From thereon, his collaborations got bigger (his follow-up album “American Gangster” – i.e. In 2006, he released his next studio album, “Kingdom Come” (which is actually one of my least favourite Jay-Z albums). Fortunately, with “The Black Album”, he collaborated with fewer producers, picked the best beats that they had to offer and returned to what he did best – making great music.Īnd it’s this love for making great music that kept him in the musical spotlight and eventually caused him to forego his initial retirement. Sure, “Excuse me Miss” was a nice song, “’03 Bonnie & Clyde” helped put the relationship between Jay-Z and then- de facto leader of the R&B girl group Destiny’s Child turned multi-platinum solo artiste Beyonce Knowles into the public’s eye, the remix to “The Blueprint’s” “U Don’t Know” kicked just as much fucking ass as the original did, “Some How Some Way” got me emotional thanks to producer Just Blaze’s forlorn beat, and “Bitches & Sisters” taught me the differences between a bitch and a sister (no disrespect to the females reading this review), but as as Jay-Z fan, I must admit it certainly wasn’t his finest hour. After his 2001 album “The Blueprint” (which cemented Jay-Z’s status as one of the greatest MCs in rap history, began the lyrical feud between himself and Queensbridge rapper Nasir “Nas” Jones and introduced the world to the production talents of Kanye West), he received criticism from fans and critics for the pop-oriented sounds of the “Blueprint” sequel: the double CD “The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse”. 2 – Hard Knock Life” – which spawned the masterpiece “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)” is still his highest-selling album to date, with 5X Platinum certification to its name).
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Up until the early 2000s, he brought out hit album after hit album (1998’s “Vol. Jay-Z was already an icon, and truly came a long way from his 1996 debut album (and still his greatest work, in my honest opinion) “Reasonable Doubt”.
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Of course, this was just a clever marketing ploy to get people to buy the album, even though, in retrospect, it really wasn’t that necessary. Before its release, “The Black Album” was promoted as Jay-Z’s FINAL album, before his retirement from music.
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Released on November 14th 2003 (hey, that’s 10 years ago!), “The Black Album” (not to be confused with Prince’s “The Black Album” or Metallica’s “The Black Album” or Kino’s “The Black Album” or The Damned “The Black Album” or The Dandy Warhols….you know what? I’m done!) was a commercial success, with three Billboard chart hits (each from a different producer), a 2004 Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album (which lost to fellow musical collaborator Kanye “Yeezus” West’s debut studio album “The College Dropout”) and a shit-ton of critical praise (with many citing it as one of the best albums of the past decade). Beyonce Knowles himself, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter. “The Black Album” is the eight studio album from Mr. INTERLUDE – “The Black Album” begins with….wait, do I really need to do an intro for “The Black Album”?! Really?!! Okay, fine.