It’s hard to deny that the release of Jay-Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail could have gone a bit smoother. Despite the promise of his technology-based #NewRules promotional campaign with Samsung, the planned July 4th release of the album through the MCHG Android app was almost comically bad.  In principle, it was pretty impressive – while releasing lyrics and promo videos leading up to the album’s release, Jay handed over a million copies for Samsung to distribute to its phone users for free a few days early.  But instead,  Twitter blew up in outrage over the malfunctioning app and angry Jay-Z fans around the nation who had stayed up for the album fumed.  But, you’d imagine Jay wasn’t particularly bothered – the man was certified platinum by the RIAA before a single physical copy left stores.

But the criticism rained down – well, relatively, given that this is arguably the greatest rapper of all time. Garnering lukewarm reviews from the likes of The Guardian, Rolling Stone, and AllMusic, the worst of it came from always-controversial Pitchfork.  The whole 5.8 review isn’t a fun time for Hova, but the most telling criticism comes toward the end, where Ian Cohen wrote, “Jay-Z rapping about the incomprehensible awesomeness of his life is nothing new, and the corporate synergy is hardly a novelty,” later going on to call Magna Carta “weirdly distant and safe.”  It’s a sentiment echoed across most of the reviews of Magna Carta Holy Grail – Jay’s become complacent, he’s doing the same stuff disguised as innovation.  He doesn’t care about creativity, he’s a business, man.  The man’s forty-three, his best came a decade ago.

And it’s very easy to jump on the Jay-Z hate train – hip-hop’s next class of stars are firmly entrenched (shout outs to Kendrick Lamar and Drake), and if Brooklyn’s Finest isn’t ready to keep pace, well, we can leave him behind.  And Jay-Z’s decline has been a storyline for years now, after the radio-targeted Blueprint III of 2009.  Ragging on Magna Carta is the only natural step for an aging superstar losing his feel.

But is that really what Jay-Z is anymore?  Have we already shifted from “top of the game” Jay-Z circa 2011’s Watch the Throne phase to “he’s washed up” Jay-Z now?  Was it really that long ago that we were applauding Jay-Z’s bold decadence alongside Kanye West?  Sure, things have changed, but it’s hard to imagine Jay-Z’s regressed that much in the last two years.  To be sure, Magna is no Watch the Throne.  That was an unprecedented celebration of decadence by two of America’s biggest stars, and that’s a hard thing to live up to.

And at the same time, it’s hard to imagine Jay-Z’d be getting all this criticism if not for Kanye’s Yeezus, which set the tone of innovation for the entire year’s hip-hop releases.  To be fair, Hova set the bar pretty damn high by declaring #NewRules, but the real culprit here is Kanye.  By flipping off all of hip-hop’s barriers to the point of absurdity (“Blood on the Leaves” is hardly even a R&B song, let alone a hip-hop one), Kanye intentionally or unintentionally extended a challenge to the rest of hip-hop’s stars – are you willing to go this far?  Clearly, Jay-Z wasn’t ready to stretch his music as far as ‘Ye (I mean, who would), but it’s doing him a disservice to dismiss him for not being as bold/dumb as Kanye.  Just because he didn’t go all in like Kanye doesn’t discredit all of the new things he’s doing with Magna. 

And there’s a lot of new stuff going on.  The 8-bit Super Mario vibe of “Tom Ford,” the beat switch-up in “Picasso Baby” from croaking drums and bass to vintage Vol. 3, or even the threatening synths across the Mike WiLL Made It-produced “Beach is Better.”  It’s all some of the most interesting stuff Jay has done in years.  Just take a look at the production credits for Magna, which ranges from old friends (Pharrell, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz) to new upshots (Travi$ Scott, Mike WiLL Made It, Hit-Boy).  Shuffle in the fact that Jay is sharper on this album that he’s been in years (the first verse of “Heaven” is spiritual Hova at his best – “Food, clothing, shelter, help a nigga find some peace/Happiness for a gangsta, ain’t no love in these streets”), and it’s hard not to be impressed by Jay’s outing.

Does Jay-Z really have to be doing anything groundbreaking when he’s making music this entertaining and clever?  He may not be pushing the envelope to the degree that re-appropriator extraordinaire Kanye West, but Jay’s making great music while switching the formula up just enough to be interesting.  Jay-Z’s sending jabs at his sport agent rivals on “Crown,” putting together hard-hitting one-minute interludes like “Versus” and “Beach is Better,” and throwing Nas, Justin Timberlake, Pharrell, and Beyonce on the same song with “BBC”.  It’s not Watch the Throne, but this is no Kingdom Come, either.