Send "Jay" Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Serious Jay-Z fans: Disperse. Nothing to see here. This collection, the first proper North American best-of in Jay-Z's career, is what it says it is: a compendium of his most successful songs. Or, it seems that way at first. There's some mixed messaging. Of the 14 songs here, six were recorded post-retirement. Only two were released before 2000: 1998's "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" and 1999's "Big Pimpin'". Jay's first two albums, 1996's crucial Reasonable Doubt and its 1997 follow-up, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1, are not represented. Three songs included here failed to reach the top quarter of Billboard's Hot 100 chart ("Public Service Announcement [Interlude]", "Encore", and surprisingly, "99 Problems"), each of which originated with 2003's faux swan song, The Black Album. Though they're recognized fan favorites that feature emblematic moments in Jay's career, there have been bigger hits."Change Clothes", "Girls, Girls, Girls", "Excuse Me Miss", and the recent "Young Forever"-- all of which charted higher than the above and 2009's "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)", also included-- are absent. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde", by most reasonable metrics, is a worse song than "Girls, Girls, Girls". But "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" went all the way to #4, so that couldn't go. But then, none of this logic matters. Last year, when Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" became his first #1 single, he finally qualified for a hits package like this-- one that skews toward casual fans more than completists. It's fitting, because these days Jay-Z is expanding, more than usual, by opening his world to the casual fan. The recent release of his memoir/lyric anthology, Decoded, prompted several high-profile interviews, including trips to NPR's "Fresh Air", "The Daily Show", "Oprah", "Charlie Rose", and a formal conversation with Cornel West at the New York Public Library. During these interviews, he was repeatedly asked about things the book explains that longtime followers already know: his youth in the Marcy projects, the art of hustling, his complicated relationship to misogyny, President Obama. Just last week, I listened to him explain the punning kicker on the second verse of "99 Problems" at least five times....full text |
| Bbc |
| One of Jay-Z’s biggest UK hits, Empire State of Mind, possesses a title that can be taken different ways. It alludes to the rapper’s hometown, New York, a sing-along celebration of what its streets have to offer. But it also outlines the man’s commercial mindset. Rewind to 2001’s The Blueprint and he’s making a long-held business attitude clear: "I sell ice in the winter / I sell fire in Hell / I am a hustler baby / I’ll sell water to a well." This focus has rarely wavered since he set up his own label, Roc-A-Fella, in 1996. What haven’t been quite as consistent since The Blueprint are Jay-Z’s long-players. 2003’s The Black Album, at the time purported to be his final release, was an award-winning mix of abrasive bangers and smooth hits. But it’s the exception, the rest of his 21st century collections only haphazardly rewarding (strong singles, but no little filler). So it’s odd that only one Blueprint track makes the cut on this fourth hits compilation, Izzo (H.O.V.A.), though "Volume One" suggests a sequel may include more. While something from rightly revered 1996 debut Reasonable Doubt would have offered an interesting insight into rawer early material, the quality of what’s included here is high. It’s a neat summarisation of Jay-Z’s chart-dominating days, arranged to appeal to relative newcomers. The earliest track, Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem), might have irritated some back in 98, but it took its maker worldwide. It also illustrates, vividly, Jay-Z’s well-tuned ear for a crafty steal – a sample from the musical Annie, sitting high in the rap charts? Nobody saw that coming....full text |
| Blaremagazine |
| It takes a lot of nerve to call your first greatest hits compilation, which captures monuments from over ten years of your musical history, “volume one”. When you put together 14 of the very biggest hits from your career on ‘volume one’, ‘volume two’ is going to seem a little sheepish by comparison. But then again, no one has ever considered Jay-Z short on nerve. The Hits Collection draws from nine albums with one main strength being the fact that, even though tracks like “I Just Wanna Love U (Give it 2 Me)” and “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” are a decade old, their production values have stood the test of time – more so than a lot of early rhythm and blues and hip hop. The man himself says it best in “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” when he refers to himself as, among other things, “the eighth wonder of the world, the flow of the century” and “always timeless”. But how has he managed to maintain such a timeless hits collection? Well, the fact that the track list also reads like a greatest hits tribute to the decade’s top hip hop producers may have something to do with it. The production talents of Rick Rubin, Kanye West, The Neptunes, Timbaland and Diddy all turn up on the disc, wrenching listeners into a headlock with their crisp beats and loops while the Yankee-hat wearing MC lyrically pummels them into submission. One criticism of the collection is its understandable, but still a little unfortunate, focus on Hova’s last album, 2009’s The Blueprint 3. Three huge songs from last year’s successful effort turn up on The Hits Collection, making it the most represented of all his releases. It’s a testament to his talent as a songwriter that these new ones were among his most commercially successful, but here’s hoping The Hits Collection, Volume Two delves back a little farther into the past, letting listeners really see how the street hustler Sean Carter became the media mogul and best-selling author Jay-Z....full text |
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