KINGDOM COME - JAY-Z
There aren’t a lot of things Shawn Carter has done badly in his lifetime, but he was a pretty incompetent retiree. A mere three years after his mmm-kay farewell disc, “The Black Album,” Jay reappears, christens himself “the Mike Jordan of recordin”‘ (phony retirement and all), puts his well-brushed shoulder down and plows through the competition. “Kingdom Come” is front-loaded with Just Blaze-produced claims to the throne — the thrilling title track even steals back the “Super Freak” sample from Hammer Town. Jay’s oft-repeated mantra that “30 is the new 20″ is needlessly defensive; his melodic, leftfield duet with Chris Martin (”Beach Chair”) and sad, raging indictment of the nonresponse to Katrina (the blunt “Minority Report,” which confesses, “Though I ponied up a mil, I didn’t give my time”) prove that his ambitions and self-awareness have grown nearly as much as his net worth. Billboard
