The Glory.

No hype. No Gloss. No pretense. Just me. Stripped...

So you know I went ahead and copped this album on Tuesday right? I mean why wouldn't I? And for a week or so now I had been getting myself ready for it, bumping the Vol 3. The Life and Times of S -dot- Carter, revisiting the Blueprint [Heart of the City stand up!], and hitting the good tracks on Kingdom Come.

One thing I did not do was get my hands on it before it hit the streets. You see I have been doing this thing lately where I get all excited about new release Tuesdays and have faith that when I drop my 10 to 15 dollars on an album from one of my favorite artists, I'll be rewarded with something that knocks from start to finish, or at least 75% of the time. And let me tell ya, I lucked out with this one. [Surprise, Surprise]

Say what you will about the iPod, but there's something wonderful about spinning that dial hitting >II and ta-ta-turning the volume up, letting a kick drum, dizzying rhyme, or nice 4/4 beat hit your ears, bob that head, and stop you from reading that page, walking that street [I said street, not track], and make you go damn or simply sit up straight and pay attention.

It's nice.

And with each play this album is doing that for me. Blue Magic will pull me in, Hello Brooklyn will stick in the head [I'm hearing Prince in Lil Wayne's voice sometimes, but maybe I am reading too much into it], and Party Life makes me want to stand up and declare "Hip-Hop. Not Dead." I don't know why, it just does. But at the end of the day the bits and the pieces coalesce to form a mighty whole, and when you purchase an album [or download one] that's all you really want or could ask for right?

So in conclusion, Jay-Z. American Gangster. Schooling you fools trying to score a miliion "saying nothing on the track."

Bonus...

"WE IN THE HOUSE!"