ARTISTS: Jay-Z feat. Rihanna and Kanye West
TITLE: “Run This Town”
WEB DEBUT: July 24, 2009


ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: The second song to serve as a preview of Jay-Z’s forthcoming Blueprint 3 is an all-star affair, with Rihanna on the hook and Kanye West on the verse that has a maybe-ironic use of “no homo.” For some reason, though, the song—in which Jay, Kanye, and Ri-Ri assert their hold on the “town” that I guess serves as the county seat of hip-hop—has an overarching pall to it, giving the whole enterprise the feeling of a four-minute-and-change justification of the grind. (Even the grimy guitar loop sounds like it’s being forced out of the axe.) Rihanna’s contributions to the track are probably most interesting; they make one wonder if there’s an early version of “Umbrella” that was written as an ode to self-preservation and individuality floating around out there.


WHERE TO HEAR IT: Rap Radar has links to a few zShare outposts.