"Fuck my image" and make an Untitled (Nigger album) like Nas?

now that that's over with

anybody care to discuss the original topic?

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

or is this more musically than lyrically? i could see him experimenting musically before rapping about something new.

that i am convinced he bought bulk copies of j coles album to save his own appearance as a "business man" with a mind for "good investments".

let's never forget: j cole outsold rihanna and almost outsold justin bieber.

i mean does anybody even bring up j. cole?
he's back to that state of purgatory he was in in the months before his album release...
no press, no singles, no mainstream presence, no real publicized fanfare...
just touring the country in a white van and getting his pockets tapped by his label every night.

>that i am convinced he bought bulk copies of j coles album to
>save his own appearance as a "business man" with a mind for
>"good investments".
>
>let's never forget: j cole outsold rihanna and almost outsold
>justin bieber.
>
>i mean does anybody even bring up j. cole?
>he's back to that state of purgatory he was in in the months
>before his album release...
>no press, no singles, no mainstream presence, no real
>publicized fanfare...
>just touring the country in a white van and getting his
>pockets tapped by his label every night.

https://twitter.com/onnextlevel

I wasted more energy doing so last year when the album dropped, and I see he's still holding onto his ridiculous stance.

___________________________
OL' DIRTY BASTARD on himself:
"I may curse, I may have a bad mouth, whatever whatever. I'm not that bad, yaknow'mean. Bad to y'all, I dunno how y'all... I don't give a fuck. Um, I'm a good person at heart, for real and shit.

~~~~~~

---
www.ikirejones.com
FW16: After Migration.

let alone thematic conceit or in many cases even song topic on a verse-to-verse line-to-line basis?

Why?

That wouldn't even work as good art let alone business.

Every time he makes more conscious stuff, people say that he doesn't mean it or that it sounds insincere. He's made stuff like "Minority Report," "Murder 2 Excellence," "A Ballad For The Fallen Soldier," "Meet The Parents," etc. - relatively "conscious" songs.

Whenever Jay-Z actually makes conscious songs, all people do is say that he's too pop. So there's literally no point.

----

https://weketchum.contently.com/

and they dont want to hear Nas be pop.
that's just their roles as artists.
end of.

<--- Big Baller World Order

And I'm not complaining about it, because he made that bed. But don't request entire conscious albums from him if you're not going to even appreciate the conscious *songs* he makes. Not you, but people in general.

----

https://weketchum.contently.com/

Nas might actually be better making "Pop" than Jay trying to be conscious at that level. Jay sounds more like a reporter than someone with experience when he talks about serious situations/stories.

------------------------------

50+ FREE Mixes on www.DJR-Tistic.com!

Twitter and Instagram - @DJ_RTistic

*rimshot*

life always offers you a 2nd chance...it's called tomorrow. use it wisely

Jay's record ain't spotless, but "Untitled" is not an album he should set out to emulate.

-----------------

www.albumism.com

Checkin' Our Style, Return To Zero:

https://www.mixcloud.com/returntozero/

but i've heard that i like boring music so that might explain it

>but i've heard that i like boring music so that might explain
>it
http://gifs.gifbin.com/1232451687_11cebyr.gif

Ill take Untitled over BP3 and KC, if we're talking about recent albums.

Although there are some weak moments, I think overall Untitled is a pretty damn good album. I def don't see Jay being inspired enough to make an album better than Untitled in a while. But he does have a track record of making every other album really good, so after that mess that was BP3, maybe he'll bounce back.

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www.dwightschrutebeetf

cuz umm. . . even if it was the same ol subject "American Gangster" was his concept album.

PEACE LOVE and MONEY

https://soundcloud.com/dabeatnik/drumpf-beer

and i don't mind that it was the usual things that he talks about.. American Gangster was like Em's Relapse in that way.. took what they did best and really focused it into a story.. not to mention AG had a different "sonic" feel too.. the singles sounded like singles, but they didn't sacrifice that throw-back vibe..

he's about that $$$

He needs to stick to the fake beef tacos songs.

"They used to call me Baby Luke....but now? The whole damn 2 Liiiive Crew."

__
I don't like the beat anymore because its just a loop. ALC didn't FLIP IT ENOUGH!

Flip it enough? Flip these. Flip off. Go flip some f*cking burgers.(c)Kno

Allied State of the National Electric Beat Treaty Organization (NEBTO)

