pharrell willaims

Today In Hip Hop History: Jay-Z Dropped ‘The Black Album’ 21 Years Ago

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TodayinHip HopHistory:JAY ZDropped'TheBlackAlbum'YearsAgo

TodayinHip HopHistory:JAY ZDropped'TheBlackAlbum'YearsAgo

On this day in Hip-Hop history, Brooklyn’s own Jay-Z released he would-be retirement album The Black Album. Although there was virtually no pause between The Black Album and new Jay-Z music (collaboration albums with both R. Kelly and Linkin Park were released the following year), this album is easily the greatest retirement project of all time.

In its entirety, this album sounds more like a greatest hits album than the eighth project of an illustrious career. Starting with the first track, “December 4th”, this album takes the listener on a nostalgic journey. This opening tale of Hov’s origin sets the tone of the album and properly introduces Jay to an industry that he feels has taken him for granted. This album is an opus to Jay’s distaste with the rap game as a whole. On numerous tracks, specifically “Encore” and “What More Can I Say”, Hov can be heard stating his frustration with being the one punch man (a fictional superhero who can defeat any opponent with merely one punch causing him to become bored with superhero work) of Hip Hop.

Aside from staking his claim as the greatest, Hov spent this album perfectly juggling his unique brand of bragging with the dropping of street knowledge you couldn’t pay for. Singles “Change Clothes” and “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” are perfect examples of the particular swagger Jay-Z brought to rap. His mature yet flamboyant lyricism is on par with the life described by Robin Leach. As the album progresses, Jay begins more and more to put his would-be competition in its place with sheer willpower. From “Threats” to “Lucifer” it seems Jay is directly challenging the rest of the rap world to get on his level before they never again get the chance.

The album ends with two songs that could interchangeably be used as an outro. Both “Allure” and “My 1st Song” show Jay-Z coming to terms with the final chapter of his career coming to a close, even if he was planning a comeback.

Featuring production from Kanye West, Just Blaze, The Neptunes, Timbaland, 9th Wonder, Rick Rubin, DJ Quik, and even Eminem, it’s easy to see why this album is as amazing as it is. Aside from the prolific production team, Jay-Z put together one of his most successful albums without any features (aside from a hook sung by Pharrell). Commercially, the album peaked at #1 on both the Top R&B/Hip-Hop chart and the Billboard 200 chart (where it appeared twice, each for a week). The album also went triple platinum in the United States and made appearances on music charts of eight different countries.

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Today In Hip Hop History: N.E.R.D. Released Their Third Album ‘Seeing Sounds’ 16 Years Ago

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Screenshot 2024 06 10 at 7.48.14 AM

On this date in 2008, producer extraordinaire Pharrell Williams and crew dropped N.E.R.D’s third full length studio effort Seeing Sounds on Williams’ Star Trak label under the Interscope imprint. The album’s concept as well as its content revolves around the neurological phenomenon of synesthesia, as the album’s title suggests, the mixing of sensory modalities.

In an interview with MTV’s Shaheem Reid, Pharrell described synesthesia synesthesia, saying, “If you really analyze that, the most inspiration is probably deep inside a synesthesiac. So for us, ‘seeing sounds’ is what we relate to the most. We figured we’d make an album out of it. Energy and emotion was the criteria [while recording], but we made the music anticipating the [live] show. That was the most important thing…[The song] ‘Spaz’ is [an] old school, hip hop feeling with some drum and bass. It becomes a big, tall monster. It’s almost like this big gorilla looking down at you. If he smacks you, he kills you. His fingers are the size of your body. That’s kinda what we’re doing. We’re facing this big monster of, of what we know is out there, of what we see, that big monster of energy.”

Produced exclusively by The Neptunes, consisting of Williams and Chad Hugo, the duo went to Miami and L.A. respectively and consecutively recorded fourteen tracks(two bonus tracks) that aptly fit the LP’s concept title, which was originally named after the group.

A large part of the album’s promotion came from performing on Kanye West’s 2008 Glow In The Dark Tour, where the crew performed the top singles from the album, “Everyone Nose” and “Spaz”. The latter single was aso used in a Zune Music Pass commercial the same year.

Commercially, the album debuted at number seven on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 80,000 copies in its first week.[Sales in the United States have exceeded 250,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[It peaked in the top 20 in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, while also charting in the several other regions, including Austria, Belgium, France and Italy.

Peace to Pharrell, Chad Hugo ,Spymob and everyone else involved and making this a part of Hip Hop history!

The post Today In Hip Hop History: N.E.R.D. Released Their Third Album ‘Seeing Sounds’ 16 Years Ago first appeared on The Source.

The post Today In Hip Hop History: N.E.R.D. Released Their Third Album ‘Seeing Sounds’ 16 Years Ago appeared first on The Source.

Today In Hip Hop History: Jay-Z’s ‘The Black Album’ Turns 20 Years Old!

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TodayinHip HopHistory:JAY ZDropped'TheBlackAlbum'YearsAgo

On this day in Hip-Hop history, Brooklyn’s own Jay-Z released he would-be retirement album The Black Album. Although there was virtually no pause between The Black Album and new Jay-Z music (collaboration albums with both R. Kelly and Linkin Park were released the following year), this album is easily the greatest retirement project of all time.

In its entirety, this album sounds more like a greatest hits album than the eighth project of an illustrious career. Starting with the first track, “December 4th”, this album takes the listener on a nostalgic journey. This opening tale of Hov’s origin sets the tone of the album and properly introduces Jay to an industry that he feels has taken him for granted. This album is an opus to Jay’s distaste with the rap game as a whole. On numerous tracks, specifically “Encore” and “What More Can I Say”, Hov can be heard stating his frustration with being the one punch man (a fictional superhero who can defeat any opponent with merely one punch causing him to become bored with superhero work) of Hip Hop.

Aside from staking his claim as the greatest, Hov spent this album perfectly juggling his unique brand of bragging with the dropping of street knowledge you couldn’t pay for. Singles “Change Clothes” and “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” are perfect examples of the particular swagger Jay-Z brought to rap. His mature yet flamboyant lyricism is on par with the life described by Robin Leach. As the album progresses, Jay begins more and more to put his would-be competition in its place with sheer willpower. From “Threats” to “Lucifer” it seems Jay is directly challenging the rest of the rap world to get on his level before they never again get the chance.

The album ends with two songs that could interchangeably be used as an outro. Both “Allure” and “My 1st Song” show Jay-Z coming to terms with the final chapter of his career coming to a close, even if he was planning a comeback.

Featuring production from Kanye West, Just Blaze, The Neptunes, Timbaland, 9th Wonder, Rick Rubin, DJ Quik, and even Eminem, it’s easy to see why this album is as amazing as it is. Aside from the prolific production team, Jay-Z put together one of his most successful albums without any features (aside from a hook sung by Pharrell). Commercially, the album peaked at #1 on both the Top R&B/Hip-Hop chart and the Billboard 200 chart (where it appeared twice, each for a week). The album also went triple platinum in the United States and made appearances on music charts of eight different countries.

The post Today In Hip Hop History: Jay-Z’s ‘The Black Album’ Turns 20 Years Old! first appeared on The Source.

The post Today In Hip Hop History: Jay-Z’s ‘The Black Album’ Turns 20 Years Old! appeared first on The Source.