Jay-Z
45 articles
List of articles in the library
Interview by Andy Crysell, New Musical Express, 1 March 1997
SOME PEOPLE, eh? They're never satisfied. Incredibly, not even vast pop success is enough for these blighters. ...
Jaÿ-Z: Cabaret Club, Stockholm
Live Review by Andy Crysell, New Musical Express, 8 March 1997
"YO! Give it up for Jaÿ-Z! Onstage for the first time in Sweden!" ...
Jay-Z: In My Lifetime Volume 1 (Northwestside)
Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 25 October 1997
THE FIRST WORDS you hear are spoken by Jay-Z himself, assuming a parodic Italian-American accent, imagining himself as a dying Al Pacino in Carlito's Way, ...
Jay-Z: Vol.2…Hard Knock Life (Roc- A-Fella/Def Jam)
Review by Amy Linden, Vibe, 1998
ALTHOUGH RAPPER Jay-Z may be new to mainstream America, he has been a rising star in the hip hop community for years. ...
The Life And Times Of Jay-Z: An Interview
Interview by Dan Gennoe, Flipside, 1999
REMIND SHAWN CARTER, aka Jay-Z, that his last long player, Vol.2...Hard Knock Life, which spawned the Annie-sampling single of the same name, sold 5 million ...
Jay-Z: Vol 2... Hard Knock Life (NorthWestSide)
Review by 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 ...
Jay-Z: Volume 2... Hard Knock Life (Northwestside)
Review by Andy Crysell, New Musical Express, 16 January 1999
Z TOP! ...
Interview by Andy Crysell, Muzik, February 1999
Jay-Z samples the musical Annie, raps about champagne and has just spent five weeks at the top of the American album charts, and he still ...
Tribal Movement: Hip Hop in 1998
Overview by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Village Voice, 2 March 1999
A TRIBE CALLED Quest died for the sins of hip hop in 1998, so the story goes. R.I.P. And roll away the stone. ...
Live Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, June 1999
New York State of Rhyme ...
Jay-Z: Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter (Roc-A-Fella)/Rakim: The Master (Universal)
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Village Voice, 19 January 2000
THIS ISN'T A generation-gap piece, really. I ain't even 30. But a lot of folks ain't authentically feeling Rakim Allah; they just takin' the "experts' ...
Jay-Z: Something For The Weekend, Sir?
Interview by Paul Elliott, Q, April 2000
"How about freedom?" wonders rap nabob Jay-Z, on bail pending trial for a near-fatal stabbing and facing a possible 22-year jail term. Some distraction from ...
Jay-Z, DMX, Juvenile and The Lox Albums
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, May 2000
Huge over there, ignored over here – the state of the rap art, US-style: Jay-Z: Volume 3...Life And Times Of S Carter; ...
Review by Ted Kessler, New Musical Express, 6 October 2001
THE NUMBER ONE rapper returns. ...
Jay-Z: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York NY
Live Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 8 November 2001
Jay-Z Hustles ...
Jay-Z: The Blueprint (Roc-A-Fella)
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2001
Sixth album from Brooklyn rap don ...
N*E*R*D: Irving Plaza, New York City
Live Review by Will Hermes, Spin, September 2002
WHAT do you do when you're a studio rat who's passed the Courvoisier with Busta Rhymes and P. Diddy and logged hits for 'N Sync, ...
Profile by Johnny Black, Blender, November 2002
Vital Statistics on Jay-Z's hit ...
Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 6 December 2002
DESPITE HAVING THE biggest forehead in hip hop, Jay-Z would never name an album after anything cerebral. His follow-up to last year's triple platinum The ...
Interview by Amy Linden, Vibe, 2003
NOTE: The Black Album was not only Jay-Z's eighth studio album, reportedly it was also meant to be his swansong: a collection of jams meant ...
Interview by Ted Kessler, The Guardian, 25 January 2003
America's favourite hip-hop artist Jay-Z is hanging up his mic. After all, what's left to talk about when you've achieved everything? Ted Kessler raps things ...
Jay-Z: Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse (Roc-A-Fella)
Review by Toby Manning, Jockey Slut, February 2003
TWO THINGS THE world doesn't need: another hip hop double album, and another album from Jay Z, right? ...
Jay-Z: The Black Album (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam) *****
Review by Angus Batey, MOJO, January 2004
A final autobiographical confession from one of rap's giants ...
