Ten years after he dropped his debut and magnum opus, Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z has returned from retirement to bless his fans with his eighth solo LP, “Kingdom Come.”
Lyrically, Jay is still unmatched. Lines like “kingpin of the inkpen/monster of the double entendre/Coke is still my sponsor/the Cola/Yeah, Hova still gettin’ it in with soda/diet/no sir/ I ain’t lose no weight/started from the crates, now sittin’ on a whole case” on the Kanye West-produced and John Legend-assisted “Do U Wanna Ride” prove that point from the jump.
For the most part, the album is sonically brilliant. Aftermath founder and West Coast legend Dr. Dre contributes nearly a third of the disc’s 14 tracks including the brilliant “Minority Report,” Young Hov’s first foray into political rap. The song is a stinging criticism of both the Bush Administration’s mishandling of Hurricane Katrina and his own.
Unfortunately, big-name producers do not always equate big time success. The Neptunes-helmed “Anything” is easily the worst thing to come from Pharrell and Chad since they made their names with ODB’s “Got Your Money” way back in 1999.
The album’s crown jewels come from the mind of super-producer Just Blaze. Cuts two through four find the pair rekindling the remarkable chemistry displayed on past gems “U Don’t Know,” and “Girls Girls Girls” from “The Blueprint,” and “A Dream” and “Hovi Baby” from its sequel.
The pair’s strongest collaboration is the title-track, which finds the Jiggaman sporting his best pair of parachute pants as Just freaks the same sample that made Hammer untouchable. “Hoppin up in the office/you might know him as Clark/just when the whole world fell apart/I take off the blazer/loosen up the tie/step inside the booth/Superman is aliiiive” he spits over Just’s stellar reworking of the late Rick James’s classic “Superfreak.”
While “Kingdom Come” is mostly a superb effort, its missteps keep it from reaching both the enormous hype surrounding it and the unrealistically high bar Jay has set for himself.
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