I've got myself so excited for this album I can't afford to
>not like it.

I was starting to get a bit too krunk about it myself.

I now think I am fine with letting it be what I think it is...it is JayZ rapping in an upgraded and more confident Watch The Throne mode over 'I'm trying to give you that heat, cotdammit' Timbo production. They both curled up in a room after burying the hatchet on past drama and tried to put something dope out. They have enough talent themselves and a good enough phonebook (Pharrell, Nas, Timberlake, Mike Dean, dude from Cocaine 80s, Beyonce, etc) to add onto their efforts. I can applaud that in general and the resulting hour of music I have received.

How I heard it...after running through about half on it on my laptop, I stopped, threw it on my iPod, rolled to the gym, and started over. So now, I've heard the whole thing in headphones FROM FRONT TO BACK WITH NO SKIPPING PAUSES OR REPLAYS. And I'm not upset about it at all on those terms. It isn't the Holy Grail or anything (hehe), but most rap cats would kill to have a 12th ALBUM this jamming overall. But since it is Jay, folks want the album to sound like rolling slowly down a hill made of titties would probably feel. I want to hear effort, a vision, some solid rapping, and damn good production based on his resources...I heard all of that here.

I went into it scared that Jay would 'trap it up' a little too much in efforts to recreate Niggas in Paris. And the song with Ross gave me the heeby geebies on the first laptop listen, but then I heard the Pimp C intro on the earphone listen and the way it went with the flow of the album and I was good with it. It sounds like someone tried to sequence the album...at least for the first 10 or so songs. Again...I applaud that.

Jimaveli