Jay-Z
I'd Do Anything (Def Jam)
He just about got away with that 'Hard Knock Life' effort, featuring the sample from Annie by virtue of the sheer oddity of its lateral-thinking, but this follow-up is an utterly lame, lazy attempt at replication. This time round, it's a sample from Lionel Bart's Oliver!, overlaid with another of those mumbled raps about how life used to be so hard Jay and his family used to have to live in a shoebox in the middle of the ghetto and get up half-an-hour before they went to bed but now, by the grace of God and a bunch of crappy singles like this, he's living the high life. If this isn't on sale at a newsagent's near you for 25p in three months' time then there is no hope for humanity.
David Stubbs
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