http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...grail-reviewed
Quote:
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But no matter the album's gaudy and annoyingly glitchy big-business baggage, Magna Carta … Holy Grail truly is unique, even unprecedented. Consider that MCHG was made by a 43-year-old rapper who is 17 years deep into a highly celebrated discography, and that it will surely go on to become his 13th no. 1 album. Or that it arrives as Jay-Z prepares to launch what will likely rank among the year's most successful tours with one of the world's top pop stars, Justin Timberlake. In the history of hip-hop, where nearly every career arc sinks toward irrelevance after about a decade or so (if you're lucky), Magna Carta … Holy Grail finds Jay-Z still on top of the rap game as he approaches the start of his third decade.
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I don't buy it. Its just one writer's opinion, but I think its bullshit. Jay-Z isn't necessarily dominating hip-hop into his 40s because of his inherent artistic greatness so much as his (a) extreme marketing blitz and (b) the reality of 21st century media technology allowing for just about ANY band/group/artist with some recognition to be unprecedentedly successful.
Its not that Jay-Z's rap is that good, its that music and pop culture has become that diluted, hyped, and technologically exploited. There is more casual access to music than ever, so people can have way overly inflated hype, audience share, and sales/views of their music. The technology in the twitter era has reshaped what it truly means to be popular. What made the Beatles, or Michael Jackson, or Nirvana popular is very different than what makes rappers like Kanye and Jay-Z popular today. When the access to distribution was more limited, it took some serious luck to get that kind of almost universal exposure. Now? Its become the norm. Jaz-Z has a "heritage" name for himself, he can sell records and advertising slots on his name alone, and even a haters will add to his account even if just to scoff. So its not necessarily that Jay-Z's talent has merited his success so much as that is the reality of popular art in the 21st century. EVERYBODY is Michael Jackson big. I will tip my cap at Jay-Z for still putting his art out there, but in all actuality he isn't the first rapper in his 40s to put out albums across three decades, he just so happens to be the benefit of a diluted scene full of mediocre talent. Dave Matthews Band and U2 have had similar moments of unnecessary success,
thriving in the vacuum absence of better talent and building on their name alone and the nostalgia factor of aging fans with more money to spend. The broke teenagers who bumped Jigga in the 90s are the middle-class yuppies of the 21st century with money to burn, and just like the Stones and Aerosmith before him, Jay-Z is admittedly milking it
