Taken from Jay-Z’s recent success Blueprint 3, this track stands out for many reasons.
A Star Is Born, produced by Kanye West & NO I.D, is a part dedication to all the successful emcees to have come through, whilst being a statement of Jay’s longevity as an artist, as many of those mentioned have not reached the same amount of consistent success as the Brooklyn legend, however this track is also the official ROC nation introduction of J. Cole
J. Cole is an extremely talented emcee, although names such as Kid Cudi, Drake and Asher Roth are often mentioned as saviours of Hip-Hop, they are talented but J. Cole is pretty much the definition of Hip-Hop, best described as Jay-Z and Nas in one, J. Cole’s ‘the warm-up’ mixtape helped create a stronger foundation for him as an artist, his only negative is that he might be too good for mainstream, but with Jay-Z taking him under his wing he is in the best position, he reminds me of Jay-Z with his clever wordplay and distinctive flow. In a ‘passing the torch’ manner, Jay-Z introduces J. Cole on this track and he does not disappoint, he takes this oppurtunity in both hands, this is a similar position to when Kanye West featured on Blueprint 2, however Kanye’s verse was quite dissapointing and lacked the charisma and metaphors that we hear from him now, so it is quite amazing if you think how much J. Cole will improve, already good enough to go against some of the best, he is one of the sparks in the bright future of Hip-Hop.
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The making of the cover for Blueprint 3:
I wonder if Jay has that somewhere in his house?!
ONE Fáris 