From Vulture:
There’s a new Jay-Z track
up at America’s No. 1 source of news about today’s hottest hip-hop and
R&B (Kanye West’s blog). Apparently a freestyle, it’s recorded over
the beat from Too Short’s “Blow the Whistle.” Though no target is
named, the track is clearly aimed at Washington Wizards shooting guard
DeShawn Stevenson and rapper Soulja Boy. What? Yes. It all started when
Stevenson started talking jive about Jay-Z’s main man LeBron James,
whose Cavaliers are currently taking on the Wizards in a first-round
playoff series. LeBron responded that such a move was like Soulja Boy
taking on Jay-Z, which prompted Stevenson to invite Mr. Boy himself to
game three of the series in D.C. Jay then responded with the track,
which was played Friday in a D.C. club and hit the Internet yesterday.
As a track, it’s not much; there are some decent if vague lines —
“We [that’s Jay and LeBron] let the money do the talkin’ / And as you
see, we talk rather often” — but since Jay refuses to actually mention
whom he’s talking about because he thinks he’s above it, there’s none
of the hilariously personal cutting-down that makes a dis track a dis
track. It's too generic to be memorable, but we nonetheless appreciate
it if simply for the fact that Jay-Z's catalogue now includes an entire
song about a semi-obscure player for the Washington Wizards. It's an
entirely new category of music: the Novelty Beef.
Now, if only some hip hop artist would write a Novelty Beef about Eddie Jordan's inability to coach Gilbert Arenas properly...
--Christopher Orr