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We are anxiously awaiting the return of Jay-Z. There’s one man that’s not in alignment.
Dame Dash apparently has no interest in participating in the latest Jay-Z renaissance, especially when the topic is a new album.
At this point, Dame criticizing Jay is about as surprising as the sun coming up. The former Roc-A-Fella partners have been separated for decades, but Dame continues to critique his former fam openly. Jay-Z remains silent for now.
Jay-Z’s recent run at Yankee Stadium is the backdrop, the massive celebration for the 30th anniversary of Reasonable Doubt and the 25th anniversary of The Blueprint. For longtime fans, the whole event represented a pretty remarkable victory lap the vet.
Dame saw something else.
And now, with rumors that Jay-Z could be preparing another album, says there’s no excitement. During a recent interview, he characterized Jay as washed and openly said his career has essentially been dead for 30 years.
Thirty years? That means it was dead when they were still cool.
Come on, Dame.
You can dislike the man. You can argue about Roc-A-Fella history. You can even debate whether Jay-Z can still dominate contemporary Hip-Hop at 56 years old. But saying his career has been dead for three decades requires us to erase quite a bit of history.
There was The Blueprint. There was The Black Album. There was Watch The Throne. There was 4:44. There were stadiums, Grammys, billion dollar business moves and enough cultural moments to keep Hip-Hop arguing about Jay-Z long after he stopped releasing albums regularly.
And that is what makes Dame’s commentary particular odd.
This is nothing but unresolved Roc-A-Fella emotions playing out publicly decades after the empire fell down?
Dame keeps firing missiles and Jay does not acknowledge that a battle is happening.
If Jay-Z actually drops another album, the music will determine whether he still has something meaningful to contribute.
But I can almost guarantee something else.
Dame will have a review.
Oh yeah, Jay has a new doc coming on HBO.
