The Genius of Jay-Z: Humor, Rhymes, and NYC

• you think?

• ohh i hrad ur rich AWSOME

• To people who have only heard the stereotypical kind of hip-hop, check out Saul Williams. Specifically his tracks 'Act III: Scene II; Shakespeare', and 'Black Stacey'.

• I LOVE Jay-Z. It's funny because yesterday I just did a little presentation on music in NYC (because I'm doing a summer program in the city and we had to pick an aspect to focus on) and I spent a while talking about New York rap. Hip hop doesn't "poison the minds of the youth". I agree with Sarah B that some of the mainstream stuff is what does the most damage, but to say that hip hop in general is bad is untrue.

• Hey Duff! Read some week ago that u like old school punkrock and u mentioned Refused! Refused (if its the swedish groupRefused u meen) is now dead and buried...BUT...singer Dennis Lyxz�is still goin strong. I really love his new band, in swedish named "Invasionen" ("The Invasion" in eng.) They now sing in swedish...but...take a look at their Youtube-channel: http://www.youtube.com/invasionenchannel Greetings from a warm sunny Sweden! Dennis by the way live nearby.

• Hey Jackie and Richie...... Get yo groove on get your groove on Ya! ya! Thanx Jackie!! My sweet French Canadian cheese head friend! I'll check him out!

• Hey Jackie, Do you play? I play bass, I have a Duff McKagan Fender Precision Bass Special(Surprise surprise), Gibson Thunderbird and a Fender Jazz Aerodyne Bass in my collection at the moment.... P.S I did a little dance 4 ya!

• Ok just played that song again and had the vison of Duff with a 1960 cherry Semi Hollow E.S ,335TD Gibson , I know Fender is the one but that was so fun and what a vison ...Fun song , Respectables and Gordie Johnson ....!

• Hey Sarah Hey Richie.... Sarah , Travis Church , (Gerald Eaton.)..Cannuck...Once Plato's Phillospher Kings, ah almost like when Smokey sings...Richie...dance like nobody's watching! xoxox Jackie

• @Stari- I love South African beats too. @Jackie-Shimmey shimmey Coco pops!! Nelly? Cool. The weekend was well spent!

• Hey Jackie, I had good w/end 2 tks! And so freaky Blind Date Girl just came on my IPod as I was reading your comments....Some powerfull stuff!

• Hey Sarah and Richie....Looks like Loaded is going to blow some tops....Just in my room , working out and Blind Date ,comes on , and I am wondering , holy shit does it get any hotter than that...Main stream sucks, going your own way , and staying true to , what ever hits you , musically or inspirationally..! Is why the passion you emulate, works so great...! Hey Richie , aboard a ship...Yes weekand was good...How about you...Sarah , thinking about my Crow and smiling....! from the Raven , Ever more..! Back at you Thrusday , hey broad band would be nice.... Hmm Like Nelly and Eniehem , and many more....two thumbs up for Timberland...and many more...

• Yeah I have to go with Sarah B on this one....people find it too easy to blame music and films etc etc for their troubles or cause of something their child did. Its just an easy out instead of standing up and taking responsibility for your own actions. Ive been listening to music for 25yrs now and the only thing it ever made me was happy! Peace out x

• Absolutely agree with Sarah B on the mainstreaming issue. The quick sell marketing of the image overshadows the talent, and contributes to negative stereotyping of the entire genre. The local, more underground rap/hip hop is more gritty and real because it is more in touch with the experience of an actual "Hard Knock Life". If a hip hop artist is wearing sneakers that could stabilize the economy of a small African country, all the while rapping about how hard life is and how "the Man" is getting him down...well that just makes me want to lmfao. Speaking of Africa, there is some amazing rap and hip hop coming from several of the African countries(esp Senegal and South Africa)- I just happen to find the International Rap/ Hip Hop genres to be much more interesting and exciting than what is currently popular in this particular genre in the US.

• Mainstream hip-hop posions the minds of youth. It's not fair to blame hip-hop in genral. Local hip-hop artists are amazing!! The big wigs just got too big and then crossed the line in many ways. I wish that local artist had more control over maintream local hip -hop stations. When you hear "Mc.Donalds", or that "Red Bull Has Wings" or "have a Baby by me and become a million air, then you know they sold their soul. I liked Jay-Z for a long time but now I think he's kind of a jerk. But Duff is not a jerk for posting him, because yes Jay-Z is quite the poet if it weren't for those grey areas.

• Less hip-hop please. Does nothing but poison the minds of the youth.

• duff i wonder how much u would like him if you saw your daughters on one of his rap videos being dry humped and treated like whores while he raps about degrading having sex with them and many other women. hip hop in general has done soooo much damage to the image of women esp black women in this country.

• Hey Duff, I'm afraid hip hop just isn't me but I do agree that JZ is very clever at what he does. For me its been lots of rock music this week to help with the chaos at school. As we get to the end of term the kids get crazier and crazier. I've been listening to lots of GNR- suprize suprize, Nirvana, Loaded plus Whitesnake and Marillion. well it keeps me sane!!!!! K

• Yo Richie yes the weekend was great as well as Hip Hop. Good night world. Glad our Rockster is hip to dee Hip Hop, even though I over played Empire State of Mind!:)

• "I haven't given hip-hop enough props here in this column and that is about to change." FUCK YES! More hip-hop please.

• Hey Sarah B and Jackie, Im so poor at looking back at the older blogs! Hope u had a great w/end 2 and I look forward to hearing from you this week.

• Yeah He's pretty tight!!! I used to hate rap hip hop and all that but I realized over the past 7 years, I love it. Not that club shit to much. You should look into DJ Premeire from Gangstarr. That dude's done beat for everyone from Pop,Rock,Rap/Metal not to mention some Jay-Z trax. Big Pimpin is hard to deny. Can't keep you head from movin'. The drums on "Empire State of Mind" is exactly why I love hip hop. Check out the album Nas & Damien Marley just released. There's some solid trax on there. Always good to discover music. Good blog friend!!!!

• Hip Hop was almost all I listened to from around 1998-2002. I related to it a lot more than the rock scene at the time. Here are some of my favorites: 1. Nas- Illmatic 2. A Tribe Called Quest- The Low End Theory 3. Pharcyde- Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde 4. Souls of Mischief- '93 til Infinity 5. Deltron 3030 6. KRS-One (self titled) 7. The Roots- Do You Want More??!! 8. The Roots- Illadelph Half-life 9. Mobb Deep- The Infamous 10. Body Count...just got into them recently. this and the Born Dead album kick ass! first heard about them from Duff. thanks ;)

• Hi Duff, I like a bit of rap myself from time to time! Although I have to admit JayZ is god damn awful..... Im more old skool when it comes to rap...Give me some 2Pac, NWA, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg etc etc. If you like your rap with a bit of edge you should check out Busta Rhymes album 'When Disaster Strikes' its awesome!

• Crazy because I was just pondering Jay-Z. I like "Empire State Of Mind" especially with Alica Key's harmony, the song will just blow you away. But I'm going to get [politically correct for one moment and say..... Ambien is a brand name and there for it is propiganda, not to mention ambien is a very dangerous sleep aid.(God I hate protesting stuff, but..... so there) Hard Knock Life- I rember bumping that 10 years ago or so, I sway my head back and fourth actually. I'm trying to be obscure this week so I'm rocking out to Slay Bells, "Treats" is rad....

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