How A Tragedy For Scarface Gave Jay-Z’s ‘The Dynasty: Roc La Familia’ Its Defining Moment
What Scarface ended up reciting was a letter to a lost friend that elevates an otherwise mediocre Jay-Z album to something more grand, at least for a fleeting moment
The story goes that The Dynasty: Roc La Familia was originally intended to be a Roc-A-Fella records compilation album, a way for Jay to propel the artists under his wings to his lofty heights while he steals a share of the limelight for himself. Despite being stuffed with features by Roc artist, and, even solo track for Memphis Bleek, it wasn’t meant to be. Jay put only his name on the cover and that was that.
What we received was a disjointed effort with plenty of emphasis placed on appeasing West Coast listeners. Rick Rock produces four tracks, Snoop Dogg shows up for the terrible “Get Your Mind Right Mami” that sees Jay playing Truth or Dare with and tricking left and right on unnamed chicks. The steam the first half of the album has with all its lyrical punch dies just as soon as the lackluster “Parking Lot Pimpin’” hits and it’s all up and down from there.
Ironically, the greatest moment of the album came with an artist upstaging Hov to glorious results. The legendary Scarface came through for “This Can’t Be Life” and calmly unleashed the most resonant verse of the entire album. As soon as he hopped onto the Kanye West production and muttered “Now as I walk into the studio, to do this with Jig,” the song was taken to another level.
The way Jay tells it in his book Decoded, everything Face said was true, and he watched it all play out right before his eyes. Face, Jay and Guru were all chilling together in the studio, playing pool and shooting the sh*t, when Face got a call from a friend and learned that one of his friend’s sons had died in a fire. He immediately called his wife to check on his own kids and then channeled all that energy into his verse.
“When he got off the phone I told him, “Yo, we’ll get the verse another time.” He shook his head. “Nah, Jig, nah, I’ll do it now.” He went off on his own for a while to compose his verse. When he came into the booth to record, he laid down the verse that’s on the album in one take.”
What Scarface ended up reciting was more of a letter to Reek than an actual rap verse and that alone elevates an otherwise mediocre Jay-Z album to something more grand, at least for a fleeting moment.
“I got a phone call from one of my nigs
Said my homeboy Reek, he just lost one of his kids
And when I heard that I just broke into tears
And see in the second hand; you don’t really know how this is
But when it hits that close to home you feel the pain at the crib
So I called mine, and saddened my wife with the bad news
Now we both depressed, countin our blessings cause Brad’s two
Prayin for young souls to laugh at life through the stars
Lovin your kids just like you was ours
And I’m hurtin for you dog; but ain’t nobody pain is like yours
I just know that heaven’ll open these doors
And ain’t no bright side to losin life; but you can view it like this
God’s got open hands homey, he in the midst.. of good company
Who loves all and hates not one
And one day you gon’ be wit your son
I could’ve rapped about my hard times on this song
But heaven knows I woulda been wrong
I wouldn’ta been right, it wouldn’ta been love
It wouldn’ta been life, it wouldn’ta been us
This can’t be life”
Whatever Jay paid him, it wasn’t enough.
Keep up with Bansky’s thoughts and words by following him on Twitter, @bansky.
Please recommend the article if you enjoyed it. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, @StillTSSCrew.
