JAY-Z Read online

  VOL. 2 … HARD KNOCK LIFE, Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam Records, 1998.

  With the commercial success of In My Lifetime, Vol. 1, JAY-Z established a name for himself as a viable hip hop artist. By 1998 he was well on his way to cultivating a loyal and devoted fan base. The film Streets Is Watching is interwoven with an extended collection of music videos, featuring several notable songs from Reasonable Doubt and In My Lifetime, Vol. 1. The accompanying soundtrack included the single “It’s Alright,” featuring Jay’s once-constant partner from the hood, Memphis Bleek (“Bleek could be one hit away his whole career/As long as I’m alive he’s a millionaire,” Jay pledged on the remix to Kanye West’s “Diamonds from Sierra Leone”), which would go on to be a hit single and was featured as a bonus track on JAY-Z’s third album, Vol. 2 … Hard Knock Life. Released on September 29, 1998, Vol. 2 … Hard Knock Life debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. It sold over 350,000 copies in its first week and won the Grammy award for Best Rap Album at the 41st Grammy Awards. The album featured a number of singles, including the Timbaland-produced tracks “Can I Get A…,” featuring onetime rap heavyweight Ja Rule and JAY-Z female protégée Amil, and “Nigga What, Nigga Who (Originator ’99),” featuring Jaz-O and Amil. The album also featured the Swizz Beatz–produced “Money, Cash, Hoes,” a collaborative effort with rising rap star DMX. The title track of the album, “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem),” produced by DJ Mark the 45 King, samples “It’s a Hard-Knock Life” from the Broadway musical Annie. Critics and aficionados point to the massive success of the “Hard Knock Life” single as a pivotal point in JAY-Z’s rise to global popularity.

  VOL. 3 … LIFE AND TIMES OF S. CARTER, Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam Records, 1999.

  As the ’90s came to an end, JAY-Z aptly and eloquently claimed that “the new millennium is upon us.” So too was the JAY-Z brand. With JAY-Z firmly established as a hip hop icon, his fourth album, Vol. 3 … Life and Times of S. Carter, represents a branching out of sorts, both musically and in terms of marketing and promotions. Released on December 28, 1999, selling 462,000 copies in its first week, and debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200, the album coincided with a slew of featured singles on other projects, including “Girl’s Best Friend” from the soundtrack for the 1999 film Blue Streak and “Jigga My Nigga” from the Ruff Ryders Entertainment compilation album Ryde or Die Vol. 1. (It was also included on Vol. 3 as a hidden track.) Both of these songs are bonus tracks on Vol. 3 … Life and Times of S. Carter. Producers on the album include signature JAY-Z collaborators DJ Premier, Swizz Beatz, and Timbaland, among others. Like Vol. 2 … Hard Knock Life, this album continues JAY-Z’s commercial reach with expansive success. The singles include the Rockwilder-produced track “Do It Again (Put Ya Hands Up),” featuring Amil and Beanie Sigel, the Chauncey Mahan / Swizz Beatz–produced track “Things That U Do,” featuring sensational songbird Mariah Carey, and perhaps the biggest single of JAY-Z’s career to this point, the Timbaland-produced track “Big Pimpin’,” featuring the renowned Port Arthur, Texas, duo UGK. There is a noticeable shift in mood and tone on Vol. 3 … Life and Times of S. Carter. While JAY-Z appears to be experimenting sonically and diversifying his subject matter, the product has a uniquely refined quality that sets a high musical bar for the twenty-first-century boom in commercial hip hop. The album was certified triple platinum in February 2001.

  ROC DYNASTY: ROC LA FAMILIA, Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam Records, 2000.

