It wouldn’t be the week before a new Jay-Z album (that would be Blueprint 3, out September 11, obvs) without a massive overload of Jigga-related news. In addition to weekend appearances on TV and in Williamsburg, today marks the release of the first track off the new album produced solely by Kanye West, “Hate,” and it’s really bad. Or, rather, Jay and Kanye’s verses are terrible, but the beat is perfect contemporary electro-dance Kanye (as opposed to early aughts soulful Kanye, which I still prefer). With West handling about half the production on Blueprint 3, this boads well for the beats, but very poorly for the lyrics:
Oh god, this is awful. I have no interest in hearing Jay rap over 808s & Heartbreak.