Cover: The Blueprint 3

Via: Jay-Z’s official website.

Lewis Corson

Leaked Jay-Z/Kanye/Rihanna Record is Mediocre

While it’s probably old news now, we want to share our opinion on “Run This Town” with our faithful readers. “Run This Town” leaked three days ago, on July 24th on a couple of blogs and was promptly covered by Pitchfork a few hours later (sorry, [cardboard living] doesn’t have a weekend staff yet). Staff writer, Tom Breihan gives the track a glowing review, claiming that the song ‘bangs’ and talking about Jay-Z, on a pop record, rapping like ‘he cares‘. Sorry, Tom, but we’re not with you.

The hook, that Rihanna sings, can’t help but evoke the same squirming feeling that we got whenever “Rehab” or “Disturbia” used to come on the radio. The real problem with the track is the huge difference between Rihanna’s voice, which is now pop-proven and the grinding guitar riff that drives the track. The same guitar riff loop was used in “Death of Autotune (D.O.A.)” to great effect because of its inherent hardness, but Rihanna wasn’t on that track. Hopefully, Kanye wasn’t talking about “Run This Town” when he said this in February:

I just did one beat the other day in Hawaii — probably one of the best hip-hop beats of all time, if I do say so myself.

Jay-Z’s verses sound determined and aggressive and Kanye, as he’s known to do, has a couple good one-liners on the track but hopefully we’ll hear a better track with the next leak, which we’re betting will hit the web within a week.

According to reports, “Run This Town” is set to be the single to follow “D.O.A.” instead of a track that Jay did with Drake entitled “Off That.”

Jay-Z – Run This Town feat. Kanye West and Rihanna

6.4/10. A great beat is soiled by Rihanna’s pop-proven pipes. Maybe it’s because Rihanna evokes visions of drunk college girls dancing to “Umbrella” or because The Blueprint 3 is over-hyped. There is, however, promise for the album as we keep seeing some solid beats being rolled out.

Lewis Corson

Exclusive: Death Of Autotune (D.O.A.)

This is the first track that we’re going to hear from Jay-Z’s upcoming album The Blueprint 3 and let’s just say that Jigga has definitely re-upped his swagger somehow.  Maybe stepping down as CEO of Def Jam after some weak results has resulted in his street cred rising… or something, I’m no expert on that.

The hype on the upcoming Blueprint rose to an extremity after Kanye came back from Hawaii proclaiming that he had made “one of the best hip hop beats of all time” for his mentor. He said the same about 808′s, but we won’t hold that against him.

No I.D., who runs in the same crew as Rhymefest, Kanye and Common produced the track and it is reminiscent of Jay-Z’s American Gangster score. The call for the end of the autotune has been lacking for some time now and [cl] is happy to see a hip hop legend lead the charge.

Jay-Z – Death of Autotune (D.O.A.)

7.8/10. Tight verses and a killer guitar loop kill the comp on this new new.

The Blueprint 3 is scheduled for a 2009 release on September 11.

Lewis Corson