Intermediate work:
Jay-Z made such an indelible impression on the Timbaland-produced single "Jigga What, Jigga Who (Originators 99)" that countless rappers borrowed his liquid, machine-gun delivery when rhyming over Timbaland's beats. Taken from his 2000 album The Dynasty: Roc La Familia 2000, "I Just Want To Love You (Give It To Me)," his first collaboration with a pair of hungry young Virginia beatsmiths called the Neptunes, helped set the template for countless Neptunes hits to come. Flashy, celebratory lyrics lead into a charmingly amateurish Pharrell Williams-sung hook set against nervous but caffeinated and infectious production, and topped off with a flashy video nakedly glorifying arch materialism.
Jay-Z has a chameleon-like ability to adapt to the sound of the moment, whether that sound is the rap-metal of Linkin Park on Collision Course, the Casio gymnastics of Swizz Beats, or perhaps most dramatically, the Bollywood-meets-Knight Rider culture clash of the "Beware The Boys" remix, a one-off collaboration with Punjabi MC. Jay-Z's detractors say his mania for tapping into the hottest trends is evidence of his empty, shameless opportunism. Fans, meanwhile, hail it as proof of his versatility and flexibility.
On The Dynasty, that means co-opting the Neptunes' signature sound and taking a Rick Rock G-Funk groove out for a spin on the West Coast-flavored "Change The Game." But the most important collaboration here is undoubtedly "This Can't Be Life," a collaboration with a young Chicago producer named Kanye West, whose future and destiny would forever be linked to Jay-Z's.
"This Can'e Be Life" by Jay-Z
Originally designed as a Roc-A-Fella compilation, The Dynasty was eventually marketed as a Jay-Z album designed to showcase Roc-A-Fella artists Beanie Sigel—who never lived up to his potential, in spite of a slew of stellar guest appearances—and Memphis Bleek, whose recording career has been DOA in spite of Jay-Z's enthusiastic endorsement. Nonetheless, it now sounds like Jay-Z's loosest, funkiest effort to date. Production-wise, it's largely a product of its times, but the West track, a moody, soulful meditation on the bleak realities of street life, and Jay-Z's segue from hustling to music, pointed the way toward a more timeless sound.
The dirty little secret of Jay-Z's career is that he's often only as good as his beats. But since he has pretty much every household-name producer on speed dial, that's seldom a problem. He has so much clout that, with 2003's The Black Album, he was even able to lure Rick Rubin back to hip-hop production for "99 Problems." That irresistible throwback track proved there was nothing Jay-Z couldn't rap over, from electronic squiggles to head-banging heavy-metal guitars.
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