~~~~~~

Jay was never held to a high standad like that
Just hash out consistent 4 mic albums is all his fans ever want

And that's cool

money on him to make sure he fronts a certain role and image.

the Camel of old is long gone

mistermaxxx R.Kelly, Michael Jackson,Stevie wonder,Rick James,Marvin Gaye,El Debarge, Barry WHite Lionel RIchie,Isleys EWF,Lady T.,Kid creole and coconuts,the crusaders,kc sunshine band,bee gees,jW,sd,NE,JB

Miami Heat, New York Yankees,buffalo bills

artist

IMO

that is the intended sentiment of the tweet

and furthermore what Belafonte was alluding to

it's unfortunate that the original question referenced Nas's untitled (Nigger) album

and fanboys get caught up in semantics

but the reference could have easily been the Roots' Undun

or even Kanye's 808s and Heartbreaks

an album where he pushes the envelope as an artist

doesn't necessarily have to be a concept album

I don't see how folks can call American Gangster his concept

when there was a movie and Frank Lucas's bio being broadcast at the same time

for me, it comes down to this

if Jay-Z released an album this week

we'd all probably know exactly what it would sound like

a couple of radio songs (lyrics dumbed down)

a couple of street jawns (harder beats where he references his drug dealings 20 years ago)

etc, etc, etc...

for me

the Roots How I Got Over, was an album geared to the adult hip-hop consumer

and it's a direction that I would like a lot of MCs to go in

I mean Jay-Z is over 40

I've long grown tired of his drug dealing references

brand name dropping

and intentionally pandering to adolescents

talk about being married, raising a daughter, thoughts about mortality, etc...

you know, shit that most of us are going through

and that was what I thought the original message was asking

what got lost in all this BS over the past week

here is an Icon

who is so concerned with his status

that he won't take a risk as an artist

.

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

"Kingdom Come" was his "mature" hip-hop album, all about him talking about the shit he was going through in his late thirties. It sold well, but it got dissed. It was far from a perfect album, but it wasn't guns and drug talk. So he's already did what you complaining he didn't do.

Which goes to larger overall point: it's not what you do, but how you do it. "Untitled," "Kingdom Come," and "808s and Heartbreaks" were albums where the artist took risks, and the results weren't particularly good. The fact that they took the risk doesn't earn them extra points in my book: the music needs actually to be good. And that's all I want out of Jay-Z or Nas or Kanye or Canibus or Rick Ross or Timbaland or Odd Future or Gift of Gab or anyone: good music. I don't care if it's an album about saving the whales or selling meth or fucking porno stars, as long as the music is actually good, I don't give a fuck.

-----------------

www.albumism.com

Checkin' Our Style, Return To Zero:

https://www.mixcloud.com/returntozero/

this was the album after he "retired"

with all the hype surrounding the black album, tour, film, etc...

KC was more of a letdown

I'll have to revisit it

because at the time, it just felt like he regressed

not because he was trying something different

but like you said, it just wasn't good music

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

and you focus on whether or not KC was a good album...

I give up.

Kingdom Come being a concept album was news to me

if there was a concept behind it

it missed me at the time

just sounded like the same album Jay-Z puts out everytime out

but I have gone back and read some things that kind of reiterate the original question

since you stopped reading here, I'll post it here too

it was suppose to be a departure from the previous releases

the Black Album was suppose to be the death of Jay-Z

his hip-hop persona

and Kingdom Come was suppose to be the birth of Shawn Carter

I'm guessing we were going to get more into who he was

instead of who he had been portraying himself as

but

he caved

and didn't got through with it

I'm guessing due to concerns about sales and reception from his fanbase

what's even more ironic

Kingdom Come had the highest first week sales of all of his albums

yet it's viewed as a failure

and most of the references just skip over the album in his timeline

and go right to American Gangster

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

>Kingdom Come being a concept album was news to me
>
>if there was a concept behind it
>
>it missed me at the time
>
>just sounded like the same album Jay-Z puts out everytime out
>
>but I have gone back and read some things that kind of
>reiterate the original question
>
>since you stopped reading here, I'll post it here too
>
>it was suppose to be a departure from the previous releases
>
>the Black Album was suppose to be the death of Jay-Z
>
>his hip-hop persona
>
>and Kingdom Come was suppose to be the birth of Shawn Carter
>
>I'm guessing we were going to get more into who he was
>
>instead of who he had been portraying himself as
>
>but
>
>he caved
>
>and didn't got through with it

I don't know what album YOU listened too, but it was as personal an album as he's ever dropped. It was a distinct change (and id argue he did the same with Blueprint 2 where the long length allowed him to go different places) but nobody cared.

