Music Blogs

An album, by any mature definition, is more than just a collection of songs. However, the absolute albums released by hip-hop's two dominating artists are dripping with similarities on a track-by-track basis. Over a month ago, I predicted that Kanye West's Graduation was going to have a definitive effect on Jay-Z's American Gangster and, now that they've both been released, the comparison between hip-hop's biggest stars and their latest releases isn't hard. Their professional careers are forever intertwined with their collaborations nearing 20 songs (officially) and Kanye certainly lays out his personal feelings about Jay-Z on "Big Brother." And if you still don't believe the obvious pairing of two albums that'll certainly be atop everyone's year-end lists, check the "Everything I Am" reference in "Pray."

 

"Barry Bonds" vs. "Brooklyn 2.0"

(The Lil Wayne Song)

"Brooklyn 2.0" might be one of the strangest songs--this side of OutKast--that'll be knocking clubs for a substantial amount of time. By pairing the Beastie Boy sample and a gang o' 808 boom-bap, producer Bigg D creates an unforgettable low-end filled with reverence towards an era when a young Jay-Z was just getting started in the life that paints his rhymes. But Lil Wayne throws a monkey wrench into the nostalgia machine by delivering his sing-song vocals as an R&B alien sent straight from the future. "Barry Bonds" is great, but Wayne sleepwalks right through this more standard fare.

Winner: Jay

 

"Homecoming" vs. "I Know"

(The Bulls**t Lounge Song)

Easily the two most obnoxious songs on these releases, "Homecoming" and "I Know" are the grown-ass man definition of why Jay-Z's Kingdom Come was such a disappointment. Chris Martin needs to be banned from singing hip-hop hooks...and "I Know" is even more furiously ingratiating.

Winner: ‘Ye

 

"Stronger" vs. "Ignorant Sh*t"

(The Familiar Sample Banger)

Two songs made possible by the internet, "Ignorant Sh*t" was a Black Album castoff that caught fire once it was leaked, while the Daft Punk sample in "Stronger" was the most blogger-friendly single since Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy." Just Blaze's clever sampling of the Isley Brothers' "Between The Sheets" (everybody from Biggie to Da Brat to Lil Vicious flipped a different portion of the song in the early ‘90s) allows Jay to flex his lyrical miracles. But it's the addition of his third, current-events tackling verse that steals the show and succinctly makes the argument for rap's first amendment rights better than anyone ("Scarface the movie did more than Scarface the rapper to me/So that ain't to blame for all the sh*t that's happened to me/Are you sayin' that what I'm spittin'/Is worse than these celebutantes showin' their kitten?/You kiddin'?"). But then again, "Stronger" is a certified stadium anthem that carried an entire summer and countless remixes.

Winner: Tie

 

"Drunk And Hot Girls" vs. "Success"

(The Anticipated Collaboration Song)

I'm certainly not the first to say that Nas and Jay-Z bring out the best in each other (it's been true since their gloriously fruitful battle from 2001) and "Success" is just the latest example of this, um, success. Over a psychedelic organ and a squealing guitar lick, courtesy of No ID, this is the perfect example of two artists thriving under the guise of friendly competition. "Drunk And Hot Girls" is a challenge of a different sort, as Mos Def and Kanye recorded this cough-syrup overdose soundtrack. While it's even more fun than any of the cough-syrup overdoses I've participated in--maybe I need to switch brands--"Success" is a pinnacle of two of hip-hop's greatest stars.

Winner: Jay

 

"Good Life" vs. "Roc Boys"

(The Feel Good Single)

I'm not entirely against T-Pain's vocodered R(obot)&B, especially when it's used for the greater good of a song that just makes you feel good. "Good Life" is certainly that, but it's also a definition of rap-lite, a genre that flirts with Adult Contemporary vanillability. "Roc Boys," on the other hand, flips a sample from the Amy Winehouse and Sharon Jones backing band the Dap Kings for a joyous cause-de-celebré. It sounds like a Scarface-sized pile of cocaine without the bummer of an ending...and it also features some timely adlibs from Kanye West.

Winner: Jay

 

"Everything I Am" vs. "Fallin'"

(The Self-Reflection With A Piano Sample Song)

Breezily floating along, "Everything I Am" is somewhat of a grown folks' anthem. Kanye's examination of self is delivered with the solemn wisdom and careful remorse of someone much older than his years, but damn, did Jermaine Dupri really produce "Fallin'"? Jay-Z is at his best in two places: at the top or at the bottom. "Fallin'" is an example of the latter, as Hov lists regrets from the perspective of a gangster that went too far. One of the American Gangster stand-outs, it is in fact produced by Janet Jackson's boo, but also the perfect sample in the perfect place. Even if Dupri might've thefted the beat from Ski.

