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Video: Jay-Z: "Blue Magic"

The clip is "Blue Magic", and the brand name is Jay-Z. Tarnished a bit by Kingdom Come and by Lil Wayne's Jay-baiting ascendance, the Def Jam CEO regains his luster on this track, from his new album inspired by forthcoming Ridley Scott film American Gangster. Here ol' Shawn Carter seems to draw strength from the cold-blooded delinquency of his character. "Last of a dying breed," he claims. He jumps from Ringling Bros. to Rakim to Oliver North and Iran Contra, nimble as the new breed. Pharrell's shadowy, floor-knocking beats? Hell hath remained fury-less.

The video has the same dark gleam of the accompaniment. Jay raps in a darkened city, shades on, dice rolling. Driving a red sports car, a young dude "ain't talkin' about it," he's "livin' it," driving into Times Square in a red sports car. Jay raps in front of brightly colored graffiti. Lips are licked. There's a futuristic White House (Hov: "Fuck Bush"... wait, nope, this is the "clean" version). We also get Denzel Washington.

[from American Gangster; due 11/02/07 on Def Jam]

Posted by Marc Hogan on Fri: 10-12-07: 11:39 AM CDT | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink
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