Top 20 of 2007: The King Is Back

16. Jay-Z American Gangster

What does a rush of creativity sound like? Well, if your name is Shawn Carter, it sounds a lot like American Gangster, a positively massive record which had its genesis in a screening Hova took in of the Denzel Washington flick of the same name. (I haven't seen it yet, but i'm-a catch it at the dollar theatre. Star City -- holla!) He got inspired, and a few weeks later, boom. Another career highlight, a loose concept record based on his own personal "road not taken" story. Gangster is a course in savvy semi-autobiography, but leaves plenty of room left over to speak up on Don Imus. Whether he's out-stunting Lil' Wayne on "Hello Brooklyn 2.0" or riding with Nas over the freaky-deaky organ of "Success," Jay takes no prisoners. Nor, apparently, does he need hooks, as evidenced by the concise refrain of "No Hook": "I don't need no hook for this sheeeeeeit." (See?) And I didn't even mention the party-in-a-box horns of "Roc Boys (And The Winner Is...)," coming in just a hair behind Public Enemy's straight-out-of-nowhere "Harder Than You Think" in the "wildly exuberant horns that make you forget where you are and possibly embarrass yourself with public dancing" category.

(The PE record didn't make the Top 20, so I had to mention "Harder Than You Think." Nothing in 2007 rap made me happier than finding out that Chuck and Flav can still bring it in a big, bad way. A monster of a song that finds PE adding inspiration and poignancy to their always-righteous anger. Unreal. Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled programming.)

Now, I'm not in the first million to speak on Jay's no-paper writing method and effortless flow -- everybody knows he's the best MC alive -- but come on. He's ridiculous. One of the most nakedly obvious facets of hip-hop is that it's a young man's game, but here comes Jay: still clever, still astonishingly fluid, still making genius beat choices. Gangster is a thinking record, on its feet for the whole 60 minutes, daring you to listen twice. It'll take more.