UPDATED with Part 2: Jay-Z Countdown to Kingdom Come

[Meho]

Jay-Z
Countdown to Kingdom Come

The definitive comeback cover story is only weeks away. But before XXL’s new issue drops, we’re giving you the chance to read exclusive outtakes from the interviews with Just Blaze, Young Guru and Jay-Z himself. Every few days, XXLMAG.COM will bring you new insights into the making of the album and Jay’s post-retirement life.

Okay, I know. Two songs have leaked in less than a week. And rumors persist that there are more good tunes in the wrong hands. Damn, guess that’s what Hov gets for goin’ the fuck back to Africa. Still, I’m sorry to report, greedy rap gremlins, that when I spoke to Jay in Paris and the Kingdom Come brain trust (producer Just Blaze and engineer Young Guru) back in New York, they all insisted that the album is far from finished. You don’t believe me? Read for yourselves.

Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter:
“I saw a couple of them [fake Kingdom Come track lists on the Internet]. Nah, it’s crazy. I think I’m two songs away. Right now, if I drop the album, it’s really good. If I get two more songs, it could be great. I need [two more songs] because of the album. Everything on there so far is really big. It’s big-sounding. I wouldn’t say real musical, ’cause I wouldn’t want to give people the wrong idea. Late Registration, to me, sounds like a big album. But you still had “Crack Music” and you know, you still had the raw…I just need two stripped-down joints just to round it out, to give the whole thing a theme and a feeling.”

Gimel “Young Guru” Keaton:
“I was reading a lot of bullshit online—fake track lists, features and producers we don’t even know…I don’t know what’s gonna make it until I actually master it. There’s no rapper features on here. The only other feature on here, in terms of vocalists, is Beyoncé.”

“It’s always a core, but shit changes. The perfect example is ‘P.S.A.’ ‘P.S.A.’ didn’t exist until right when we were about to master. The tough part now is that he’s doing the world tour, so we gotta email him beats. He’s recording over there, sending stuff back and forth. Where they’re at now in Africa, nobody’s email is working. Me and Bleek was online yesterday on the IM and he was cutting off on me every five minutes. It was a real weak connection, so those type of physical things are the challenges right now of him actually getting his album done. It’s a lot. Dude is a huge world tastemaker, so it’s like, having to pull his focus in to get what I need for the album is tough, but it’s not impossible. It’s one of his joys, so he does it.”

Justin “Just Blaze” Smith:
“If he’s coming out November 20, he’ll probably be in the studio until at least late October. There are two other songs I did with him, neither one [is] finished yet. We had this one record where the beat changes throughout the entire record. He hasn’t put vocals on it yet. He loves the beat, but just hasn’t thought of a song for it. I’m praying that one gets to see the light of day ’cause the beat is so ill. Just something for the car or headphones. It would make for an ill story, but not a club record by any means.”

“One song he had I did over. I had a better beat for it. It fit crazy. The funny thing is, none of this is intentional. It ends up using another sample that was used in another song. The other beat, it’s used in the intro of another popular late-’80’s, early-’90s song. So it’s kind of funny, I was thinking about this right before you came in. That’s three records that, in some shape or form, have some kind of connection to ten, twenty years ago. That’s gonna be the new thing: Just is running out of ideas. But it’s pure coincidence.”

“I can say I’ll definitely have four records on the album. We’ll see what happens.”

http://xxlmag.com/online/?p=5415

[Dj Eskimo]

two tracks have leaked? 

[CRAFTY]

Cool to hear that we'll get updates on Kingdom Come from XXL every few days. Nice way to build up a hype...

[No Compute]

The only other feature on here, in terms of vocalists, is Beyoncé.

 

[Dj Eskimo]

The only other feature on here, in terms of vocalists, is Beyoncé.

 

id rather hear beyonce sing a hook than have Memphis Bleek ruin a track with a weak verse, Jay works better on his own anyway...

Black Album had no guest apperances and Blueprint only had one guest both amazing albums.

[No Compute]

The only other feature on here, in terms of vocalists, is Beyoncé.

 

id rather hear beyonce sing a hook than have Memphis Bleek ruin a track with a weak verse, Jay works better on his own anyway...

Black Album had no guest apperances and Blueprint only had one guest both amazing albums.

I'm not bothered that there are no other guest appearances, it's just that Beyonce's on it.

[wcsoldier]

Is making the more duos possible with Beyonce a condition for Jay to fuck her....

[PLANT]

The only other feature on here, in terms of vocalists, is Beyoncé.

 

id rather hear beyonce sing a hook than have Memphis Bleek ruin a track with a weak verse, Jay works better on his own anyway...

Black Album had no guest apperances and Blueprint only had one guest both amazing albums.

co-sign

[Meho]

PART 2

Jay-Z: “I put myself in the studio to really get into it. Just me and Guru. Just to feel it out. And it took me like, two weeks [to get going]. I wasn’t even making anything. I would go there and just stand there for a couple hours and just listen to new tracks. Then I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll come back tomorrow.’”

“I would do a full day. I did it in Sony a lot. I would go to the studio and I wouldn’t stay late either. I would stay til about 12, 1. You know, about seven, eight, til 12, one, everyday. I wouldn’t go in Sunday though. I needed a day off.”

Youg Guru: “It’s been the weirdest process of making a Jay album because he’s running a company. My normal experience with Jay used to be around two o’clock, he’d be sitting in the front of Baseline, Just Blaze would be doing whatever he’s doing and I’d be collecting beats for the day. Jay would come in and we’d make records in about three or four weeks and the album is done. He’d hold court here or be at the 40/40. Now it’s like, he’s running a whole company and I really don’t like playing him beats in the office. The phone rings, everybody’s around or someone needs him to sign something or run to a meeting. I gotta get him when his attention is necessary.”

“That’s the main reason why we didn’t do it at Baseline. That’s home. We did it at Sony because it’s four blocks away from the office. Like, around May he got serious. In the beginning, I tried to keep it secretive to everybody in the building. Baseline is kind of secluded so there’s not gonna be another session going on in there with somebody that you don’t know. Sony is a big studio. You see the Maybach out front, then you start seeing three or four known rappers out front. It got to the point at the end where everybody knew we had been there for a month already. With people starting to drop by, you can’t really concentrate. That’s the only reason why I was trying to keep it secret. Not for the public not to know we’re making an album, I wanted him to be able to focus and come through that door so we can just work and make a record. It’s hard sometime because it’s certain people that’s family. You can’t say, “Don’t come over here.” But at some point, I need this n**** focused on making this. With Jay, it’s a spark, and this time it was with Dre.”

Next Time: The stories behind Kingdom Come’s Jay-Dre collaborations

Look for the full story in the December 2006 issue, on stands November 7.

http://xxlmag.com/online/?p=5415&page=1
^More Kingdom Come behind-the-scenes!