Kingdom Come - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.co.uk
Few retirements are as short-lived as that of New York rap mogul Jay-Z. Barely two years after bowing out in 2004, he's back with Kingdom Come--and if he's set down the mic for a minute, it doesn't show. Backed by a dream team of producers (Just Blaze, Kanye West, Dr Dre, the Neptunes), with special guests including Pharrell, Beyonce, and Coldplay's Chris Martin, it's an A-list cast. Naturally, though, it's the Hova who's the star attraction, slightly older and prone to pontificating on his ten years in the game (see "30-Something"), but certainly no wiser: as he raps on "Trouble," he's still got "hands in the cookie jar." The first few tracks are pure consolidation, gleaming and boastful productions that remind you just how great Jay-Z is on the mic. Further in, though, Kingdom Come branches out in style: "Hollywood," the duet with Beyonce, is a jaded take on celebrity culture, while "Minority Report" relives the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina with the Bush Administration in the metaphorical sights. Finally, the Coldplay-produced "Beach Chair" concludes the album on a spiritual note, Jay-Z announcing "life is but a dream" as Chris Martin trills like an angel atop echoing drums and distorted, music-box guitar. If you thought it could never work, you were clearly underestimating.--Louis Pattison

Amazon.com
While nowhere near a career-ending disaster, the wobbly Kingdom Come wasn't the best justification Jay-Z could have made for ending his retirement. You'd think his enthusiasm for jumping back in the game would give the album more energy but despite a power trio of songs by Just Blaze that kick off the CD, much of the album feels listless and unfocused and it doesn't help that A-list producers like Dr. Dre and the Neptunes drop the ball with some truly tepid tracks. There are nice moments: the blistering title song, Jay's soul-baring "Lost Ones," and his snickering disses on "Dig a Hole." But, those moments are counterbalanced by the clunky "Beach Chair" (produced by Coldplay's Chris Martin), the obnoxious, corporate swagger of "30 Something," and the garish, unlistenable club cut "Anything." Any fan of Jay over the last 10 years knows he's better than this so now the new anticipation will be for his real comeback album. --Oliver Wang

Album Description
Bonus CD includes exclusive LIVE performances from the Reasonable Doubt 10 Yr. Anniversary Concert (Recorded live at Radio City Music Hall June 25, 2006)

Album Details
Guests Including Beyonce, Eminem, Naz, and Mary J. Blige.

Customer Reviews: Read 177 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Jay-Z's most complicated work November 21, 2006
87 out of 107 found this review helpful

Jay-Z had quite a bar to clear with Kingdom Come, a bar he himself set with albums including Reasonable Doubt, Blueprint and Black Album. Some might say that fans expected too much from this set, but it was Jay-Z himself who orchestrated the hype machine by "retiring" and then feeding the streets a verse here and there alluding to his lyrical genius. The question remains, does Jay-Z live up to expectations? I offer an interesting answer for those listening to the album for the first time: Not yet, but he will.

Kingdom Come is an album whose quality cannot be fully understood on the first listen, or the second, or maybe even the first 10. But eventually, it'll seep into your brain. You'll notice that the more you listen, the more the subtle nuance, the little lyrical jabs, the understated but ultimately intricate flow will come into relief. I jumped on the leak (though, I've now purchased the special edition of the album) and have been listening to the album pretty much nonstop (cleansing my palette with Doctor's Advocate and Hell Hath No Fury every now and again) for over a week now. At first I definitely thought it was trash, epitomized by "Hollywood."