Was it as big a switch as singing in autotune & euro beats? No. But it was a decisive change as a stand alone record, it was just wack.

it in this post

and the first 4 tracks are standard Jay-Z

the first 3 all have some reference to his drug dealing 20 years ago

and the 4th is a brand-name dropping marathon

and then the ride comes to a screeching halt, with Lost One

That track is what the album should have been

throw in Minority Report, and Beach Chair

those 3 tracks definitely feel like a grown ass man putting his thoughts down

but we're talking about an album with 14 songs

and when you do get to the content

it feels completely out of place

that whole album is disjointed

if I had to assume what happened, based off of what it was suppose to be

he probably demo'd some of the more serious songs

and either the label, or he himself (he was an executive at def jam at the time right?)

didn't hear any singles

and they went back and added all those just blaze tracks in the beginning

and the pharrell and usher jawn toward the end

wasn't he already with B at that time

some of the female jawns are cringe worthy to listen to now

especially with her on the album

anyway

if he was trying to do a more mature hip-hop albume

he could have cut this album down to an EP

and it might have worked

instead it got mixed in with the regular Jay-Z record format

and that makes it hard to listen to

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

>Which goes to larger overall point: it's not what you do, but
>how you do it. "Untitled," "Kingdom Come," and "808s and
>Heartbreaks" were albums where the artist took risks, and the
>results weren't particularly good.

i really liked all of these albums at the time and for different reasons. i get the complaints about KC, but to me jay putting out a bored, bloated, rich guy rap album was about as honest as it got. maybe it's not "good," but it was an interesting listen because of what it revealed about its creator at the time. he's just not a risk taker like nas or kanye. addressing some nonjuvenile subject matter for once as a risk doesn't compare to what nas and kanye do every time out. that's why i think jay is more likely to experiment musically because you hear him on all types of production throughout his career and he was one of the first mainstream rappers to make performing live with a band cool (again). lyrically and as a "business, man!" he tends to play it safer than he should as an artist with his platform and talent, which is a shame.

There's probably a really good EPs worth of material on there. Or enough to make a solid 10-track album. And I agree that it was about as honest as Jay was going to get at that point of his career. It was an accurate reflection of him at that point of his life. I guess people don't like hearing about him balling that hard, unless he was doing over fake dud-step beats.

-----------------

www.albumism.com

Checkin' Our Style, Return To Zero:

https://www.mixcloud.com/returntozero/

don't be fooled by his for-profit "occupy all streets" fashion line, this album tells you all you need to know. it's interesting coming from hip-hop, which came out of nothing. paradoxically, i'm not sure any other genre would represent the 1% so well as jay chose to on this album even with "minority report."

I'd put Blueprint 3 more in that category.

But both records to me felt honest to me, as did Watch The Throne.

I think what annoys people with Hov is he's been successful to a level where people actually take any boasting he does literally where as with most of these Ross types you're paying for the cartoon.

There is a degree of exhaustion a listener can experience now that they've been listening to a dude for 12-15 albums, not that many new wrinkles to break out & he's never gonna be a dude who fully bares his soul but to be honest vulnerability never really suited Jay-Z in big doses.

And lord knows I don't need him to try & all the sudden become a political-commentary type of rapper twenty years in.

'You're Not That Kind Of Rapper'(c)dude in Fade To Black.

I find the journey we've watched him on since the 90s to be more 'inspiring' or 'revolutionary' than anything he could say on the mic.

Dude is an entertainer first & foremost, him not losing sight of that fact is probably part of the reason why he's still here.

Eminem is the one who blew the opportunity to make a great record when he had the chance back in the early 2000s.

