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August 16, 2022

Soundtrack Soundcheck: Jay-Z (PART 2 OF 2)



Today we conclude our discussion about the various songs Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter contributed to different film soundtracks throughout his career. I don’t have a ton of new information to add to this introduction – you know who Jay-Z is, and I trust you’re aware of what “songs” are – but I would encourage those of you two jumping into this post blindly to read through the first half of this article, as it may likely answer any nagging questions you’ll have about why certain tracks weren’t included here. Everybody else, however, can skip straight to the body of the review, as that’s where the magic happens. A brief rundown for any newbies that may have somehow discovered the blog while looking for disparaging Donda comments to get upset about online: Soundtrack Soundcheck isn’t focused on any specific project accompanying the release of a feature film – rather, it’s a chance to talk about the tracks one lone artist or group has contributed to what typically winds up being a wide array of movies from across the spectrum. What I’m most interested in here is exploring the thought process, trying to decipher why certain songs were offered to certain music supervisors – if a track is recorded specifically for a film, that’s one thing, but more often than not songs seem to be thrown at various projects like birdseed, a get-rich-quick scheme where the artist continues to take advantage of how profitable our chosen culture has become for the music industry as a whole. (Side note – if you are interested in looking at film soundtracks as a whole, the Patreon has at least one such write-up as of this, er, writing, and more are planned based on interest, so let your voice be heard!)

This series serves as my ongoing excuse to continue talking about artists whose catalogs had previously been discussed in full, such as Jay-Z. There are still rules involved, of course. The qualifications for inclusion on this list are as follows:

1) A song cannot have been released for a soundtrack that Jay-Z or his various corporate affiliations had a hand in releasing. That means no Roc-A-Fella or Roc Nation projects (sorry, The Harder They Fall).

2) Hov must be the star attraction, not a featured guest, because otherwise this list becomes a bit unmanageable. This is why I ultimately couldn’t include “Crew Love”, off of the Belly soundtrack. I also won’t be discussing Sauce Money’s “Pre-Game”, also from the Belly soundtrack, since it also appears on Sauce’s Middle Finger U, so it isn’t exclusive to any film. Basically, we won’t be talking about Belly, is what I’m saying. (Because we're doing that here instead.)

3) The songs in question cannot also appear within the framework of one of his own album’s standard tracklistings. I’m only interested in exclusives here.

With that, please enjoy some thoughts about another handful of songs that Shawn’s team contributed to a seemingly random assortment of feature films.

HOVI BABY (REMIX) (FEAT. CHRISTY LOVE)
FROM: Dysfunktional Family

A thoroughly maddening remix of a track from The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse that Hov shunted over to the soundtrack for the Eddie Griffin stand-up comedy film Dysfunktional Family because… reasons? What, did Suge Knight ask nicely? (The project was released through the then-rechristened Tha Row Records, after all.) I suppose it doesn’t really matter, since neither of the two readers will ever seek out “Hovi Baby (Remix)” regardless, since even though it becomes clear very quickly that Shawn put a bit of effort into this one, you likely won’t be able to make it past guest crooner Christy Love’s flat-as-a-board vocals or the chintzy three-dollar beat (credited to Just Blaze officially, but the Trackmasters are name-dropped during the intro, so I’m on Team Justin Is Only Listed Because Of A Clerical Error, given that he handled the original version of the song), either of which can be utilized as a solid deterrent on its own. That beat is so trash that Shawn should press charges, because he does some shit on here that you two would normally praise. For starters, he provides nearly all-new bars, save for a segment of his second verse, which mirrors the corresponding stanza on the original track until our host cleverly pivots into undiscovered territory. His first verse on this remix is also a dry run for what would become his opener on Kanye West’s “Never Let Me Down” a year later. In short, Jay’s performance throughout this track consists of engaging, entertaining boasts-n-bullshit of the caliber only Shawn and a select few artists can consistently deliver. But, again, the beat is fucking garbage, and Love’s vocals are so terrible that you’ll likely pass on this entire endeavor, and I wouldn’t fault you for it in the slightest. Why did Jay-Z choose to remix this song? The world may never know. Consider this one a hidden gem (of sorts) for listeners that have a higher tolerance than I do for horseshit.

