I can remember my dude Jas hitting me up to tell me that Jay Z was back. See, once Jay dropped that Hard Knock Life album with all more Swizz Beats and less Primo and Ski, I gave up on money. But Jas was telling me that the "old Jay" was back on his new album "The Blueprint." Now, this is my dude and we see eye to eye on 90% of music, so I'm like "aiight, I'll bite." And it just so happened that the radio was playing this new Jay's new song "Girls, Girls, Girls" that was bananas when I got off the phone with Jas. Needless to say, I copped the album the same day and saw what Jas was talking about, that Jay was really back. But it wasn't just his rhymes that were back on point (I always said that comp brings out the best of Jay) but it was more so the beats were dope. And after peeping the credits, I'm like "who the hell is Just Blaze and Kanye West?"

Well, these 2 cats turned out to be two of the dopest producers of the past decade. These two cats were the new version of Pete Rock and Primo and they made a dope team to help produce Jay's comeback CD. We all know what Ye went onto become (more on how I feel about Ye another day) and Just wasn't nobody's slouch either. Both are two of my fav producers and by Ye rhyming as well as making beats put him in his own lane and Just stayed in the "producer only" lane and I always felt like Just knocked Primo out the box for being the go to cat whenever somebody wanted that street banger for their album.

Not to mention that Just's discography is like a who's who of hip hop and R&B over the last 13 years and with him lacing everyone from Jay Z, Fab, T.I. and Usher to Freeway, Camron, Lenny Kravitz and The Game. Just has proven his worth to the game and money's also has been putting in his bid to crack my top 10 producer list but as much as I love Just, my knock on this dude has always been he's never produced a whole album for somebody. And at the end of the day, that blemish will FOREVER keep Just outta my top ten. He's still dope as hell though....

Tracklisting:
Public Service Announcement - Jay Z
Exhibit C - Jay Electronica
Oh Boy - Camron feat. Juelz Santana
Breath - Faboulous
What We Do - Freeway feat. Beanie Sigel and Jay Z
React - Erick Sermon featuring Redman
You Don't Know - Jay Z
Come On Baby - Saigon
Girls Girls Girls - Jay Z
Roc Da Mic - Beanie Sigel w/Freeway
I Love My B*#ches - Rick Ross
Hovi Baby - Jay Z
Exhibit A - Jay Electronica
Safe To Say (The Incredible) - Fat Joe
The Invitation - Saigon
I Really Mean It - The Diplomats
Song Cry - Jay Z
Beanie (Mack) - Beanie Sigel
Public Service Announcement rmx - Jay Z


Link:
The Best of Just Blaze

As soon as I saw the title, I knew the phone calls, texts, facebook inboxes, tweets, etc. were coming…and they did. See, I’m a Christian and all of my peoples know that. I’ve been called “the down to earth Christian” and “the cool Christian” so whenever ANYBODY body remotely close to the Christian faith does ANYTHING bad or starts some controversy (exp. pastors stealing, lying, cheating, molesting, etc.) I’m usually the first person folk hit. So what was the hoopla this time? Kanye West’s album title “Yeezus.” It feels just like yesterday that I posted how I felt about Game’s album cover for “Jesus Piece” and I kinda feel the same way about Ye this go 'round.

See, I feel like most folk in society believe that my religion and my savior are the ones to steal on cause this nonsense would not be going on with the Nation of Islam or the Muslims. If Game decided to name his album “Allah Piece” and had a picture of Allah on the cover with a red rag over his mouth…well ya’ll already know how that would’ve ended for Game. That idea would’ve been nixed before the album even hit shelves. And when it comes to Ye, I feel like Cedric…I wish a nigga would name his album “Allaheezy.” I TRULY do wish Ye would do that. Cause the Muslims would beat all of that craziness right up outta Kanye. But us Christians, we’re like Beans, we don’t do much. Maybe one or two pastors will come out and wanna boycott (but we see how that went with the pastor from Philly who tried to get Meek’s “Amen” banned) the album but who’s gonna listen? At the end of the days, cats respect violence….and us Christians haven’t knocked nobody out since Sodom and Gomorrah. But I don’t care what planet you’re from, you know the Muslims and the nation don’t play that. But like I said earlier, we’re just the ones to steal on. You think Meek would’ve been barking like he was on that pastor if he was talking to a dude in a suit, bowtie with a bean pie? Hell no. Why? Cause niggaz respect violence. And again, us Christians, we’re just not violent. So why would Meek respect a pastor? Like Big Boi (and most black men) said “I’m more Malcolm, the Martin” meaning I wanna make a change and I’ll grab an AK (see, more violence) to make that happen. The Nation has ALWAYS been tied to violence (check out the book “Black Brothers Incoroporated” and that’s just talking about the Nation in Philly) so niggaz KNOW not to mess with them. Hell, I remember when the whole East Coast/West Coast beef was at an all time high and Puff (I ain’t calling that nigga Diddy) had the Nation of Islam as his security at Bad Boy Records! Now ask yourself, if the biggest gangsta in hip hop is gunning for you, are you gonna call your Pastor and your men’s ministry to come protect you? Naw...not at all. 

Now some cats will say “well Kil, they’re just paying homage to Jesus” and my reply to that would be “then we EASILY have two different definitions of homage.” If I take a picture of your dead loved one and put a gang rag around their mouth and make them look thugged out and then sell that album cover to the world, would that be homage to you or fighting words? I’ll vote for the latter. I’m one of the odd dudes who doesn’t feel like Jay is paying homage to BIG by quoting his lyrics…and then taking cheap shots at dude like “it’s no Biggie.” You wanna pay homage to dude, shout his name out from time to time. Maybe even write a rhyme about dude and ya’ll friendship. Cop his daughter a benz along with your newest signee to Roc Nation Sports. But quoting another dude’s lyrics so much that there are times I’m listening to Jay and I literally forget it came outta BIG’s mouth first, that’s not paying respect to me. So, naming your album with your spin on Jesus’ name or dressing up Jesus and his disciples as bloods at the last supper for your album cover doesn’t look, feel or sound like respect. 

And let’s be honest, most of the folk who don’t have a problem with Game or Ye’s actions, aren’t Christians. See, people only feel disrespected over things that THEY care about. One of my homeboys who used to always get picked on when we were growing up in Philly, did a 180 one summer and came to back to school the next year with this I don’t give a f-ck attitude. And dude told me, “I’m willing to die to get my respect.” See, to him, respect was something he cared so much about, he was willing to die for it. Well, more power to him cause respect don’t mean that much for me to be laid by six. Never did, never will but that’s what HE cared about. And as Christians, folk dissin’ our savior is something WE care about. 

Other cats will say “well, wasn’t Ye the first dude to get Jesus name being shouted out on the radio and in the clubs with ‘Jesus Walks?” Yup, you’re 100% right he did. Now the key word in that sentence was DID. I’ll always salute Ye for that but we’re talking about what he’s doing NOW. And what he’s doing now, isn’t paying homage to my savior. But just in case YE wanted to know how he could pay my savior some respect, here’s an easy answer…change the name of your album. 

BTW, does ANYBODY know what this cover is? Oh yeah, these new songs SUCK...but that's another topic for another day. Like I said on Twitter the other day, payola will be in FULL effect for this Ye album. I worked in radio for 10+ years...trust me...I know ALL about payola.