The 'risk' of Nas' Untitled album was really the main hook for selling the album, sorta like Hip-Hop Is Dead just before it. Neither record really delivered on its concept or added many top-shelf Nas songs to his catalog.

is that whenever dude tries to go 'conscious' or 'kick knowledge', whatever you want to call it, anytime he steps in that lane he almost invariably fucks it up.

take 'that's my bitch'. he starts out talking about the western / european standard of beauty, how the mona lisa and marilyn monroe are considered the epitome and how there need to be some women of color in that convo. cool, so far so good. then he ticks off his list of examples... and of course he names a bunch of latinas and lite brite sistas lol. (i.e. women who are considered beautiful precisely because of their quasi-euro features)

first time i heard that jawnt, i was sitting there listening to it like, is this dumb mf serious? like dude, you're doing the exact same thing that you just criticized lmao. if that's the point you were trying to make you should've shouted out some chicks w dark skin, wide noses, thick lips, nappy hair, etc. THEY'RE the ones who get shitted on. i mean, who in the fuck DOESN'T consider beyonce and salma hayek and halle beautiful?? the fuck was this cat even talking about?

don't get me wrong, i love jay - and i'ma say that again b/c i know how stupid muhfuckas get whenever you level even the slightest critique against the man - i'm a big jay-z fan but dude really does need to stick to doing what he does best: waxing nostalgic about his drug-dealing past for the umpteenth time, convincing dumb niggas that he owns more than 0.5% of the nets, and bragging about taking power lunches with anna wintour or sheldon adelson or whatever the fuck other 1% illuminati crackers he's hanging out with these days.

___

it is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. - sherlock holmes

Never thought about it like that.

lmaooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

----

https://weketchum.contently.com/

>convincing dumb niggas that he owns more than 0.5% of
>the nets
>

I was getting into an argument about this shit not too long ago with my little cousin

and bragging about taking power lunches with anna
>wintour or sheldon adelson or whatever the fuck other 1%
>illuminati crackers he's hanging out with these days.

its his fear of 'opening' up.

_______________________________________
When discourse of Blackness is not connected to efforts to promote collective black self determinism
it becomes simply another recourse appropriated by the colonizer

http://hardboiledbabesanddarkchocolate.tumblr.co

>its his fear of 'opening' up.

agreed. I think Jay-Z (at a certain point in his career) could get anyone to listen to anything with his name on it

such an odd question

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

But I think it's pretty odd to criticise someone for choosing not to do what someone else is doing.

Especially in this case where we're strictly talking about making music.

probably a late pass for me

but after some of the posts referenced Kingdom Come

I've read some articles on line

that state after the Black Album

he wanted to kill off Jay-Z, i.e. his hip-hop persona

as illustrated in the last scene of 99 problems

and express more of himself, Shawn Carter

to the extent that he intended to release Kingdom Come under his birth name

Shawn Carter, not Jay-Z

but in the end he caved

which one could assume was due to concerns about record sales

i.e., it kind of reinforces the original question

he's too concerned with his image and being successful to actually take a risk artistically

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

You admit that Kingdom Come was his 'artistic' album, then drop this line contradicting yourself

>he's too concerned with his image and being successful to
>actually take a risk artistically

The fact is he HAS taken that risk, and he dropped a shitty album while doing it. The question isn't why he hasn't taken that risk, but more so why it FAILED unlike Kanye*

*hate on 808 as you must, it was successful AND influential.. hate on dark fantasy, but his 8 minute extendo-emo play tracks had him get beatles-esque praise from mainstream media.

Hampton/Nas ghostwriting nonsense

post#45

I'm saying it reinforces the question

he had an idea

and instead of executing it

he caved and compromised

because he didn't want his sales to suffer

he could have just as easily spit I Made It over the Show Me What You Got Beat

but he didn't

he stuck to the regular Jay-Z album formula

and threw in 3-4 more reflective (or conscious) tracks

and it makes the album hard to listen to

the album should have been cut down to an EP

if he really wanted to put out a more mature sounding project

listen to the album

and tell me this some big departure from every other Jay-Z release

I'm saying this being a concept or artistic album was news to me

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

I don't think he's concerned about losing money specifically - but I think he is concerned about his overall consistency. When you look at Jay's career the main thing that gives him his status is is overall consistency. He's never "fallen off"...his albums always consistently go platinum and debut at #1 on the charts. He's also very consistent in terms of quality - his "bad" albums are way better than most rappers that have "bad" albums. BP2 and Kingdom Come are probably his worst albums in terms of reviews and they both are still solid albums in a career discography. Noone in rap has done what he's done for anywhere near as long as Jay has, and it's somewhat like an undefeated streak, like Floyd Mayweather or some other athlete.