But then I really started to listen to the words. I heard his regret for not doing more for his community after Katrina on Minority Report ("Sure I ponyed up a mil', but I didn't give my time/So in reality I didn't give dime or a damn"). On Dig a Hole I heard him rap about the frustrating position he's in when it comes to beef ("It's hard to do when you've got nothing to prove/ Everybody knows you're better, you're in a lose-lose/ Cause even when you win ultimately you lose/ Real brothas like `Hov' why you talkin' to dude?'"). On I Made It, Jay thanks his mother for facilitating his growth in the absence of a father ("Didn't have a man in the house, so you made one/ That's why I act like your husband and I'm only your son"). On Lost Ones (leaked earlier this year) we hear one of the most personal Jay tracks ever recorded, to the point where he alludes to his rocky relationship with Beyonce, something he's normally very guarded about, "Breath mami, it's deserved/ You've been put on this earth to be all you can be, like the reserves/ But me, my time in this army is served/ So I hafta allow she, her time to serve/ The time's now for her, in time she'll mature/ And maybe we can be we again, like we were." I heard the superhero themes on Kingdom Come ("Take off the blazer, loosen up the tie/ Step inside the booth, Superman is alive"). And I even began to appreciate the meaning behind the words (over a disgusting beat) on Hollywood. Not to mention a touching song to his imprisoned cousin on Do You Wanna Ride, and my personal favorite track, Beach Chair, which speaks for itself.

In short, I honestly believe that Kingdom Come is a little above us when we first listen to it. It needs to be heard, and heard again. Is that the way entertaining music is supposed to work? No! But that's the way art works. There's no Big Pimpin' here, there's no I Just Wanna Love You, or Girls, Girls, Girls. This is above the commercial single, which is why I don't know how big a success it will be when it comes to airplay. This is art, this is complicated, try to understand the artist's strokes and you'll find a pretty awesome experience. This is Jay-Z's most complicated work and I think it will ultimately be appreciated years down the road, as a great deal of art is.

2 out of 5 stars

I Hate to Do This to Jay November 21, 2006
12 out of 16 found this review helpful

I'm so glad he's back, but this album is a disappointment. I'm a huge Jay-Z fan -- no one with more style, skill, and personality on the mic. It showed on this album but everything just didn't mesh well. If you compare this cd to the other rap cd's out there, no doubt, 5 stars -- but to compare it to Reasonable Doubt, Blueprint, or the Black Album, I had to give it 2 stars. This seemed like more of a lazy effort by Jay, kind of like Blueprint 2. This album to reach my expectations of a Jay-Z record, but now I'm back on the "can't wait" wagon because now I'll have to wait for the next one to meet my expectations. And the guest appearences were a big disappointment.

Song with Usher is just terrible, were they even in the studio together for that song? Sounds so off. Song with his girl, B, is also terrible -- doesn't work. John Legend song is okay, but Legend has disappointed lately and a weak Kanye beat. The Chris Martin song is pretty good. It's a deep song and Chris Martin is ridiculously talented.

If you're a Jay fan, still go get it -- but if you're not, please wait for the next one cause this is not up to par with Jay's talent and capabilities.

1 out of 5 stars

PLEASE RETIRE January 15, 2007
11 out of 14 found this review helpful

Hip Hop is dead. What does that mean? You know Run DMC thought the same about hip hop when 2pac and BIG ran the show. Its not dead its just changing. I look at what Jay and Nas doing is as wanting rappers to be like them. Well that aint happenin. Rappers have realized that when you be yourself and be comfortable with being yourself then thats when your career will take off. For example look at TI, Lil Wayne, Jeezy, The Game, 50 Cent(even though I dont care for his music), Jim Jones, and the garbage D4L type groups. These guys are successful because they do what works for them. Its kind of a major statement to say "the game needs me". No the game doesn't, you need the game Jay. My advise is go retire again, he is a much better business man than he is a rapper(can you believe that I once was a fan lol).

2 out of 5 stars

Hmmm...Huge Jayz fan...Back when he was an "Originator" with Jaz...but this doesn't cut the cake for me November 22, 2006
9 out of 16 found this review helpful

When I go about breaking down albums, I go about it like this:

1. Songs on the album/content of these songs.
2. Album direction
3. Song sequencing on the album

That's pretty much it. Now based off of that... you can't ... i mean you can NOT honestly tell me that this is a hot CD. Let's break it down...

1. Jay-Z's flow is dead tired on most songs. He's not even riding the beats. He gets lost on the beats. (Kingdom Come, Show Me What You Got, Dig A Hole, Trouble, Oh My God, I Made It)... for a man with many flows and impeccable lyrical dexterity... this is totally unacceptable. This makes the product sound rushed AND like he's not fully into it. Just doing it for sales (which will be brought up later).

2. The album has no direction. At all. We start off with "The Prelude". Cool. This should set the tone of the CD. Then we have "Oh My God"... alright... could've been a better segue but not bad. Then "Kingdom Come" kicks in. Alright!! We are there... (actually "Kingdom Come" should've been track 2...bad sequencing) the flow and direction of the CD is set. And then "Show Me What You Got" comes up afterwards. Terrible. This song is basically a pop song. Train wreck. Then "Lost Ones" comes on... now we gotta pick it up from being stopped. A new direction is being set by placing "Do U Wanna Ride" here and it keeps it going. Then "30 Something" (which reads my mind to death) is on... GREAT!! WE NOW HAVE IT!! Until "I Made It" comes on. Then the CD is just deaded with the awful "Anything" and "Hollywood". I'm no longer interested. "Beach Chair," although a good song, can't save this damage at the end. This lack of direction and breakage of flow/segue just makes this not an album, but a collection of songs.

3. He dumbed down too much on the album's material. I mean he made it for the majority of the listeners who don't know anything about real hip hop and for the true Jay-Z peons who will vouch for anything he does.

Now after reading that... like everyone else... how can you honestly say that this is a nice CD? And I know true to life Jay-Z fans who HATE this CD. This CD is just disappointing as well as another example of how dude always lets me and others down by not constantly bringing it like he can.

I also noticed that people listed some of there favorite songs. But notice out of the 14 tracks, there were only 4 or 5 listed as "bangers" or "favorites" or "hot tracks." However when I do the division I get a 3.5...But you give it at 5? and 3.5 out of 5 is a C-. Makes no sense. A good album should not make you skip songs; a good album is strong throughout and solid, this is weak...and I am disappointed.

5 out of 5 stars

Not for the Easy Listeners November 23, 2006
9 out of 14 found this review helpful

I bought this CD, and I can honestly say that this album separates the true Jay-Z fans from the fair-weather ones. Kingdom Come separates the true Hip-Hop followers from the easy listeners of the genre.

Kingdome Come is everything that true hip-hop fans have been asking for. This CD has 14 songs, and not one of them is about selling dope. Some people don't like Jay because of this. The truth is, Jay-Z is 36, so he simply refuses to rap about some of the things the kids want to hear. Not only does he NOT make mention of how big his rims are, on the song "30 Something" he actually says he's too grown and mature for rims. I have Jay-Z's entire catalogue, and this album by far has the most substance. He has songs about his mom, about Beyonce & Dame, songs about growing up, and even a song about Katrina. The only shortcoming on the entire project is the production. The beats aren't bad, but there honestly isn't a single beat that I could see myself riding to. Actually, that's one of the main reasons people don't like this album. Jay-Z's last 5 projects have had at least one club banger, but Kingdome Come doesn't even have that. Because of that, all the casual Jay-Z fans and head bobbers are turned off - but the hip-hop fans that came for lyricism are quite satisfied. Jay-Z isn't 29 anymore (the age he was when he made Big Pimpin), and he doesn't try to rap like it.

Will you like this album? Well that all depends on what category of Jay-Z fans that you fall into...

(Note: When I say lyrical, I mean that in the sense that his word usage is creative and his delivery is complex. By lyrical I do NOT mean using a bunch of similes and punch lines, spitting fake knowledge and idealistic rhetoric, or spitting a bunch of big words that don't really mean anything)

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