Jay-Z lost
In case any of you d-bags haven't heard, Jay-Z's new coaster of a comeback album Kingdom Come is freely available via the Internets. My go-to guy Noz has a story on it on his blog here, and I wrote a review of it for my own site this morning.
I'll have more on it here in terms of whether or not it's any good (it ain't) once the album's actually released - unless I need to clean some space on my hard drive for Internets pr0n between now and then, in which case Kingdom Come could meet the same fate as my copy of Idlewild.
If I had to guess, I'd say anyone who's interested will have already heard the album and formed their own (probably negative) opinion on it by the end of the week, if not the end of the day today, which would render my own opinion mostly moot anyway. Word to Rick Springfield.
(XXL has shitty quality audio of at least half the album up in the Bangers section if you like to wait until the release date - or, in Rey's case, the first check day after the release date.)
The thing is, the album doesn't hit stores until a week from tomorrow. I was talking to the long lost kris ex the other day (hold your head up in the joint!), and I wouldn't be surprised if Def Jam (er, Jay himself) decides to move the release date up until at least this Friday.
It won't save Kingdom Come from almost certain commercial failure (2006 = not the year for shitty rap albums), but they might be able to cut their losses by at least a little bit. If people, want to hear the album so bad, why not give them the option of doing it legally?
Oh, how interesting it would be to be a fly on the wall in the Def Jam building right about now. Lest we forget, 2006 wasn't exactly shaping up to be a banner year for the company anyway. Of the few artists who actually managed to have their shit released, hardly any of them sold very well.
When Jay-Z was appointed head of the label a couple of years ago, I think most people assumed he would function as a sort of glorified A&R. All of the best rappers in the industry would want to sign with Def Jam because it was, after all, Jay-Z's label.
After a year like this, I can't imagine what rapper in his right mind would even set himself up like that.
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In semi-related news, has everybody heard that new Jay and Nas record "Black Republican?" Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ!
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