  By the time JAY-Z was ready to release what was intended—and turned out—to be the Roc-A-Fella Records compilation album, the label’s premier artists had also enjoyed a measure of success. Memphis Bleek’s Coming of Age, Beanie Sigel’s The Truth, and Amil’s A.M.I.L. (All Money Is Legal), along with JAY-Z’s massive commercial success, gave rise to what would be known in hip hop circles as “the dynasty.” They would all be featured prominently on JAY-Z’s The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, released on October 31, 2000. The album also showcased new productions from up-and-comers The Neptunes, Just Blaze, and Kanye West. The singles included the hugely successful “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me),” produced by The Neptunes; “Change the Game,” featuring Beanie Sigel and Memphis Bleek; and “Guilty Until Proven Innocent,” featuring R. Kelly, a precursor to JAY-Z and R. Kelly’s two future hip hop/R&B collaborative album efforts. The sonic textures of The Dynasty: Roc La Familia represented a new era of sample-heavy, soul-based sound for JAY-Z that would carry over into his work in the 2000s. The Dynasty: Roc La Familia debuted at #1 on November 18 on the Billboard 200 and sold 557,789 copies in its first week.

  THE BLUEPRINT, Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam Records, 2001.

  On September 11, 2001, the United States of America experienced a terrorist attack of nearly incomprehensible magnitude that would alter the nation forever. That same unforgettable day, JAY-Z released his sixth album, The Blueprint. (That is also the date when I released my book Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur and began my book tour, in Boston, the city the terrorists flew from to commit their atrocities. Before my plans changed, I had been scheduled to appear at my first book event on 9/11 at the World Trade Center.) Though the album sold over 427,000 copies in its opening week, 9/11’s tragedy overshadowed what would later be widely hailed as one of the greatest hip hop albums ever produced. The Blueprint prominently features the soul-sampled productions of Kanye West and Just Blaze. The singles include “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”; “Girls, Girls, Girls,” which features additional vocals by hip hop legends Q-Tip, Slick Rick, and Biz Markie; and “Song Cry.” Other notable songs include the Kanye West–produced “Takeover,” which would advance one of hip hop’s most memorable feuds between JAY-Z and Nas. “Renegade,” featuring Eminem, who produced the track (the only guest appearance by another rapper on the project), juxtaposes two of the most popular hip hop artists and lyricists of the 2000s in competition with each other. And “Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love)” is perhaps the song that jump-started the career of Kanye West as a highly sought after hip hop producer. There is a maturity to the sound and the content of The Blueprint that shifts JAY-Z’s career arc from enormous commercial appeal to universal artistic acclaim. While The Blueprint did not win any music awards, it is considered by many critics and fans to be one of the greatest albums of any genre of all time. In 2019 the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Recording Registry for its cultural and aesthetic significance.

  MTV UNPLUGGED, Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam Records, 2001.

  Not long after JAY-Z released The Blueprint, he followed up with a set recorded live at MTV Studios in New York City. On December 18, 2001, JAY-Z: MTV Unplugged was released. Many of the songs are live versions of notable tracks from The Blueprint, along with singles from earlier in JAY-Z’s career, including “Nigga What, Nigga Who,” which was censored to “Jigga What, Jigga Who,” “Big Pimpin’,” “Can I Get A…,” “Hard Knock Life,” and others. Legendary drummer, author, and audiophile Questlove and The Roots (featuring Black Thought, one of the greatest emcees in hip hop history) performed as the band for the live set. The Roots are considered one of the premier bands in hip hop, indeed in American music, as proved by their gig as the house band for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon since 2009. And their ability to create musical synergy with JAY-Z is what made this one of the most important live albums in hip hop. Mary J. Blige and Pharrell Williams were also live guest features, with Blige on “Can’t Knock the Hustle/Family Affair” and with Williams on “I Just Wanna Love You (Give It 2 Me).” An interesting symbolic gesture that JAY-Z would reference later in his career is the photo of Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara on the shirt he wore for the set.

  THE BLUEPRINT2: THE GIFT & THE CURSE, Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam Records, 2002.