I think that this streak puts a TON of pressure on him, and you can see it at different points of his career. It's almost like he has two sides of his brain always fighting with each other. Before an album comes out he's always talking about how it's gonna be different and "this one isn't gonna sell" like he wants to have a disclaimer in place because he's self-conscious about it. He takes a risk by dropping a double album in BP2. While recording that album he records some of his best work in Hovi Baby, Meet the Parents, Excuse Me Miss, etc. But he decides to make it a double album, probably thinking of his legacy in terms of a Life After Death or an All Eyes on Me, and in doing that the album ends up a bloated with a ton of guest features, filler songs, "the gift and the curse" concept which didn't make sense, a Tupac cover as a single, etc.

So then comes the Black Album...up to that point he was dropping number 1 albums every year which was and still is unheard of. "Retiring" took some of that pressure off in that now he isn't expected to drop every year. I think his intention was to not have the pressure to still sell as much with each album but it's like the other side of his brain wins out and he caves. The Black Album was supposed to be his record that didn't care about sales - no promotion, no radio friendly singles, minimal guest spots, etc, the legendary producers on every track concept, etc. But he ends up caving and does a Change Clothes, does promotion, etc. Still a great album, but not true to the original concept, probably because he was concerned with it doing numbers and keeping his streak alive.

Then he retires and comes back with Kingdom Come. It's already been mentioned that he was originally going to release it under Shawn Cater and not the Jay-Z name. He didn't do that, and it was definitely promoted heavily. He did use different topics on this album than he had in the past, but got criticized for doing that. The album did big numbers as always though, and his streak was still alive. Then he drops American Gangster (which is a classic in my opinion) but it's like he's so self conscious about what people think about him he does this concept album tied in to the movie just as an excuse give the critics what they want after KC - him rapping about selling drugs. He still tries to put disclaimers out there on sales - it being a concept album and them him pulling it from iTunes because he didn't want individual singles sold. It's like he's really TRYING to run away from the streak at this point. But it STILL did numbers, and was well reviewed by critics.

So he comes back with BP3. Drops D.O.A., talks again about not caring about sales. But he ends of doing singles with Rihanna and Alicia Keys, the album does huge numbers, and he gets his first number one single (which is still crazy to me).

In some ways I think the best thing that could happen for Jay as an artist would be to release a REAL dud that doesn't sell at all, freeing him from his streak, and allowing him to let the other side of his brain win and make some music without worrying about falling off. But on the other hand releasing a dud would probably do the opposite and encourage him to prove everyone wrong and do another "big sales" album.

get Ye for a few, Clark Kent, Ski

then we'd probably have not much to complain about.

because seriously, since his first two albums (excluding I Know What Girls Like), my biggest and most consistent problem with dude has been his inconsistent beat selection.

Blueprint was cool, but I still like the overall production of the first two more.

And he WAS spitting some introspective shit on the first two (D'Evils, Regrets, Lucky Me, You Must Love Me), but its overshadowed by the drug dealing braggadocio, even though he still presented much of it in nuanced fashion.

Bullshit ass beats is what had me annoyed at Jay for years, why I haven't dropped actual money for a piece of his work in a grip.

That's the biggest complaint I have with Nas too. Ain't shit about him "experimenting," that's the problem, it's about him using WACK FUCKING MUSIC.


Re: both them niggas, whatever the "Concept" is, the production needs to be airtight. At their level, there's no fucking excuse for each beat not to be universally dope as fuck. NONE.

******************************************
Falcons, Braves, Bulldogs and Hawks

Geto Boys, Poison Clan, UGK, Eightball & MJG, OutKast, Goodie Mob

Aside from the fact that they could adjust if called upon, my point is, their "dated" shit is still miles better than most of the "current" shit he's been using.

You don't like Jay's current output and I don't like most of Primo's production lately so we won't agree on this.