R. Kelly & Jay-Z: Unfinished Business
Review by Dan Gennoe, Yahoo! Music, October 2004
R. KELLY AND JAY-Z. Whichever way you cut it, it's an odd pairing. ...
Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 23 September 2006
FEW POP "retirements" have caused as many eyebrows to raise as that of Shawn Carter, aka Jay-Z. ...
Hova's Slight Return: Jay-Z: Kingdom Come
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Village Voice, 21 November 2006
Jay-Z's aura finally outshines his art — what a drag it is getting old ...
Interview by Michael A. Gonzales, Stop Smiling, Winter 2007
FROM CINEMATIC outlaws Vito Corleone (The Godfather) and Priest (Super Fly) to real life dons like John Gotti and Nicky Barnes, the mythology of gangsterism ...
Jay-Z: American Gangster (Roc-A-Fella) ****
Review by Dorian Lynskey, Q, January 2008
Four years and two albums into his "retirement", hip hop's chief tycoon relocates his mojo. ...
Beyoncé and Jay-Z: America's other first couple
Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 9 August 2009
Beyoncé and Jay-Z are black America’s second most famous couple: young, rich and with a direct line to the White House. ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, September 2009
IN 2001, SHAWN "Jay-Z" Carter released The Blueprint, a critical and commercial smash which set a standard the Brooklyn-born rap mogul has struggled to match ...
Coldplay/Jay-Z: Lancashire Cricket Club, Manchester
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 13 September 2009
THERE ARE only a few bands big enough to ask artists who are at the very top of their own genres to work as their ...
Coldplay/Jay-Z: Lancashire Cricket Ground, Manchester
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 14 September 2009
THEY MAY BE one of the most successful bands in the world, but Coldplay still really, really want us to love them. ...
Jay-Z: The Hits Collection — Volume One (Def Jam)
Review by Mike Diver, bbc.co.uk, November 2010
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, ...
Book Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times, 3 December 2010
JAY-Z IS A GREAT American artist — and he'd be the first to tell you so. Decoded is an elegantly designed, incisively written bid for ...
Kanye West and Jay-Z: Watch The Throne
Review by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 10 August 2011
THIS ISN'T AS crappy as I expected, not the disaster 'H.A.M.' and 'Otis' promised us. Better than Jay-Z's BP3, not as good as Fantasy or, ...
Jay-Z and Kanye West: O2 Arena, London
Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 20 May 2012
JAY-Z AND Kanye West are hip-hop's current two main players, and they are pathologically keen to celebrate the fact. ...
Jay-Z: Carnegie Hall, New York City
Live Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, July 2012
LIKE ANY REAL MC, Jay-Z loves a challenge. He just takes things to a higher level than, well, anyone. So it wasn't enough that on ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, July 2013
WHAT DO YOU do when you are a multi-millionaire businessman who hangs out with the Obamas but still wants to be a gangsta? ...
Jay-Z/Justin Timberlake: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London *****
Live Review by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 15 July 2013
HAS LONDON ever had a more dystopian venue than the Olympic Park? Compared to Wireless's old home of Hyde Park this partially astroturfed gravel car ...
Game Of Thrones: Kanye West: Yeezus (Def Jam) ****/Jay Z: Magna Carta… Holy Grail (Virgin EMI) **
Review by Dorian Lynskey, Q, September 2013
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN the world's two most famous rappers start to lose their grip on the mic? ...
Still Smokin': 30 Years of Crack's Influence on Pop Culture
Essay by Michael A. Gonzales, Ebony, 2 May 2014
With Showtime announcing John Singleton's upcoming Snowfall series, crack cocaine's sway on pop culture continues to grow ...
Beyoncé and Jay-Z: London Stadium
Live Review by Rick Pearson, The Evening Standard, 18 June 2018
STILL CRAZY in love? That's the message that Jay-Z and Beyoncé are keen to project during their On The Run II tour, which came to ...
How Auto-Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 17 September 2018
An in-depth history of the most important pop innovation of the last 20 years, from Cher's 'Believe' to Kanye West to Migos ...
Activism, Identity Politics, and Pop's Great Awokening
Comment by Jason King, Pitchfork, 11 October 2019
From Beyoncé to Kendrick to Kesha, pop's turn to political activism produced some of the decade's most memorable moments. ...
Retrospective by Iman Lababedi, RockNYC, 20 April 2023
BETWEEN THE TRAGIC murder of Biggie Smalls in 1997 and Jay-Z's temporary retirement in 2003, he and his producer Kanye West dominated the rap scene. ...
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