  Similar to the concepts of Vol. 3 … Life and Times of S. Carter and The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, The Blueprint2: The Gift & The Curse reflects an expanded roster and the extended reach of JAY-Z and Roc-A-Fella Records. Released as a double album on November 12, 2002, The Blueprint2: The Gift & The Curse debut
ed on November 30, 2001, at #1 on the Billboard 200 and shipped 545,000 units in its first week. The album featured heavy production from The Neptunes, Kanye West, and Just Blaze, but it also featured veteran producers such as Timbaland, Dr. Dre, No I.D., and Heavy D. The album also featured a host of guest appearances, including Beyoncé, Dr. Dre, Rakim, Faith Evans, Lenny Kravitz, and newly signed Roc-A-Fella Records artists M.O.P., Kanye West, Freeway, and Young Guns. The first album is The Gift, and the second album is The Curse. The Gift supplies us with the singles “Hovi Baby”; “’03 Bonnie & Clyde,” featuring Beyoncé on a JAY-Z song for the first time; and “Excuse Me Miss.” In general, The Gift is an album filled with commercially viable, radio-friendly songs, thematically symbolizing JAY-Z’s ascent beyond the first installment of the JAY-Z brand and into new pop celebrity status. The Curse, in contrast, provides a darker sound and no singles. The standout songs include the epic tale of “Meet the Parents” and the poignant ghetto escapist fantasy of “Some How Some Way,” featuring iconic Houston rapper Scarface and Philly’s Beanie Sigel. The Curse reflects a deeper, more conscious JAY-Z persona, one that was more in line with what he offered on The Blueprint.

  THE BLACK ALBUM, Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam Records, 2003.

  Released on November 14, 2003, The Black Album was JAY-Z’s eighth full-length studio project, and it was billed as his last in light of his impending retirement. The Black Album did not end up signaling JAY-Z’s permanent retirement, but it is considered by critics and hip hop aficionados to be one of the two or three best records in his long career. Outstanding cuts include “99 Problems,” “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” and “Change Clothes,” among many others. The Black Album is nearly 4X platinum. “99 Problems,” produced by Rick Rubin, was made into a powerful music video where “JAY-Z” is killed in the concluding shot. The artist was not subtle about his retirement plans or his decision to put the “JAY-Z” artistic image to rest. Nor would this be the last time he proposed to metaphorically snuff his constructed artistic persona.

  The producers on the album include 9th Wonder, Rick Rubin, Just Blaze, The Neptunes, and Timbaland. The general themes of The Black Album were consistent with JAY-Z’s mature persona and commensurate with his status as an aging but still-dominant “king” of rap music and hip hop culture. Tracks like “What More Can I Say,” “Moment of Clarity,” and “Threat” (with a hilarious feature from Cedric the Entertainer) are designed to both excavate and celebrate JAY-Z’s triumphant style and his extraordinary accomplishments. The Black Album is intended as a farewell, but JAY-Z hardly sounded disengaged with the art form, and his skills hadn’t diminished so as to justify his exit from the game. In fact, some of this material (e.g., “Public Service Announcement”) is among JAY-Z’s most inspired work. The Black Album, ranked 349 on Rolling Stone’s 2012 list of 500 greatest albums (Blueprint was initially ranked 464 in 2003, but in the revised list in 2012 it was bumped up to 252), was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album in 2004 but lost to Kanye West’s The College Dropout.

  KINGDOM COME, Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam Records, 2006.

  Released on November 21, 2006, Kingdom Come was not among JAY-Z’s most critically acclaimed studio albums, and the artist himself has dissed this album as his worst. Both he and the critics are plain wrong. Kingdom Come is JAY-Z’s “comeback” album, even though few critics or fans believed that The Black Album would be the last time we would hear JAY-Z on an audio recording. Producers include Kanye West and Just Blaze, but this record will be best remembered for the tracks produced by Dr. Dre, including “Lost One” (co-produced by Mark Batson) and “Minority Report.” Each of these songs reveals a more emotionally intelligent, self-reflexive instance of the JAY-Z artistic persona. Because these songs happen to be two of the most compelling performances on the album, they can color the perception of its overall aesthetics and themes. Despite all its critical detractors, Kingdom Come must be considered a successful album, selling over 1.5 million copies in a music industry clearly in flux due to technological shifts in distribution methods and platforms.

  AMERICAN GANGSTER, Roc-A-Fella/ Def Jam Records, 2007.

