ARTIST: Jay-Z
TITLE: “Ain’t I”
WEB DEBUT: Jan. 30, 2008

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: Only months after American Gangster comes “Ain’t I,” apparently off the mysterious Blueprint 3 (forthcoming album? mixtape? USB stick?), a track where the recently emancipated CEO claims that he “took a pay cut to become an exec/so the next motherfucker can earn his paycheck” while giving the hairy eyeball to anyone claiming his lukewarm comeback attempts have knocked him from the position of being your favorite rapper’s rapper, flashing a little of the haughty (but not terminally self-satisfied) snarl we last heard on The Black Album. You don’t walk away quite buying his assertion, but it’s also Jay’s first reaffirmation of his godhood in some time where it doesn’t sound like he’s grinding through the cocky motions for a paycheck he last needed sometime in 1996. The Timbaland beat likewise ditches the big, blocky Euro synth riffs of his recent career renaissance for an intricate early ’00s throwback that combines the thump of “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” the bubbling hand drums of This Is Not A Test-era Missy, an eerie keyboard peal, and a snatch of metal guitar. Possibly a rebuff aimed at rap critics who worry Tim’s trend towards lady-friendly dance-pop means he’s lost his way as a hip-hop producer, those bummed by his non-stop late-decade beatboxing will nonetheless frown about 2:40 in, when the track shifts to a muddy 30 second mouth-music breakdown that kills the momentum.

Jay-Z – “Ain’t I” [Nah Right]