Happy 15th Anniversary to Jay-Z’s ninth studio album Kingdom Come, originally released November 21, 2006.
Kingdom was a ground-breaking comic book mini-series created 25 years ago. Written by Mark Waid and illustrated by Alex Ross, it depicts a fairly dystopian future of the DC Comics universe. Superman has abandoned humanity, disheartened by society’s rejection of his more traditional moral code. In his absence, the planet is terrorized by amoral “superheroes” with little regard for the value of human life. After the Kryptonian absence, he returns in the hopes of saving humanity, only to narrowly stave off an apocalyptic event.
Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter is an avowed comic book fan and reportedly drew inspiration from this series to create Kingdom Come, his ninth project and “comeback” album, released 15 years ago. Particularly, he seemed to like the idea of his own dramatic return to save hip-hop. But beyond the reappearance and some efforts to vanquish his rivals, there’s limited thematic similarities between the two works.
For one thing, Jay-Z didn’t “stay away” for a decade, only three years. For another, it’s not like Jigga was in self-imposed exile in his equivalent to the Fortress of Solitude between the release of The Black Album (2003), his “farewell” project, and Kingdom Come. Jigga put out two other releases during the interim, including a second ill-conceived collaboration with R. Kelly, Unfinished Business (2004) and the Collison Course EP (2004), a mash-up reimagining of some of the recordings on The Black Album with Linkin Park. He also made numerous guest appearances on tracks with numerous affiliates, the best of which being Memphis Bleek’s “Dear Summer.”
Jay-Z also assumed the role of a record executive. After falling out with business partners and friends Damon “Dame” Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke, all three sold their controlling interests in Roc-A-Fella to Def Jam Records, and Jay became president of both entities in late 2004. During his three-year stint as the president of the label, he’s credited for helping sign and develop artists like Rihanna, Ne-Yo, Rick Ross, and Young Jeezy. He also helped bring established artists like Nas and The Roots into the Def Jam fold.
So, when “Show Me What You Got” started getting played during the fall of 2006, it wasn’t like it was a completely unexpected return. For all his talk of retirement, Jay-Z was too successful to step away while he presumably still had proverbial tread on his tires. Jay-Z envisioned Kingdom Come as a triumphant return to form that demonstrates he was just as lethal as ever after his brief time away from the spotlight.
Overall, the project is solid, with some highs, and a few painful lows. Some fans and critics consider Kingdom Come to be Jay-Z’s worst album. I’m not in those ranks, as I enjoy a good deal of it. But I will concede that the album is comfortably in the bottom half of his discography.
Jay-Z does deserve credit for making a different album than the earlier entries in his discography. When people complain about Jay’s ’90s and early ’00s output, the argument usually entails that his subject matter centered too much on hustling and moving weight. In contrast, Jay-Z centers Kingdom Come on his own experiences as a rich rapper in his mid-30s. These experiences aren’t exactly relatable to everyone, but the album feels like a genuine depiction of where Jay-Z was in his life in 2006. He takes some big ambitious swings, and doesn’t always connect, but there’s a lot to like.
Jigga starts things off strong with “The Prelude,” which has all the sonic and lyrical trappings of one of his In My Lifetime intros, right down to Pain In Da Ass reciting movie dialogue. Jay-Z uses his conversational flow over some smooth mid-’70s Stax soul, as producer B-Money hooks up a loop of Mel & Tim’s “Keep the Faith.” Jay observes that rap has been missing his presence since he “retired,” and reminds the younger generations how raw he was in his early days. “Back when rappers wouldn't dare play lyrical roulette,” he raps. “With an automatic weapon I was repping with a TEC.”
When it comes to production, Just Blaze does a lot of the heavy lifting on Kingdom Come. He establishes the tone of its front half, as he’s responsible for producing Jay’s bombastic “I’m back!” tracks. He brings enough raw hip-hop to win back both die-hards and casual listeners.
The aforementioned “Show Me What You Got” helped successfully build hype for Kingdom Come, as Just Blaze combines horn samples taken from both Johnny Pate’s “Shaft in Africa” and Lafyette Afro Rock Band’s “Darkest Light” and pairs them with a chaotic drum track. The hook for the song is pretty awkward, but Jigga sounds comfortable on the mic. “It's the winter's turn, Hovi Hov is the coldest,” he raps. “I’m just getting better with time, I’m like Opus One.”
Just Blaze produces a pair of other tracks, including Kingdom Come’s title track, and shows some serious stones by sampling Rick James’ “Superfreak.” Given that the James’ jam is inextricably linked to MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This,” it would be reasonable to expect that no producer would ever think of, um, touching it again. But he chops and re-freaks sections of the song, making it sound almost unrecognizable.
“Oh My God” has a similar rowdy energy to “Don’t U Know,” one of Jay’s earlier Just Blaze produced masterpieces. Jigga again emphatically restates his return to the game, casting aspersions on anyone who doubted him. “I'm feeling like the world's against me, Lord,” he raps. “Call me crazy, but strangely I love the odds.”
Jay-Z does indeed make like Superman in the Kingdom Come comic, by bringing those who don’t show any respect to heel. Dr. Dre (with Mark Batson) steers the production on these tracks, and one’s mileage on them may vary. Like many of Dre’s beats from the ’00s, “Trouble” feels a bit cold and mechanical, Jigga saves things with his energy on the mic. He sounds particularly fierce on the third verse, rapping, “Trying to eat without saying their grace before / Blasphemous bastard, get your faith restored / You’re viewing your version of the Lord / God emcee, little n***a, applaud, or / Forever burn in the fire that I spit at y’all.”