******************************************
Falcons, Braves, Bulldogs and Hawks

Geto Boys, Poison Clan, UGK, Eightball & MJG, OutKast, Goodie Mob

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITikV1zlo7w

everybody so quick to bury hiphop's legends. foh

-------------------------
“The other dude after me didn’t help my case. It was just like…crazy nigga factory going on.”
Dre makes no apologies for his own eccentricities. “I was young, and searching, trying to find myself,” he says. “Never did.”-- Andre B

>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITikV1zlo7w
>
>everybody so quick to bury hiphop's legends. foh

******************************************
Falcons, Braves, Bulldogs and Hawks

Geto Boys, Poison Clan, UGK, Eightball & MJG, OutKast, Goodie Mob

the man raps about his image and does it well
so y would you take the chance at doing something you know and do well and saying the hell with success let's tarnish this image

that's like asking the marketing group to do accounting bc they have become so good at promoting,.

why didn't slick rick ever do a gangsta rap album?
why doesn't mary j do and opera album
we all saw when MJ went to play baseball

I got a good life man

-------------------------
“The other dude after me didn’t help my case. It was just like…crazy nigga factory going on.”
Dre makes no apologies for his own eccentricities. “I was young, and searching, trying to find myself,” he says. “Never did.”-- Andre B

as far as jay-z's subject matter, i don't mind what he talks about because like you said, he does rap about those things well. it's more that jay-z doesn't want to risk making an album that doesn't have the potential to be a commercial success. For example, I view Reasonable Doubt as a classic. He was still rappin about sellin drugs and having a lot of money, and the most commercially viable song on the album was probably Ain't No Nigga, and that didn't even seem intentionally pop. However, when i first heard Niggas In Paris, I hated it. I was hoping Watch The Throne was going to sound like The Blueprint meets Late Registration; but if you notice, Jay doesn't like going too far into the "pleasing the hip-hop heads" zone.

maybe that's what bothered ol' girl so much about this tweet

that it was inferring that Nas is a better artist than Jay-Z

no question Jay won

Jay-Z got them metrics

hands down best career in hip-hop

and even one of the best careers in music period

so when you say Nas lost based on numbers, money, etc...

you could easily say anybody lost

sheeeiiiittt, you could say Paul McCartney lost

but that MFer still made Sgt. Peppers

you feel me

Nas is a better artist

he's better at his craft

he can do concepts like one love

daughters

sheeeeiiiittt, if i ruled the world

and still come back with street jawns like made you look

blaze a 50

and I think that's what ether was all about

you want to test the skills

you get ethered

somewhere along the line a hip-hop artist's value went from being measured by his skills on the mic

to being measured by how many records he sells, money, jewelry, etc...

Nas is a better artist

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

.

---------------------------------------------------------------

If you can't understand it without an explanation

you can't understand it with an explanation

.

Jay has all this success, all this validation (by critics even), and you'd be a fool to say dude doesn't have lyrics or flow.

but he wants that "authenticity" belt. he's said so much in his lyrics ("If skills sold, truth be told"). he wants people to look at his shit as profound, poignant works. even on the songs he does start to show a little of such things, they're not felt the same (or even ignored in favor of others). Or in short, he doesn't have an ILLMATIC that everyone holds around his neck, despite all of his "classics".

Nas often got a pass (as an artist, not in the context of the actual albums being reviewed) for crap (except from a certain type of reviewer) because he had that gritty, "authentic", "if skills sold, I still don't give a fuck" spirit even on his musical excrement.

I think part of the whole "Ether" phenomenon was that Nas responded in a dismissive, clowning tone, with "inside" info that Jaz-O supposedly supplied him, instead of being all the way mad like he seemed to on previous darts.

a guy he looked up to ("I'm from where niggas pull your car, and argue all day about Who's the best MC's, Biggie, Jay-Z, and Nas")

and yeah, he said "Gay-Z and Cock-A-Fella" and say Jay looked like a camel

but Jay didn't like that OTHER shit that was said. being called a biter, people being reminded that his rap career stretched back further than 1996, that Nas, a guy he respected at one point, wasn't bowing to his swag throne or trying to play the reindeer games w/him when he was coming into prominence.

it was like that one slight Jay couldn't seem to get over, encapsulated in song. a slight he (as mentioned above) referenced in his own song, and others ("do you listen to music or just skim through it"). Jay was frustrated like shit, IMO.

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"naive as the dry leaves on the ground looking past the trees to the blue sky asking 'why me?'" -Blu

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