 

LA LA LA
FROM: Bad Boys II

Also known as “Excuse Me Miss Again”, thereby betraying its roots as a higher-energy remix-slash-sequel to The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse’s “Excuse Me Miss”, “La La La” may be best known today for a single shot in its accompanying video, where a post-assault charge Shawn Carter claims that he’ll “never make the news again” for violent reasons – instead his “man’ll shoot ya,” immediately followed by a smash cut to a shot of Beanie Sigel shooting finger guns at the camera. This video was released shortly before Sigel himself was picked up on weapons charges, mind you, so it’s a bit prophetic and more than a tad uncomfortable. (I believe the clip has since been edited.) So yeah, that did happen, but what many heads forget about “La La La”, which is still much more memorable to me than either the song it purportedly remixes (just barely, by way of a reference during the hook, by the way) or the flick whose soundtrack it appears on (look, Bad Boys II was enjoyable nonsense, but it was still nonsense) is how much fun Jay appears to be having, dropping one-liner after one-liner in the midst of a barrage of boasts-n-bullshit he uses as a way to introduce himself to new sexual partners at the club. (Also forgotten: Jay’s wild homophobia during the third verse.) The Neptunes completely annihilate their work on “Excuse Me Miss” with this peppier instrumental, which is so goddamned catchy that Shawn and the crew allow it to play uninterrupted during the final minute of the audio track, and that bounce sounds fucking nice. Jay’s three verses are all substance-free, but in an engaging way, as he’s merely here to talk his shit again, and it worked for me back in the day, and it still clicks today. (Technically, “La La La” does appear on a Jay-Z album, the abbreviated compilation The Blueprint 2.1, but that shouldn’t be considered canon, so to me the track still counts for this series.)


HISTORY (FEAT. THE WORLD FAMOUS TONY WILLIAMS)
FROM: More Than a Game

Kind of corny, as the instrumental, credited to both Kanye West and Ke’noe, plays in the “inspirational song” sandbox, but Jay-Z’s three verses constitute a pretty good extended metaphor, as the man seeks a romantic relationship with “Victory” (after having flirted with both “Success” and “Death” throughout his career, and since we’re personifying the concept of death I like to imagine that he was trying to hook up with the character from The Sandman for that one day a year she visits the Earth or whatever) in order for them to make “History”, which is the name Shawn plans on giving his son for the purposes of this goofy narrative. Jay clearly had some fun pushing back against the limitations of the English language while writing this one, which features on the soundtrack for a documentary about Lebron James but was released as a part of the nationwide celebration after Barack Obama defeated John McCain to win the presidency of our fucked-up country, and yet it has nothing to do with either man, as our host is merely in straight-up storytelling mode. Jay-Z sounds pretty good here, but Ye’s beat is melodramatic and wanting, while the chorus vocals from Tony Williams fell like boxes being ticked from a checklist for the type of song Ye obviously believed he was putting together here. You can just read the lyrics to “History” to get the gist – there isn’t any real need for anybody to track this one down.


100$ BILL
FROM: The Great Gatsby

The way that song title is formatted has always bugged the shit out of me, mostly because Jay-Z is specifically talking about American currency in the brief instances during “100$ Bill” where he’s talking about literal money and not just the extravagant lifestyle having money affords. It’s a lifestyle that fits the theme of Baz Luhrmann’s movie (and its F. Scott Fitzgerald source novel) whose soundtrack this song appears on, one simultaneously celebrated and derided throughout both versions of the tale. Over E*vax’s instrumental that is officially Doing Too Much, Shawn Carter (who also plays the role of executive producer of both the movie and its soundtrack, although it wasn’t released through any label or studio that Hova owned at the time so it sort-of counts here? And besides, his main role in the soundtrack appears to have been convincing his wife to contribute a track) talks mad shit in between audio segments lifted from the flick featuring actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Joel Edgerton, all of whom now get to say that they were once guests on a Jay-Z song, I suppose. (The sound bites are comprised of some very poor audio choices, weirdly, given the sheer amount of money thrown at this film.) “Who wanna become my 100th problem?”, Jay-Z asks with a wink, just before boasting about his preternatural abilities at moving cocaine, and he sounds engaged enough here, in that way where everything he did in 2013 (including this soundtrack and Magna Carta… Holy Grail came from a place of the man trying to amuse himself exclusively. Not a song you two will likely ever return to, but it’s certainly one that exists, and sometimes that’s the only review you can give.


