Many folks woke up early on the 4th of July, eager to download Jay-Z’s latest studio album which — for the first three days — could only be downloaded from certain Samsung Galaxy phones for free. The first million people to get in on it wouldn’t have to pay a dime. All they’d have to do is own a Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, or a Galaxy Note 2, and download the official Magna Carta Holy Grail app from the Google Play Store.
That all sounded great… until it failed. Midnight came and went and many folks bum rushed the app to get a taste of the latest from rap’s biggest mogul, but for most people, the app did nothing but show a white screen with the MCHG logo sitting below Jay-Z’s name (as shown in the screenshot off tot he right). From there, it’s dead. You can’t even go back into the app and check out the lyrics or videos as you could before the countdown timer expired.
Some have resorted to listening to radio playbacks of the album, or — worse yet — pirating it. To be quite honest, I don’t blame them. When millions of dollars exchange hands for a major release deal like this you should have all your ducks in a row ahead of time. Sure, users didn’t have to pay for anything, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t entitled to what they were promised. We’re willing to cut Samsung some slack here, as we imagine even they couldn’t anticipate how much of a strain this would put on their servers.
Still, it’s a pretty big deal when you screw up a pretty big deal, and Samsung should have been more prepared to make sure this thing went off smoothly. It’s a shame, too — I heard the album is good and i already pre-ordered it from Apple's iTunes Store. Any of you experiencing the same issues?
Happy Birthday to my best friend, the ❤of my life, my soul!!!! I love you beyond words!peep more pix after the jump
"I got love for Hov, but I ain't f--kin' with that 'Suit & Tie.'"Suit & Tie is Jay Z and Justin Timberlake's new collabo and they just announced a joint Suit & Tie world tour for the summer. Ouch.
"Can I sell your drink for you, please? So you can help me put on a better show, please, corporations? Can you please support me, please? Me, Kanye West? I swear I’m a nice n---a now. I swear I’ll put the pink Polo back on."This will not end well.
 |
| see the look on bey's face... |
 |
| Barack be like 'Hey, wotchu doing later today'... lmao |
With "Life is Good," Nas dropped his ninth No. 1 hip-hop album since 1994. Seven of those have gone platinum, which places him second among rappers only to Jay-Z with 11. (We're not counting compilations or collaborations here, only original solo efforts, and yes, Tupac Shakur had nine, but five were posthumous releases.)It also ties Nas with Snoop Dogg or Snoop Lion or whatever his name is, and it puts the Queens native one plaque ahead of Eminem, Too Short, OutKast and LL Cool J, all of whom belong in the greatest-ever discussion, as well.
Here is where that "lyricist" v. "hip-hop artist" distinction becomes important.Jay-Z said it best himself: He's not a businessman; he's a business, man. When you consider 11 of his albums have sold at least a million copies -- seven of those 2 million or more -- as have his four collaborations, two with R. Kelly and one each with Linkin Park and Kanye West, it's as if Hova is King Midas, but with platinum.He's a hit maker extraordinaire, maybe the world's best, but that doesn't translate to best lyricist. Jay-Z acknowledged as much on "Moment of Clarity" when he rhymed, "If skills sold, truth be told/I'd probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli."Even in dissing Nas on "Takeover," he explained why he had sampled Nas' lyrics on "Dead Presidents": "So yeah, I sampled your voice; you was using it wrong/you made it a hot line; I made it a hot song."
]