  Some might say that this is JAY-Z’s real comeback album. This concept album, JAY-Z’s tenth studio effort, was inspired by the film American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington as Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas. The album was released on November 6, 2007. Producers include Diddy and The Hitmen, The Neptunes, No I.D., Jermaine Dupri, and Just Blaze. American Gangster probes a coherent and consistent theme of grappling with a hustler’s life, his spoils and ills, his hungers and hurts, his desires and disappointments, his traps and triumphs. The musical instrumentation provides a sonic bed to ground the intellectual exploration of a hustler’s life and also offers a ’70s aesthetic feel to the record. Rapping about gangster themes is nothing new for Jay or his fan base at this time. But the concept of the album, and the compelling corollary experience of viewing the film, helps to distinguish this project within JAY-Z’s overall body of work.

  THE BLUEPRINT 3. Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam Records, 2009.

  The third and likely final installment in JAY-Z’s “Blueprint” series of albums was released on September 8, 2009. The album followed the design developed in the first two entries in the series with some remarkable results. “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)” is a savage attack on the studio enhancement technique that, sadly, continues to dominate rap and popular music. Collaborations with Rihanna and Kanye (“Run This Town”), Drake, J. Cole, Kid Cudi, Pharrell Williams, Jeezy, and others made The Blueprint 3 Jay’s most star-studded project to date. But the artist’s favorite song on this record is a collaboration with Alicia Keys—“Empire State of Mind”—a track that must be considered a classic in JAY-Z’s considerable oeuvre. It is, remarkably, his first number-one single on the charts as a lead artist. A bevy of established producers contribute to the record, including Timbaland and The Neptunes, but Kanye West and No I.D. account for more than half of its production credits. This album marks JAY-Z’s eleventh number-one album according to Billboard magazine, thus breaking the record for number-one albums previously held by Elvis Presley.

  JAY-Z & Kanye West. WATCH THE THRONE, Roc-A-Fella/Roc Nation/Def Jam Records, 2011.

  In some ways JAY-Z and Kanye West’s collaborative album was over a decade in the making. Since the duo’s earliest collaboration on 2000’s “This Can’t Be Life,” and for various tracks on the Blueprint (2001) album, West and Pharrell Williams have delivered some of JAY-Z’s most memorable production accompaniments. Watch the Throne was released on August 8, 2011. The album generally chronicles the duo’s extraordinary artistic and financial accomplishments. It celebrates “Black Excellence,” and their unique brand of American exceptionalism, even as it questions their presence in such elite spaces. Maturity, accomplishments, wealth, and some social reflection are powerful themes here. West leads a production team of super-producers including Pharrell Williams, Hit-Boy, 88-Keys, Swizz Beatz, and Q-Tip. Successful singles (“Otis”) and memorable tracks (“Made in America”) abound on Watch the Throne. Music videos were created and released for multiple singles. The album received measured critical acclaim and to date has sold over 1.5 million units. The live performances of the album on the “Watch the Throne Tour” became something of a legend, with the breakout, if controversial, single, “Niggas in Paris,” being performed over a dozen consecutive times at some shows. The “Watch the Throne Tour” is one of the highest-grossing tours in hip hop history—and a show that I took in three times at three different locations for one of my favorite Jay albums.

  MAGNA CARTA HOLY GRAIL, Roc-A-Fella/Roc Nation/ Def Jam Records, 2013.

  If you happened to be watching the 2013 NBA Finals, you might have seen a Samsung commercial where JAY-Z announced the release of Magna Carta Holy Grail to the world. This release was unique given its initial exclusivity (through a partnership with Samsung, the album was offered to Samsung phone users on July 4, 2013) and its savvy deployment of new streaming technologies th
at had revolutionized the distribution of popular music. The album was made widely available on July 8, 2013. Magna Carta had several successful singles, including “Tom Ford” and “Holy Grail.” But in what continues to be one of JAY-Z’s most original cinematic contributions to the music video world, the film for “Picasso Baby” emerged as a unique short, paying homage to the classic Marina Abramović installation, “The Artist Is Present.” Timbaland is the lead producer on this record with credits on ten of the sixteen tracks. If there was some confusion about which super-producer (West, No I.D., or Timbaland) was going to produce The Blueprint 3, it seems that JAY-Z decided to give each a turn at the helm. Other producers on this album include Mike Will Made It, Pharrell Williams, and Jerome “J-Roc” Harmon.