Now I'm So Fresh You Can Smell Me Through A Ziplock
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Snoop Dogg - Drop It Like It's Hot (Remix Feat. Pharrel & Jay-Z)
Mike Jones - Back Then (Remix Feat. Jay-Z & Aztec)
Young Jeezy - Go Crazy (Remix Feat. Jay-Z & Fat Joe)
Hip-hop remixes are notoriously dodgy affairs. But when Jay-Z declares retirement and can only rap in remixes, the odds of them sucking decrease. These are three of the best things Jay-Z did in 2005.
Drop It Like It's Hot - How do you remix such a massive song? Pharrel creates a brand new beat that is weird enough to work. He also, like in the original, raps. But it's not that painful. But it's all good since Jay-Z is in top form, as is Snoop Dogg.
Back Then - Perhaps the worst beat of the three. Perhaps the worse line-up of other rappers. But, unquestionably, the best verse Jay-Z has delivered in years. Mike Jones does his typical thing, ie. repeating things endlessly. ("Back then hoes didn't want me, now I'm hot hoes all on me" x 1 billion times.) But the second chorus is great. You have to wait til' the 2:30 mark till it comes, though. And then Jay-Z builds a layered, slow building flow touching on the usual subjects: his father leaving him, escaping the long arm of the law, being a boss, being a great rapper, etc. Chorus again. Then a faster flow, and then it's over and Aztek tries not to suck too much. Oh, I found the beat listenable if you listen to how the organ and bass guitar interweave.
Go Crazy - This song's beat is like an update of Can I Live (off Jay-Z's debut Reasonable Doubt), so it's fitting that he raps on it. Perhaps best stand-alone track of the three.