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Three stars? THREE STARS?!! People on here go on about star-ratings all the time, and usually I couldn't give a monkey's, but this song is one of the sharpest, freshest, coolest things getting mainstream radio play for AGES. This is a five-star song.

You've got a point about rap in pop though. Redman's verse in Dirrty was cut out of the edit used by some radio stations too. I wonder if it's because of the reason you speculated, or something else - eg if the bigwigs think a song is too long for radio and needs to be edited, a rap verse is a very easy bit to chop without messing with the flow of the song.

Kanye's bit in American Boy was easily the highlight though. Shame.

Well, tbh I completely agree with Fraser on this one. Whilst the song is typically Jay-Z, and demonstrates what he does better than most other artists in the same field, when compared to the musicality of 'Run This Town' and 'Empire State Of Mind', this falls VERY short.

It's because it only comprises of spitzy drum beats and an eerie-sounding refrain.

I'd give it 2 stars if it didn't have that refrain. But it does.

So 3 stars.

4 Stars for me, it sounds more innovative than anything else released so far of Jay Z's rather poor Blueprint 3 album. Run This Town, DOA, Empire State Of Mind, Off That and this are all good but the rest of the album is really disappointing. Hopefully Off That will be released as the next single, it's my favourite on the album after Empire State Of Mind.

However On To The Next One has kind of been over shadowed by the brilliance of Not Gunna Encore a mash-up of Black Kids and Jay Z, i'll try to post a link below.

On the subject of people taking out the rap parts in songs, I found it odd that when they played the new Keane song Stop For A Minute on Radio 2 they took out the rap part. On Radio 1 it was normal but on Radio 2 they just repeated one of the verses, what's wrong with people do they think that Radio 2 listeners will turn off the radio as soon as they hear someone rapping?

Warning: it has got some swearing in it, so this post will probably get removed, but there's nothing else wrong with it. It's amazing and I don't usually like mash-ups, apart from Glee and this puts Glee to shame!

Not Gunna Encore (Jay Z - Encore vs Black Kids - Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend)
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Jay Z - best rapper ever? has he taken biggie/tupac's trophy? I think so. I think Blueprint 3 was a triumph, lots of great tracks - obviously outstanding ones which have been mentioned, but some others which are growers, but certainly do grow on you.

I think it's a 4 star song from a 5 star album, but wont chart as it should since most people who'd buy it have the album already.

Ive heard this cutting of tracks on the radio as well and sometimes really badly cut. I agree with Curtain though, i think it's something to do with cutting the length of the track down as easily as pos. they always cut lil wayne's finish to kevin rudolf's Let it rock. But i also noticed Kanye west's Stronger had sections of the verse cut and obviously it isnt to cut out rap as that's all there is, so i assumed it was a duration thing.

Why radio 2 is cutting raps out, i have no idea. if you wanna play a contemporary track, play it how it was made. crazy.

Wow, I really like this. I think it's even better than Run This Town or Empire State of Mind, but I think it will chart lower, somewhere like #15-#20 because its not as poppish, and people who liked the catchy choruses of Run This Town or Empire State of Mind but don't like the rapping as much might not like this. I do hope, however, that this manages to be a top ten hit but I doubt it will, not only because of it's lack of a pop or RnB chorus, but also because a lot of people already have the Blueprint 3, because it's been out for so long.

Yeah , the reason this song won't chart as high as Run This Town and Empire State Of Mind , is because most Jay -Z fans already have it on the album , and this is why in terms of sales , it won't have the longevity that those two tracks had.
The people that have it don't need to buy it.

This has little to do with people not handling hip - hop .

If this was so ,why did Run This Town debut at number 1 on sales of over 70,000 copies ?
If this was so ,why has Eminem had 7 UK number 1 singles , and 5 number 1 albums ?

Admittedly a whole song of just rapping can be difficult for most casual listeners , so the trick is , for the main chorus hook , you provide a sample or some melodic singing to give the lightness and deftness of touch to the song , to illustrate light and shade .

Examples of this are :

1) Empire State of Mind
Jay z grittily raps the verses wheras Alicia sings one of the best show stopping choruses to a song ever ,and provides a classic hook that has mass appeal , and a fantastic singalong quality .
Light and shade .

2) American Boy
Kanye raps with great panache and style.
"Before he spoke , his suit bespoke "
While Estelle melodically sings a huge chorus hook , that helped propel the song to number 1 .

3) Ooopsy Daisy .
Chipmunk raps the verse , while the huge chorus hook is sang by his female partner in rhyme, to devastating effect.
The biggest hook in the entire song is the :
"I'm a walking disaster " chorus refrain,that lifted theentire song and thus gave Chipmunk his only number 1 single.