Winner: Jay

 

"Good Morning (Intro)" vs. "Pray"

(The First Song)

It's not as lazy as matching up the first full songs on these respective albums may seem (or maybe it is), but both of these songs are logical premises for a work's genesis...they're also thick on the drama. Jay speaks on a youth that could only breed a gangster, while ‘Ye's song unfolds like a morning filled with both sunshine and hail. Kanye gets points taken off for trying to rhyme "good mornian" with "valedictorian, " but wins them back for this nonsense: "I'm like the fly Malcolm X/Buy any jeans necessary." The tangibility of rhyming over a piano that actually sounds like a felt hammer striking a taut steel string is also a plus. But with Beyoncé sounding like the sultry and omnipotent first woman of a street empire, "Pray" is an inspirational story of achieving in the face of life's obstacles, all over the kind of driving orchestral production that sets fires.

Winner:  Jay

 

"Flashing Lights" vs. "American Dreamin'"

(The Song With the Sung Hook)

One of the cagier match-ups on this list (Graduation is full of soulfully sung hooks and the chorus on "American Dreamin'" is hardly a sing-along), both feel like set-up songs. While Jay's is a narrative device, Kanye's feels more like an intermission in spite of its top-notch status as a complete song. Maybe it's the whimsy of the beat or the elongated refrain that finishes the track, but either way, "Flashing Lights" may just be the prettiest assist in album history.

Winner: ‘Ye

 

"Champion" vs. "Party Life"

(The Celebratory "Life's Great" Song)

While Jay-Z's celebration of the life gone good is incredibly more swanky than Kanye's defiant shout from a mountain top, they're both a good place to be. But in the pseudo-real-world-one where you don't wake up on MTV-the shouting is much more remorable than the swankness. Making it more relatable, Kanye laments all our wishes, saying,  "Lauryn Hill said her heart was in Zion / I wish her heart was still in rhymin'." Because we should all have that same exact wish. The line impresses Hov so much that he needs to repeat it as an adlib goes: "I sport fly sh*t / I should win an ESPY." I don't get it.

Winner: ‘Ye

 

"Can't Tell Me Nothing" vs. "Blue Magic"

(The Street Single)

Hands down the hardest pairing to score in this entirely arbitrary battle, both these cuts are also the most hyperbolic (and snarling) versions of these two artists' respective personas. Kanye is at his most abrasively confident peak, while Jay hasn't broken down drug pushing dynamics to this level since Reasonable Doubt. DJ Toomp's production on  "Can't Tell Me Nothing" doesn't have the immediate impact that "What You Know" did, but it's slow-burning street hustle mentality is just one of those tracks that gets better with each listen. And Jeezy's adlibs are even more menacing when he's not the primary rapper. "Blue Magic," meanwhile, pits Jay-Z against the type of Neptunes' beat that's normally reserved for the Clipse: dead-body-cold drums and fun-house-church-service organs. It's a close one, but Jay-Z's darts are straight daggers.

Winner: Jay

 

"Big Brother" vs. "No Hook"

(The Emotional Admission)

Honesty is always celebrated in hip-hop (just listen to David Banner's address of Congress), but rarely does honesty have a real name. In Kanye's "Big Brother," the name of honesty is Jay-Z. By addressing the shadow (and slights) cast by Jay-Z, West's vulnerability is even more naked because the setting is framed by facts that are common knowledge. We all watched Fade To Black, but are incredulous that Kanye had to buy two tickets to the Madison Square Garden performance of a lifetime. It's a dangerous position, in hip-hop, to say that you admire someone so much that you can overlook their sometimes-questionable behavior towards you, but Kanye does it with class and love. "No Hook" doesn't have the real world verifiability, but its underlying choir and portrait of Shawn Carter's youth is a clever exploration of cadence. That said, "Big Brother" is without precedence.

Winner: ‘Ye

 

The Rest of Graduation vs. The Rest of American Gangster

(The Bitch Move)

At this point, forcing the remaining songs would be obvious and more importantly, mathematically impossible, as Gangster has 15 tracks and Graduation ends with 13. So it's not entirely a bitch move. The fractional to our dividend is three deep (not counting Jay's introductory track): Kanye's "I Wonder," Jay-Z's "Say Hello" and his title track. Kanye's synth-heavy and unpredictable plodder is a melodic wonder of simplicity, while despite following Jay's blueprint perfectly (pun intended), "Say Hello" and "American Gangster" under whelm. It's a bit of an upset considering this was a two-against-one mismatch of numbers.

Winner: ‘Ye

Total Tally: Looks like President Carter wins again, defeating his little brother 6-5 with one tie.