“Lost One” is the best Dre-helmed endeavor, featuring the producer’s dalliances in classical piano. As a whole, the song concerns various areas where Jay copes with loss. The song’s first verse is its best known, as Jigga has sharp words for former business partners Dash and Biggs, particularly at Dame’s claims that he was responsible for Mr. Carter’s success. In light of the drama, the song’s final verse gets overlooked. Here Jay grapples with the tragic death of his nephew. He tries to reconcile the guilt he feels, as his sister’s son died while driving a car that he gave to him as a graduation present. For an emcee that presents himself as a holy figure, it shows his humanity.
“30 Something,” also produced by Dre, has been Kingdom Come’s most divisive entry. Here Jay expounds on how he’s become a “grown up” as a rich Black man in his mid-30s. This entails being “young enough to know the right car to buy yet grown enough not to put rims on it.” Or smoking Cuban cigars instead of Phillie Blunts. Or vacationing in St. Tropez instead of South Beach. Obviously, a large percentage of his audience doesn’t relate to this version of “maturity,” as most have neither bought out the bar (young person shit) or “bought the night-spot” (new and mature Jay-Z). It does make sense in the context of the song’s overall message, as he’s mostly contrasting himself to the young and upcoming rappers of the mid-’00s, who “go to parties to ice grill.”
Swizz Beatz produces “Dig a Hole,” Kingdom Come’s most overt dis track. Though Jay doesn’t name any names, it’s apparent that he’s mostly targeting the rapper Cam’Ron. Cam was affiliated with Roc-A-Fella and remained on Dame’s side after Dash fell out with Jigga. This led to Cam’s “You Gotta Love It” as well as a weird obsession with Beyoncé that would be extremely frowned upon in the early ’20s. Jay looks at Cam with smirking contempt throughout “Dig a Hole,” rapping, “You let that man hype you to go against your idol / Knowing good and god damn well this what I do.”
Two of Kingdom Come’s more overlooked entries involve Jigga reflecting on how far he’d come in the decade he’d spent releasing albums. What makes these songs more heartfelt is that in both cases, he frames things in the context of relationships to people essential to his development. The Kanye West produced “Do You Wanna Ride” is his dedication to Emory “Vegas” Jones, his longtime friend who was incarcerated at the time of the song’s recording. With the assist from John Legend on the song’s hook, Jay-Z reflects on how far he’s progressed in life since he and Jones sold illicit substances, and how he pledged to forever look out for his partner. “I Made It” is more celebratory, as Jay pays homage to his long-suffering mother, Gloria Carter, who he’s proud to provide a secure life for after her years of hard work.
When Kingdom Come is bad, it’s really bad. “Anything” featuring Usher is Jay’s worst collaboration with The Neptunes. It’s especially baffling considering that apparently Jay had the pick of literally every single that ended up appearing on Clipse’s Hell Hath No Fury (2006), released just a week afterwards. Given what Jigga had to choose from, I have no idea why he opted for a middling pop-attempt. It’s not even as good as “Changes Clothes.”
“Hollywood,” the album’s fourth single, is even worse. The limp, cloying ode to the dangers of fame is on the absolute bottom rung of songs that Jay-Z ever released. Tag-teaming his verses with the vocals of his future wife, Beyoncé, doesn’t work at all. Ms. Knowles later included a solo version of the song on the deluxe edition of her B’Day album (2006). It sucks too.
Jay-Z bounces back towards the end of Kingdom Come. The Dr. Dre-produced “Minority Report” provides sharp commentary about the U.S. Government’s failing the population of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Not only does Jigga excoriate George W. Bush and the federal government for their ineptitude, but he also doesn’t spare himself from blame. “Sure, I ponied up a mil’, but I didn’t give my time,” he explains. “So, in reality I didn’t give a dime / Or a damn, I just put my monies in the hands / Of the same people that left my people stranded.”
Jay-Z ends Kingdom Come by recording a dope hip-hop track produced by and featuring Chris Martin of Coldplay, a sentence I never thought I would write 15 years ago. “Beach Chair” is Jigga’s contemplation on success and growing older. Jay, unmarried and childless at the time of his recording, addresses his yet-to-be born progeny, promising them a better world than the one he came into, where they can enjoy the fruits of his hard work. Kanye West would later assert that he “stole” the idea of working with Martin from him. Even if it is true, “Beach Chair” is a better song than “Homecoming,” so I don’t really care.
During an era of reduced sales, Kingdom Come was a solid commercial hit. It moved close to 700,000 units in its first week or release, the most of any Jay-Z album at the time. It’s since been certified Platinum, with approximately 1.5 million copies sold. Critical response was mixed, as some hailed Jay attempts at recording a more “grown up” album, while others believed that he was trying too hard.
Jay-Z returned to more familiar territory with American Gangster (2007), an album inspired by the film of the same name. He continued to record and release material well into the mid ’10s, including some of his bigger hits. However, he didn’t venture into any introspective territory until 4:44 (2017). These days, he’s mostly retired from rapping, and is involved in other business ventures.
“Mature” Jay-Z wasn’t for everyone. I honestly think the album would have been better received with a little more consistent production. But Jay’s rhymes still have their resonance. Kingdom Come is his own version of what it means to be a grown-up rapper and elder statesman. It’s a persona that he’d wear well in his later years, and this project is a good warm-up.
Note: As an Amazon affiliate partner, Albumism may earn commissions from purchases of vinyl records, CDs and digital music featured on our site.
LISTEN via Apple Music | Spotify: