įollowing a period of dormancy, Jay-Z became president of Def Jam Recordings in December 2004 and resumed his rap career two years later with the release of Kingdom Come, which peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 and was certified two times platinum from the RIAA. The albums included hit singles such as 'Big Pimpin' and 'I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)' and featured several guest appearances from artists signed to Roc-A-Fella Records. Carter and The Dynasty: Roc La Familia – followed in December 1999 and October 2000 respectively. 2 was certified five times platinum by the RIAA and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album in 1999. The album featured the international hits 'Can I Get A.' and 'Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)', which both reached top twenty of the Billboard Hot 100. Hard Knock Life was released in September 1998 and became his first number-one album in the United States. 1 (1997), which saw Jay-Z collaborating with producers such as Sean 'Puff Daddy' Combs and Teddy Riley, peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 and earned a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Its singles included 'Dead Presidents', 'Ain't No Nigga' and 'Can't Knock the Hustle', all of which reached the top ten on the BillboardHot Rap Songs chart. The album peaked at number twenty-three on the United States Billboard 200 record chart and has since been recognized as a seminal work of the hip hop genre. Jay-Z later founded Roc-A-Fella Records with close friends Damon Dash and Kareem 'Biggs' Burke and released his debut studio album Reasonable Doubt in June 1996. For the rarely tread waters of rap concert albums, Jay-Z’s “Unplugged” is as good as they get.Jay-Z began his music career in the 1980s, building a reputation as a fledgling rapper in his hometown of Brooklyn and collaborating with his mentor and fellow rapper Jaz-O. After hearing his live performance and a little taste of what’s to come, the fans should undoubtedly stay hungry. One has to suspect it’s no coincidence this album was released the same week as Nas’ “Stillmatic” was, as Jigga gets the entire audience to scream that he’s so “LAAAAAAAAAAME!” during his performance of “Takeover.” Despite the rumors though, his “Super Ugly” freestyle is not included on this album as a bonus song although there IS one after the end of last track, in which he mentiones “Blueprint 2” will be coming out next November. Jay-Z talks to the audience, cracks jokes, and gets them to participate in providing the hooks and famous lines from his most popular songs. This live recording manages to hit almost all the right notes. It’s too bad this live version of the song wasn’t on “Blueprint” instead! A few Jay-Z songs that weren’t among his best work are completely invigorated by this live set, including “Can I Get A.” and the formerly insipid “Jigga That Nigga” track. Combining the two together leads to some really spectacular show-stopping performances, such as Roots posse member Jaguar BELTING out the heartfelt chorus of “Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love).” When she extends it into a freestyle of her own Jigga likes it so much he declares, “I like that, let’s do it again!” and she keeps RIGHT on singing. Anybody who has seen or heard one of their shows knows that they reinterpolate the music from legendary hip-hop tracks in their performance. Hip-Hop’s finest musicians have already been doing this for a while now. The fact that Jay-Z has always relied on beats that have some jazzy swing to them lends itself to the ability of The Roots to recreate the tracks live. The only song included from “Dynasty” is the hit single “I Just Wanna Love U” with Pharell from The Neptunes showing up to provide his Mayfield-esque vocals and hook. The three singles from “Volume 2” are also included, and from “Volume 3” a new interpretation of “Big Pimpin'” is offered with the melody provided by keyboards instead of winds. Blige showing up to reprise her original vocals. To his credit though, two songs from his debut album “Reasonable Doubt” are included: a short performance of the song “Ain’t No (Nigga)” sans Foxy Brown, and “Can’t Knock the Hustle” WITH Mary J. Throughout his engaging performance, Jay-Z relies heavily on songs from his recently released “Blueprint” album – six to be exact. By combining the alreadyunplugged live sound of hip-hop band The Roots with the vocals of Jay-Z, MTV gives the whole series a breath of fresh air and showcases a group of rap’s finest on one stage. Since it’s inception, MTV’s Unplugged has included hip-hop artists from A Tribe Called Quest to LL Cool J. If you thought only Nirvana and Pearl Jam ‘unplugged’ their instruments for MTV, here’s a wake-up call.
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