4) Diamonds From Sierra Leone .
Here is possibly the biggest example of rap then melody providing light and shade.
Kanye raps a gritty rap , about the inhumane diamond trade in Africa , while Dame Shirley Bassey stops traffic with the melodic James Bond Theme Diamonds are Forever , and providesthe standout chorus hook .

5) Eminem - Stan .
Another fine example . Marshall raps the verses about a crazed fan , feeling wronged by his idol , and losing the plot and jeopardising human life , whereas Dido provides the tuneful chorus in contrast to the despair and grave subject matter in the verses.

And attitudes to rap and hip hop is certainly changing , there are more songs in the charts, and on the radio with rapping in them now , than there was 30 years ago .

The other clever idea , utilised by record companies is to produce two slightly different versions of the same song .
The person whose job it is to get the song played on the radio, may go to Radio 1 or local radio stations and get them to listen to both , in the hope that one version will win over the playlist panel , of that particular station .

As a radio plugger you have got to do whatever it takes at times , to get your songs played on the radio , as this obviously increases the listening audience and this translates into added interest and thus more sales.

This is why at times , you will hear a certain version of one song on one radio station , and a slightly different one somewhere else . At times,certain songs have to be tailor made to fit in the criteria of a radio station . Sometimes you will have to compromise to get your record played .
But the more people that hear it and are aware of your record , the more people that will buy it , so from time to time it needs to be done .

Sorry Harry but Off That won't be the next single, A Star Is Born featuring J. Cole will be the next single instead.

Let down I thought Off That was going to be a single at some point, I heard somewhere that it was originally planned to be the first proper single instead of Run This Town which I assumed got the gig due to the fact that it contained both Kanye West and Rihanna. Maybe the record companies didn't like it much.

@9

Randy , why is the Chelsea and England wing wizard , J. Cole appearing on this song ?

Surely, he should be using his time on the football pitch, scoring goals for the blues and thus convincing Fabio Capello that he SHOULD go to the World Cup in South Africa.

:)

He said he wanted to release Venus vs. Mars for the next single... seems he likes to change his mind...
I still don't rate this song though...

Ellipsis much?...

Another reason why this song won't chart as high as Run This Town or Empire State Of Mind , is that it doesn't have the overall appeal and huge chorus hooks , that those two had.
The chorus is catchy , but to some it will prove annoying and repetitive.
And radio hasn't embraced this track as much as those two , much due to it's lack of huge commercial likeability that those two had .

Thankfully, single releases like this and DOA prove that chorus hooks, commercial likeability and chart positions aren't the only things that Jay-Z cares about.

Just gave Off That a listen. Interesting, and again something a bit different. A bit of a waste of Drake though - for a guy with such rapping talent from what I've heard of him in the past, just sticking him on the chorus seems like a missed opportunity.

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And spirit, don't forget Jay-Z was collaborating with HUGE music super-stars - Rihanna, Kanye West, and Alicia Keys are all house-hold names now.

Ahem but, who are Swizz Beatz?

Haha OddOne, who is Swizz Beatz? Swizz Beatz is Alicia Keys' lover boy and he's a producer/recording artist in the vein of Timbaland.

Also @ 12, that comment about Venus vs. Mars being the next single and then changing his mind, another person changing her mind is Rihanna? What is her next single from Rated R, is it the will.i.am assisted Photographs, the Slash assisted American Idol performed Rockstar 101 or the lesbian island jam Te Amo?

It's Rockstar 101 in America definitely, it was going to be Te Amo but the Label changed it. Personally I wish it was Firebomb, that's a cracker of a tune.

Firebomb would be a far better choice. Romours have it the reason she changed it to 'Te Amo' was because Lady GaGa was releasing a spanish-flavoured single - 'Alejandro'.

Of course, Rihanna stans ab-so-lute-ly FLIPPED off the handle and Lady GaGa stans accused Rihanna of being dwarfed by GaGa now that she'd nearly three albums deep.

To me, it's because her record label know GaGa is what's selling. And if GaGa releases a spanish-tinged single, and one of your biggest selling acts has a spanish-tinged single on the latest album their promoting...

Do the maths and do what GaGa's doing.

In fact, forget the maths and just churn out the single despite it's awful chartability factor when compared to other songs from the same album...

Very 'record label' thinking, that.

Something tells me Rihanna's going to release all three singles but in different territories.

*Crosses fingers and talks to self*

...Firebomb, firebomb, firebomb, firebomb...

*Sucks thumb and begins rocking back and forth*

Oh hello .
A reliable source informs me that Rihanna's next single will be . . . .

Rockstar 101

Sorry .

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