composed by Shawn Carter; samples composed by Norman Landsberg, Felix Pappalardi, Billy Squier, John Ventura & Leslie Weinstein; produced by Rick Rubin
Cecil Taylor used to stop parties by arguing that Marvin Gaye was as important as Thelonious Monk was. Jay-Z may have Gaye’s musical insouciance, but his accrued amour propre has done far more for both his self-consciousness and his hit rate, which indicates a difference in kind. Notwithstanding his thorough exegesis of this monster track’s lyrics in Decoded, Jay-Z’s words might as well be Google object code, as far as elucidating how their enjambed configuration within Jay-Z’s rhythm argument on the recording was even conceivable, let alone possible. Sonny Rollins’s epochal “Blue 7” extrapolation is close. Charlie Parker’s unaccompanied solo on “A Night in Tunisia” that only Miles Davis could count the time for might be closer. Jimi Hendrix playing “Hear My Train a-Comin’” on an acoustic twelve-string also relates: nothing but wispy phrases that could only truly sound through an amplifier, which was as much Hendrix’s instrument as the guitar was. But it is also weirdly reminiscent of Richard Burton’s complaints while shooting Cleopatra that Elizabeth Taylor’s lines were completely inaudible, until he saw on the rushes that she was clear as daylight, having given the microphone exactly what it needed before it knew what that was.
Note: 25 secular essays (each one exactly 200 words long) about 25 songs, originally intended to appear one per day during Advent (or so) from Dec. 1 through Dec. 25, now extended to Twelfth Night (or so).
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