Unplugged

About

In a TV special from around the time of <i>MTV Unplugged</i>’s 2001 release, Def Jam president Lyor Cohen estimated that 80% of JAŸ-Z’s audience were white suburban kid. <i>Eighty percent</i>: That’s four out of five, a sign of just how far Jay had come in less than a decade. In some way, <i>Unplugged</i> felt like a victory lap: Here was Jay, barely in his early thirtie, playing his greatest hits with The Root, the best live hip-hop group in the world. But <i>Unplugged</i> also marked the moment in which JAŸ-Z transitioned from rap hero to household name—one who could shift and shape how the world saw the art form he’d perfected. As the first rap artist given his own full-length performance on MTV’s prestigious live serie, JAŸ-Z would prove the then-controversial idea that his platinum-selling, cash-coveting, business-minded vision of rap was just as “authentic” as the music of <i>Unplugged</i> predecessors Eric Clapton or Nirvana. After all, this is Jay’s life—and these are his song. So if the performances on his <i>Unplugged</i> collection invert certain stereotypes of rap as being something synthetic, or somehow “false”—well, then that’s on the listener. After all, Jay’s not doing anything here he hadn’t done before—he’s just making sure the parents are hearing it as closely as their kid. And <i>Unplugged</i> deserves to be heard. The show captured here is great—a fluid, funny demonstration of just how progressive turn-of-the-2000s hip-hop had become, especially in terms of rhythm and accent (“Big Pimpin’,” “Can I Get A…”). And recent hits like “Takeover” and “Song Cry”—both just a few months old at the time—are nearly as good as the versions on <i>The Blueprint</i>. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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