scarface ft jay-z - "guess who's back"
roc-a-fella is behind most of my favourite hiphop singles at the moment - this one exploits the drums from "hova" as part of a surprisingly warm, multi-layered beat. jay is cruising but that doesn't matter since there's so much confidence in the way the roc put out these tracks at the moment. it's good to hear scarface again - i dunno what happened to other rappers with this kind of rich, authorative tone he has; certainly his voice feels fresh to me so i'm thinking the thin, whiny voice (or it's cartoonishly gruff flipside) is too omnipresent regardless of rhyming ability.

maybe too many rappers are trying to twist their natural voices and their words into weird shapes to make an impact, though of course some interesting flows have come from this trend (best and worst examples of this to be found on the eminem show). scarface sounds utterly relaxed and comfortable, doesn't need to stretch anything to prove he still deserves a verse, and he makes this tune addictive as fuck.