How, why, and what the fuck is this? Check the way the next sentence begins: A two-minute freestyle from Jay-Z over a decade-old Too $hort beat recorded in defense of Cleveland Cavalier LeBron James at the expense of Washington Wizard DeShawn Stevenson and then played at a night club like five times, apparently, and introduced by legendary P.O.S. and fellow Cleveland Cavalier Damon Jones—exhale—“Blow the Whistle” is a glib, mean-spirited romp. “Who the fuck is overrated? / If anything they underpaid him,” Jay gloats corpulently, pitting his verbal dogs on the beleaguered Wizards player who deigned to claim James wasn’t the King and who has responded to this backlash with such underdog sincerity that at times I’ve found myself rooting against my own team. If the backstory and moral impetus for this recording don’t make sense to you, then you are probably not Jay-Z or LeBron James. Jay’s a great glad-hander but here’s just circlejerking, equating himself with James and James with Jay and both with the Rat Pack and boasting of James’ sexual prowess in one instant and then like having the orgasm for him the next. The whole track is an equation the two have been playing footsy with for years, a sort of self-appointed equivalency flirted with but here made savagely real. It is, yes, valid: these guys are big shit. But nobody of such high status should carry themselves like this, with the anonymous, blustery malevolence of a geek talking shit over Halo.

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