I think that Jay-Z is after Kool Keith’s title of ‘hardest working man in hip hop.’ After releasing two albums this past year he is preparing to release another this summer. As mentioned before at HHDX, Jay-Z and R. Kelly are releasing an LP together and word is that they are done about 15 songs at this point.
One detail that still needs to be worked out is label and distribution, Jive or the Roc? I don’t see why they wouldn’t do it on Roc-A-Fella, it isn’t like Jive is R. Kelly’s label. There is also rumors that they are going on a monster tour for the album. I have a feeling that this album will do monster numbers.
In other Jay-Z news, he won the The Sources hip hop quotable of the year for his verse in “H.O.V.A.” I’ll be the first to say that it certainly was not the best verse of the year (or on the album for that matter) but it really was slept on despite on maybe in spite of the songs success. I think that his rhymes in that song really went over the heads of most listeners and for several reasons. One being that he refers to things like the Cold Crush and most new school fans have no idea what he is talking about, the other being that he has got some incredibly clever lines in that song that would take some thinking about for most. And if there is one thing that most listeners don’t do…it’s thinking.
