As the release date nears, music continues to leak from Jay-Z's upcoming American Gangster album. Fans of Jay-Z as insightful street critic rather than the elder statesman of hip hop culture he seemed to portray on Kingdom Come will be pleased with this latest offering, a fast paced chronicle of the desperation involved with growing up on the streets.

Equally intriguing is that Jay has passed on the convention of an easily accessible hook, a trend in the tracks that are leaking from the upcoming album. The splashes of yelling in the background, the high pitched synthesized strings, and the recurring call of "pray for me" all lend themselves to advancing the air of emptiness and anger that Jay pours into this story of life as a ghetto American. One can only "Pray" that the remaining tracks on the album will be equally exciting.