When Timbaland emerged as a super-producer in the mid-90’s, countless major artists called on the Virgina-native for beats. One of his clients, by the name of Jay-Z, used his board work to create hip-hop anthems such as Jigga What Jigga Who, Big Pimpin’, Is That Your Chick, and Dirt Off Your Shoulder. For fans who were disappointed with the lack of Timbo production on Hova’s post-retirement albums, Kingdom Come and American Gangster, the Booth is proud to present their most recent collaboration, Ain’t I. Contrary to rumors all over the internet, this is NOT expected to be featured on S-Dot’s Blueprint 3 album (if any such set will ever be released); rather, Ain’t I was intended for inclusion on Timbaland’s Shock Value, but was not completed in time.
Hova and Timba; obvious banger. Jay-Z is one of my favorite rappers and he always lives up to my expectations, and this is no exception. Though he beat is a bit too repetitive for me, until the transition 2/3 of the way. I sorta wished the beat was varied like the last 1/3.
Timbo and Jay have hooked up on so much material, I find it hard to believe that this was the VERY best they could come up with on a new joint. I am glad that Timbo held this off his most recent project --its good-- but does not mesh with the rest of that album's material. I look forward to future work between these two geniuses.
You are right DJZ, this song, definitely did not go with the theme of Tim's album. However, this is still decent track. Tim could of left out the "say what". Oh, wait a minute, Obecalp, you got a point (I just hit the spot). If the first 1/2 of the song was like the second 1/2 this would of made the album and would of been a killer track. Oh wow. The song actually BEGINS at 2:40. My rating is solely based on that time frame.
I herd this a while ago couldnt find it until recently. Glad to see it on the booth its a great track nice beat good flow by jigga. This is a banger soon to be classic if it blows up which i think will. Timbo and Hov always make magic
very very nice.....but i do agree..jay aint as good as how he used to be..i guess nowadays he is just makin hits just to keep up wit people that are still in the game...michael jordan of the rap game..
Hmm...i never thought a beat by Timbaland would be this boring...and iv'e never been a Jay-Z fan either but i thought it would be good and my thoughts were totally wrong..
The beat didn't change up till the end of the track but when it did it was the best part of the song. Jay did his thang but heard him do better but still would bang it in the whip.
“You local retard, I’m the king of the world so the king of your city by
default” Kanye is so much better than the average rapper it’s ridiculous
I agree with Obecalp and jesavail02, the best part of the song should have taken
longer. But maybe we wouldn’t appreciate it that much if it was like that from
start to finish. What I mean is Timbo surely knows
what he’s doing! ;) Maybe Jay-Z is not as good as he was, but he was so great
that being less than that doesn’t mean he’s not still hot. It’s like Nathan S. said on American Gangster’s
review: “Kingdom Come’s failure was not that it was a bad album, but that it
revealed Jay as something less than a hip-hop god, a mere mortal.” Not every song has
to be banging to deserve a 4* rating people!
If Jay-Z is making a Blueprint 3 which i hope he will i think he should get DJ Premier who produced some songs on Reasonable Doubt. Also Kanye West because his old beats were really good ex: Heart of the City, H.O.V.A,Takeover, etc. Not main stream producers. And yes i know Kanye West is mainstream, but he has better beats than Timbo.
Jay-Z is hot! NY is in da buildin! NewYorkers should b lovin dis joint! Da REAL king of da rap game is in da house. J is betta den any rapper out! He's doin his thing yet again. He always comes correct!
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