MOOD 4 EVA (BEYONCE, JAY-Z, & CHILDISH GAMBINO FEAT. OUMOU SANGARÉ)
FROM: The Lion King (2019)

Sure, this one is also a cheat, but it does count for this article, since Beyonce’s soundtrack for-slash-“album inspired by”- Disney’s “live-action” remake of The Lion King (officially titled The Lion King: The Gift), which “Mood 4 Eva” was pulled from, wasn’t released by a label that either Carter happens to own, because as wealthy as they may be, neither one has motherfucking Disney pockets. It also credits Jay-Z as a co-star and not a guest, an important distinction that helps me come up with an excuse for talking about this track. Obviously this was more of a Bey song, of course, one with Afrobeat influences produced by Beyonce herself alongside Danja and, allegedly, both Just Blaze and DJ Khaled, although that last name I call bullshit on: the only bit I could ever imagine that motherfucker contributing to this song are the air horns that occur roughly halfway through. Even though the Oumou Sangaré sample that opens “Mood 4 Eva” implies that this would share the love song theme, Beyonce quickly turns this into a celebration of both Black excellence and Beyonce excess: there’s a reason why Shawn introduces his cameo by saying, “You heard that? That’s the sound of the price going up,” apropos to nothing. She sing-raps decently here, delivering some catchy lines around standard-grade observations (“I got my cup up to the heavens / Another night I won’t remember”; “Pina colada-ing, you stay Ramada Inn” – huh, a lot of her celebrating here seems to include getting shitfaced, right?), while Hova briefly chimes in with some materialistic bars from a guy who is worth a billion dollars, so not relatable at all is what I’m saying, but he delivers them with effortless charm, since he’s reached the point where he honestly doesn’t give a shit if you like anything he does anymore. The other guest, Bey’s The Lion King co-star Donald “Childish Gambino” Glover, croons a bit toward the end, and it all comes together decently, although you’re right to be concerned that “Mood 4 Eva” was simply the preamble for a well-intentioned intervention.


BROOKLYN GO HARD (FEAT. SANTIGOLD)
FROM: Notorious

I consider “Brooklyn Go Hard” to be a top-tier unappreciated Jay-Z gem, no bullshit. Producer Kanye West had already found success sampling M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” vocals for T.I.’s “Swagga Like Us” (which, yes, I know it’s technically credited to both Tip and Hov, but it never appeared on any Jay-Z album, so…), so, rather obviously in hindsight, he tried to capture lightning in a bottle for a second time by sneaking some Santigold lyrics from her “Shove It” onto this track for the Notorious soundtrack (a track which has fuck-all to do with the late Notorious B.I.G., for the record, aside from a lone throwaway comment from our host, as this had originally been recorded for a proper Shawn Carter project), and even though he roped in the actual Santigold to participate here, this song didn’t do nearly as well as that aforementioned Tip joint. Which makes perfect sense to me, given that the guest list for “Swagga Like Us” read like a marketing department’s wet dream back in 2008, hitting every quadrant in the disposable income-flush hip hop listener demographic. But “Brooklyn Go Hard” goes pretty, er, hard, from Yeezuchristo’s melodic, yet dramatic, instrumental, which channels the energy he harnessed to produce Jay’s “Run This Town”, to Hov’s two verses, the first performed with a faux-reggae tint until he gives up the ghost. “This is black hoodie rap,” Jay-Z says before later running through a stanza dedicated to the Brooklyn Dodgers, sharing an obsession with baseball that may have been heretofore undocumented. Santigold performs the final verse, creating a seamless transition from her sampled vocals to her IRL self, and she sounds great. Definite recommend if you’ve never had the pleasure – this one’s just fun to listen to.


WHAT IT FEELS LIKE (NIPSEY HUSSLE & JAY-Z)
FROM: Judas and the Black Messiah: The Inspired Album

“What It Feels Like” is the sound of a middle-aged man rapping his motherfucking ass off, and a very angry one at that. Taken from the film-adjacent project, and not technically its soundtrack, for Judas and the Black Messiah, whose story directly influenced Hov’s performance, this track isn’t a true collaboration between our host and the late Nipsey Hussle, sadly: this was originally a tag-team effort with another artist who was later replaced by Shawn. It’s to the credit of producers-by-committee 1500 or Nothin’, MyGuyMars, Rance, and Mike & Keys (that’s just too many producers, guys) that the transition isn’t as noticeable as it could have been. Aside from the fact that the two leads fail to interact with one another, of course. The instrumental is one of those that tends to inspire Important Lyrics From Artists Who Have Something Worth Saying, and it’s fine, not my cup of tea, and it runs for much longer than absolutely necessary, Hussle’s vocals filling in dead air where employing an editor would have also worked. (Although then we would have missed out on the man informing us that “it”, whatever “it” is supposed to represent, “feels so fucking good.”) “Better days pray for, but expecting worse,” Nipsey offers, rattling off a very depressing mantra for pessimists that nevertheless rings true. While the late rapper’s contribution is hardly political, his screen time spent describing his own reaction to his life and surroundings, Hov fills that gap with bars about Fred Hampton and the Capitol insurrection (more proof that his verse was recorded well after Hussle passed). “You know they hate you when you become more than they expect,” Jay snarls, adding racial overtones to a verse that, let’s face it, was born in them, molded by them, and that’s before he outright mentions the “crackers [that] storm[ed] the Capitol.” I didn’t care for the actual music all that much, but the verses here were intriguing, and we don’t really get to hear Jay-Z Hulk out that often these days, so that was a plus.


