which once again does great despite a few missing verses.

Then there is a pause, and Jay wonders what song he should do next, and decides to do Heart of The City (Ain't No Love) which is a very underrated song on Blueprint, Jay-Z makes this song better than the album version, and the crowd knows it pretty well for a song that was only out a few months (at the time). Jay then goes into Big Pimpin' which is arguably his biggest hit, it's very short because UGK's verses aren't included, but it is a standout track on the album, the band plays great in this. Jay-Z feels that the crowd isn't as lively as they could be, so he plays Jigga What, Jigga Who tells the left side to say 'Jigga What' and the Right side to say 'Jigga Who' and Jay-Z gets the crowd really involved in the song, and performs great despite missing Jaz-O's awesome verse, you can tell Jay-Z is having trouble rapping fast, and 'Jigga What, Jigga Who' Is his fastest song of his career, but he still makes the most of it. Jay-Z decides to cool of and perform Girls, Girls, Girls which isn't really that great of a song, but Jay and the roots make it likeable, but against the other tracks, it's nothing special. Just a really great performance and after that. Then Jay-Z says that he's going to go through the many moods (Party, Emotional, Reasonable Doubt) but first, he wanted to do a battle song, and what better battle song than Takeover This really is the most brilliant song on the album, not only is it very exciting and hard, but the band switches the song many times when Jay-Z disses Mobb Deep, the band switches the tune to Shook Ones (A Mobb Deep song) then it switches to Oochie Wallie (A Nas Song) then NY State Of Mind. The Album starts out with Jay-Z speaking to the audience, one thing that's so great about this album is how much Jay connects with the crowd he starts out by talking about the different alias names he has, which is a good segue to Izzo (H.O.V.A.) Which is very energetic and sounds much different from the studio version, right away, you realize this is going to be another great moment in Jay-Z's career. Get ‘The Blueprint’, not a pale facsimile.In 2001, there was no question, Jay-Z was the best rapper around by miles, it seems he could do no wrong, so Jay-Z decided to do a Live album with the Roots, though there wasn't the doubt surrounding LL Cool J when he became the first rapper to do an unplugged show nearly 10 years previously, but it seemed a little far fetched, especially for a rapper that was used to the best production (Neptunes, Timbaland, Kanye West, Just Blaze) what would he do with a live band and a crowd? well, he'd make the best Live Rap album to date. You need Jay-Hova in your life, but this isn’t the place to start. (Hearing him and Mary J Blige rocket from 0 to 90 on a medley of ‘Can’t Knock The Hustle’ and ‘Family Affair’ is pretty cool, too.) Though some tracks are pointlessly thrown away in a medley, ‘Unplugged’ underlines what an amazing back catalogue the man possesses, a Greatest Hits of dreams. Yet Jay‘s natural talent is such that he shines almost regardless of context – even when MTV rules dictate that he can’t even swear! Skittering over ‘Jigga That Nigga’, defeating the ear-fraying backing vocals on ‘Heart Of The City (Ain’t No Love)’, this is the sound of a man at the top of his game. Their sawing strings on ‘Takeover’ are no substitute for the magisterial thump of the original track’s Doors sample, while ‘Izzo (HOVA)’ suffers from interminable doodling over which Jay-Z, tongue firmly in cheek, declares ‘Welcome to my poetry reading’. Call it nickpicking, but since when were the Hammond organ and Fender Rhodes piano acoustic instruments? And the band in question, conscious hip hoppers The Roots, smooth over the jagged edges of Jay’s most biting moments with overly slick muso efficiency. For a start, it’s about as unplugged as Blackpool illuminations. But ‘Unplugged’ goes too far in the other direction. It’s a good idea that goes way beyond the ancient (and usually disappointing) live rap template of two turntables and a microphone. Why not, some bright spark at MTV must have suggested, recreate those tracks with a live band instead of samples? But last year (well, virtually last month)’s ‘The Blueprint’ saw Jay-Z rapping over full-on 70s soul, to magnificently emotional effect. Jigga‘s third and fourth albums had been beamed from the computers of producers like Timbaland, Swizz Beats and the Neptunes packed with state-of-the-art digital beats which Jay rode like a Playstation champion.

Just a year ago, the idea of Jay-Z making an acoustic LP would have had Biggie Smalls turning in his urns.

Jay z unplugged zip