In the song 'Moment of Clarity' Jay spits the line "I dumb down from my audience to double my dollars." That line is basically saying (for the slow ones) that at one point Jay-Z sorta moved away from his original lyrical approach and made it a lil more simple, more commercial, for the benefit of a larger group of people understanding in turn generating more revenue for himself.

What I wanna know is what album do you think is the album he officially moved away from that old school fast flow street lyrical sound and turned the commercialism up a notch? For me I would say Hard Knock Life...Vol. 2. Just for the simple fact that when he released Reasonable Doubt & In MY Lifetime Vol. 1 he was still hustling. So his music reflected that. What's yalls opinions?

Reasonable Doubt..illest...nuff said.

he dumbed down on the blueprint and after (blueprint 2 & black album). they albums for kids and commericalised as hell.
when i went to see jigga in concert he played shit off blueprint and after. and said i'll only play a few classics off previous albums (i.e. off reasonable doubt)

Reasonable Doubt..illest...nuff said.

Agreed - anything after this is dumbed down.

Yea, you can plainly see on his first like 3 or 4 albums he was more lyricall, and his flow was fast as hell. Ever since Hard Knocka Life, with the commercial hit "Its a Hard Knocka Life" he has slowed down his flow, but I still think his lyrics are up to par. Kinda like the same thing Camron did. When Camron first started in the rap game his flow was fast to, now hes more slow.

^I agree

"Where I'm From" whew...smh classic flow

Camron did the same thing, he rapped fast when he first came in the game.

Camron is garbage now lol

Quote Camron:
"Oopsie, doopsie, on the ookies, loopies"...or whateva...

As far as Jay-Z....and which album he dumb downed on...it has to be Blueprint 2....he said it himself...somethin about softenin' up on Blueprint 2....this is around the time he was startin to get his "Grown Man On"...so heh....

The flow may have slowed....but his lyricism is still up to par...

Blueprint 1 was a great show that you can combine Commercial and Gutta type lyrics very well. He may have had commercial beats, but he had the gutta lyrics....he kept it raw in his own way.

That's the next to Reasonable Doubt to me...

^pshhh it was way b4 blueprint 2. like i said volume 2 well maybe 3

Na it had to have been Hard Knocka Life. But Blueprint was a great album though, you could define it as a classic.

i agree with u quiz

The Gift and Hard Knock Life were the only CD's that had majority commerical songs in my opinion. Or he could be talking about the soundtracks he has been on ....

when jigga said that line, i don't know if that was an excuse or wateva, but u could see the difference, BP2 only had like 3 good songs, and the Black Album which is overrated isn't that great either