Jay-Z — MTV Unplugged

The Roots come to help Jay-Z as a live band for his MTV Unplugged. The idea wasn't evil, but its execution leaves something to be desired, overall. Obviously, Tariq is not there. Obviously, Questlove does a spectacular job and the original beats are basically identical. Almost all of the performance is extracted from "Blueprint", published a few months earlier.

"Izzo (HOVA)" is fine, amazing soulful hook and great jazzy strings surround Roc-A-Fella rapper's aggressive delivery. Follows "Takeover": bouncy jazzy boom bap, copy of Kanye's original while Hova delivers aggressive, ruthless, dope; on the second verse, which is a dissing to Mobb Deep, the rhythm changes to that of "Shook Ones II", beautiful, in the third, dissing to Nas, the music changes first to that of "Oochie Wally" then to that of "NY State of Mind". Brilliant choices of the Roots, masterpiece. The third choice, aided by a great soulful hook and strings, keeps this CD at a high level. "Jigga What, Jigga Who" on the other hand, is quite weak even live, while "Big Pimpin'" is similar to the original, and it's not good, also because without UGK it loses something.

This MTV Unplugged starts getting erratic very soon: "Hearty of the City" is one of the best cuts, great soulful jazzy beat, great live and energetic delivery of Hova, making a sublime track, with powerful, driving, spectacular soul hook, wonderfully executed. On the other hand, "Can I Get A..." presents a rhythm that's difficult to reproduce live, in this particular case it's better for the listener, Carter tries a syncopated delivery, but the rhythm is so much better done live that the MC can't find the right timing with the solution designed by the Roots.

"Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)", like the previous one, is a difficult rhythm to be produced live, here the orchestra is overcome, but the hook remains similar to the original and is performed with a simplistic style; Jay-Z's rapping here seems to be held back. The ninth song "Ain't No" also suffers from the same music problems that plagued the two previous tracks, also because it's a fairly weak and poor rhythm, Hova is good because completely obscures it with an energetic delivery and I want to write an appreciation line for the orchestra to which the hook is left: they do better than Foxy Brown, even if in truth it wasn't difficult to overcome her.

With the arrival of Mary J. Blige we witness one of the high points of this "Unplugged": the first official track in Jay-Z's artistic history, a classic, beautifully performed, the artist makes a medley with his song "Family Affair". It follows the soulful track "Song Cry", the Roots make simple an immense work of Just Blaze, props to them, but above all there's another splendid live chorus for this classic, immense effort of the chorister to reach the original, I consult the site discogs to trace her name because she really deserves, Jaguar Wright. This girl performed all the hooks I described above and did a job that goes quite unnoticed without making the original singers regret it, spectacular work, wonderful.

This record is closed by "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)", mediocre tune even live, with a rhythm that's suffering, and "Jigga That Nigga", a medley with the remix of "Fiesta" by R. Kelly, the beat isn't among the best heard so far, but Jay-Z's delivery attempts to save those last eight minutes, especially the unlisted track on jazzy somber boom bap is way better. Almost an hour of listening, thirteen tracks (+ one, if you want), they all mix together in an almost random mix and the record loses something: the alternation between classics and bad songs is painful, and this CD ends up being deeply flawed. It's a shame because with a few more decent choices and a few less random songs, it could easily have been a great tape.

Highlights: "Izzo (H.O.V.A."), "Takeover", "Girls, Girls, Girls", "Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)", "Can't Knoche the Hustle / Family Affair", "Song Cry".

Rating: 7/10.