GIRL’S BEST FRIEND (FEAT. MASHONDA)
FROM: Blue Streak

Now this? This is me absolutely cheating my ass off, since I’d already written about “Girl’s Best Friend” when it was a hidden bonus track on Jay-Z’s own Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter, but after careful consideration I’m going to allow it, because:

(1) it’s my site, and

(2) it isn’t officially printed on the tracklist for Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter (which only mentions the presence of “hidden bonus tracks”), so why the fuck not?

Besides, I didn’t write all that much about this song the first time around, merely referring to it as “the only thing worth remembering from” Blue Streak, so let’s rectify that oversight by discussing how it’s even possible that song can simultaneously be considered both “meh” and “catchy”. The latter descriptor is due solely to Swizz Beatz’s production, a repetitive loop that manages to hit the pleasure center of the brain even though it feels lightweight and incomplete. (I’m also not sure why Jay-Z announces during the song intro that this is his third collaboration with Swizzy, as, by this point in the timeline, that was objectively false.) The “meh” is personified by guest singer Mashonda, who delivers flat vocals during a rather prevalent chorus that fails to capture just how goddamned silly this whole enterprise is. (Is she only here because she was in a relationship with Swizz Beatz at the time? That seems like a rather reductive and sexist question, I admit, but it can be two things.) For his part, Hov himself commits to a three-verse metaphor, rapping about diamonds (the titular “Girl’s Best Friend,” at least if one believes the late Carol Channing or Marilyn Monroe to be authorities on such matters) as though he were talking about a lady friend, and it’s clear that he enjoyed putting together scenarios where the visuals would be very silly indeed if taken literally, and to his credit, he comes off the best here. Doesn’t mean anybody reading these words needs to revisit this one, however: “Girl’s Best Friend” falls squarely into the category of radio-friendly (aside from some of the language used here), the type of record Hov was more regularly releasing in 1999 but wouldn’t be caught dead recording in 2022, although since I just wrote that sentence I’m certain Swizz Beatz will announce the release date for his collaborative album with Shawn Carter any day now.


BUGGIN’ (BUGS BUNNY FEAT. DAFFY DUCK)
FROM: Space Jam

Any comprehensive discussion about Jay-Z’s charitable song donations to various film soundtracks must include a sidebar about “Buggin’”, the song he wrote for Bugs Bunny to rap for the first Space Jam flick back in 1996. Still a struggling young rapper at the time, Shawn Carter penned this song (and hopefully recorded a reference track – hey, we all have dreams) filled with references to the movie and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters (such as Daffy Duck, who also appears). Oh, and he also disses Mickey Mouse, which reads funnier than it plays. I mean, the song itself is bad, but that isn’t the fault of Jay-Z nor Billy West, the voice actor supreme (who I will always think of as Phillip J. Fry from Futurama even though he’s done a shit ton of work) who gives life to both the rabbit and the duck on “Buggin’”. For one, I’m not the target audience, and I wasn’t back in 1996 either, so it’s difficult to be objective here. But since I’m a dick, I’ll go ahead and try anyway: this was just a poor idea conjured up in marketing department on the WB lot adjacent to that water tower where the Animaniacs live. This was one hundred percent thrown into the mix in order to capitalize on the then-growing popularity of the musical genre (which has since simply become pop music, influencing absolutely every fucking thing on the charts, up to and including some of the phrases used in modern country music). Jay likely saw the potential for a quick paycheck and cashed that shit quickly, and nobody can blame him. I certainly won’t. I will admit that, when this shit first dropped, my younger brother bought the cassette tape (because of “Hit ‘Em High (The Monstars’ Anthem)” and Seal’s cover of The Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like an Eagle”, and not fucking “I Believe I Can Fly”, which has always felt like treacly-sweet hot garbage), and I remember laughing out loud as Daffy’s Puff Daddy impersonation toward the end as the song goes sideways, a legitimate guffaw that I still think of fondly, unlike the rest of this shit, which is still fucking hilarious to bring up in hip hop conversations today just for the reactions alone.

-Max

RELATED POSTS:
Here’s a taste of the other entries in this series, and if you’d like to read more about Shawn Carter, do I have some sweet sweet content for you.

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