Album Review: Jay-Z - Magna Carta... Holy Grail

30 July 2013 | 11:17 am | Dylan Stewart

For Jay Z to continue the upward career trajectory that has followed him since he burst onto the scene in the mid-’90s, this album would have had to re-write the concept of music as a whole.

It's been four years since Jay Z's last solo album, but you'd never notice. Through a collaboration with Kanye West on 2011's Watch The Throne, and an executive producer role on The Great Gatsby's soundtrack, his recent acquisition of a minority stake of NBA team the Brooklyn Nets, and his relationship with wife Beyonce and newborn, the man born Shawn Carter has never been far from the headlines.

All this has upped the expectations of Magna Carta... Holy Grail to stratospheric proportions. They hype might not have reached the heights of Daft Punk or West, but there was plenty expected of Jay Z's latest record. Unfortunately, the results cannot be seen as definitive. It's no lay-down misere, but it certainly doesn't display the cutting edge that Carter has been – rightly or wrongly – known for over the past 15 years. If a single adjective had to be used, it might be 'lazy'.

Now, before fans start clogging the Inpress inbox with hate mail, let me explain. For Jay Z to continue the upward career trajectory that has followed him since he burst onto the scene in the mid-'90s, this album would have had to re-write the concept of music as a whole. But there's no standout track on the album, the production is good without being amazing, and despite platinum-plated guest spots from the like of Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Frank Ocean and Pharrell, and the lyrical content is just not accessible enough for the majority of listeners – for example, “Marble floors, gold ceilings/Oh what a feeling, fuck it I want a billion” on Picasso Baby. Maybe – just maybe – the diversification of his portfolio has left his music a little flat.