Thoughts on Jay-Z’s “Kingdom Come”
Okay, I’m a latecomer to Jay-Z fandom, entering somewhere around his MTV-Unplugged album. Despite owning albums two, three and four (or maybe it was three, four and five), before his poetry reading, I never really got into Jay-Z beyond his radio singles. They just took up space in my CD rack.
I’ve got most of his albums now (Blueprint 2.1 being one exception). I’ve paid to see him in concert twice (Jay-Z and Busta are the only folks who can say that). But I still can’t call myself a fan fan. I mean, I’m a fan fan of A Tribe Called Quest. But Jay-Z? He’s just cool.
Most of my half-assed fandom of Jay-Z comes because despite his lyrical skill, his subject matter (the stuff I bothered to listen to, at least) works my nerves. Now, I’ll still be the first one out there shaking my booty with a bottle of bubbly to “Big Pimpin’” — though my bottle of bubbly is more likely Bass Pale Ale, not Cristal whatever Champagne Hov’ is drinking now. But how much of one dude’s bragging can you listen to before you want to smack him? If I could have had a conversation with a younger Jay-Z, it would have been short and really one-sided: “Negro, STFU. Little boys brag about it. Grown men do sh*t. Holla back when you got something to offer besides how many birds ya flipped, how many broads you f*cked and how much you got.”
But that was the bragging of a supremely-confident young’un. “Big Pimpin,’” after all, came out when Jay was just barely 30 as opposed to damn-near-40. Jay-Z is 37 now.
Jay gave us a glimpse of his more mature, thoughtful side on The Black Album
“Kingdom Come” is, as Hova says ‘the maturation of Jay-Zeezee.’ He gives a nod to his age and position on one track. The whole album is full of R&B-influenced beats and Jay-Z rapping about grown folks issues like relationships (and his age disparity with B) and poverty.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of bragging. Would it be a Jay-Z album if there wasn’t? But it just feels different. Rather than “I got it and you don’t,” it’s “I’ve been there, done that, got the T-Shirt, wrote a book, and as a matter-of-fact, I’ve got a house there. So don’t get too cocky.” For example, on ‘30 Something’:
I don't got the bright watch Got the right watch I don't buy the bar out I bought the night spot Got the right stock I got Stockbrokers that's movin it like white tops
That’s a grown man talking. A man who’s past quantity and into quality. It’s the adult hip-hop star that us older fans (and old souls among us) have awaited. Glad to see Jay-Z is making music for us. I think I finally can call myself a fan.