Jay-Z: Vol 2... Hard Knock Life (NorthWestSide)
Andy Gill, The Independent, 8 January 1999
IT MAY have given Jay-Z his chart breakthrough in Britain, but that cringe-making orphans' chorus from Annie he sampled on 'Hard Knock Life' may turn out to be something of a millstone around the rapper's neck; for rarely can a single have made the transition from intriguing to infuriating with such dispatch. Not that Jay himself will be that bothered, given his extraordinary success in America, where this album recently spent five weeks atop the charts — an unprecedented feat for a rap record.
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