Live from, uh, MTV Germany: the new video for Jay-Z's "Run This Town." Despite the natural excitement accompanying molotov cocktails and a torch-bearing mob, the whole Mad Max thing-well, we've seen all that before. California was partying like that back 1995.

Jay-Z's song itself, no. 3 on Billboard's Hot 100 this week, leaves a similar impression. I'm not sure what it is. Rihanna's soaring chorus is suitably triumphant, the martial beat suitably fist-pumping. Moody piano, rock guitar, everything impeccably produced. And Kanye's much-celebrated, song-stealing rhyme is indeed great: "She got an ass that'll swallow up a G-string/And up top, two bee-stings/And I'm beasting/Off the reisling/And my nigga just made it out the precinct..."

But all together, it sounds somehow flat and corporate and paint-by-numbers. Coldplay rap. Though that association might come from Jay's association with Chris Martin, and the fact that the stripes on the Blueprint 3 album cover remind me of the armbands Martin always wears on his Sgt. Peppers jackets.

But I might not be the best judge. I like Jay's previous song, "D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)," a lot. And I seem to be the only one.

In the end, Jay's biggest contribution with "Run This Town" (besides the strong chance it will end the terrible reign of the Black Eyed Peas on the pop charts) may well be taking back the pronunciation of the word "whassup" from the ten year-old Budweiser commercials. (Although, going back and Youtubing those commercials now that they're less annoyingly everywhere? They're actually pretty great.)