The Black Album
Jay-Z Celebrates “The Black Album” 20th Anniversary With Throwback Merch
One of Jay-Z’s biggest and best albums is celebrating a major milestone. The Black Album was released 20 years ago and features some of the most well-known songs in Jay’s entire catalog like “99 Problems” and “Dirt Off Your Shoulder.” Fans of the album who may not have been able to get their hands on a piece of affiliated merch at the time are now getting another shot.
Earlier this week Mitchell & Ness announced that a series of heavily stylized jerseys were being made and sold to celebrate the album’s anniversary. A few different variants were announced with a series of Instagram posts. “For its 20th anniversary, we are only releasing 2003 of each style of these iconic New York collector’s pieces. Shop the NY colorway from the limited-edition release now,” they captioned the announcement. With only 2000 of each look available fans quickly rushed to pick one up before they sold out. Check out the full announcement post below.
Read More: What Is Jay-Z’s Best-Selling Album?
Jay-Z Drops “Black Album” Jerseys
Earlier this week, Jay-Z celebrated his birthday. He’s already one of the biggest-selling rap artists of all time. But it probably still felt pretty good to get some new certifications as a birthday present. RIAA announced a massive 19 new certifications for various singles from throughout Hov’s career. That included some already platinum songs hitting even higher landmarks and some newer tracks getting their first gold certifications.
While Jay-Z is reflecting on his earlier days by bringing back some old merch, others are sharing stories. Memphis Bleek stopped by a radio show earlier this week to shed some light on Jay’s wilder early years. He told a story of the rapper and his entourage smashing up a bar so badly they had to pay $50k just to be let out. He seemed pretty well aware of how much that story clashed with the relaxed demeanor Jay gives off to many these days. What do you think of the vintage merch being re-released to celebrate The Black Album‘s 20th anniversary? Let us know in the comment section below.
Read More: Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint 3” Turns 14
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Today In Hip Hop History: Jay-Z’s ‘The Black Album’ Turns 20 Years Old!
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.
[WATCH] Cedric The Entertainer Talks Appearing On Jay-Z’s ‘Threat”
JAY-Z’s 2003 The Black Album boasted a myriad of guest appearances. Still, one of the most memorable yet uncredited appearances was “King Of Comedy” Cedric The Entertainer in between Hov’s verses on “Threat.”
While a guest on William “Fuzzy” West and Quincy Harris’ FAQ Podcast, the 58-year-old comedian explained how he talked his way into an appearance on the album after a chance meeting with Jay=Z in New York.
“It was random,” he said. “I was in there, watching him do his thing. The Black Album was his last album so I pitched him an idea. He was on his way out and I was like, ‘Yo man, I’ve been having this funny idea of doing the Beverly Hills Cop thing with you. He was like, ‘Oh, that’s funny. I like that. But I’m working on this song called ‘Threats’ that I need somebody just threatening people on.’ I was like, ‘Aiight!’ So then he left and it was me and [Young] Guru. I just went in there and freestyled that shit! Just was making it up, having a good time.”
Young Guru and the song’s producer, 9th Wonder, recall the recording session with Cederic The Entertainer, with Guru adding on social media, “@cedtheentertainer man we had a great time making that song,” he wrote. “First off I was super excited that @9thwonder had the possibility of making the album. @cedtheentertainer is really a ‘King of Comedy’ because he did at least 30 minutes of complete freestyle. That night was one for the books.”
The post [WATCH] Cedric The Entertainer Talks Appearing On Jay-Z’s ‘Threat” appeared first on The Source.
Barack Obama Explains Why A Song From Jay-Z’s ‘The Black Album’ Means So Much To Him
Barack Obama hasn’t been the president of the United States for over four years now, but he still has plenty of admirers who are eager to hear from him. That especially true of his music preferences, as he often shares well-received playlists. Fans were surely delighted a few weeks ago, then, when the former POTUS made a post on Instagram asking for questions from his followers. In his response to one of those questions, he explained why a particular Jay-Z song from The Black Album means to much to him.
Complex cited Obama’s well-known love of hip-hop and asked, “Do you have one verse you can recite by heart? Obama responded with a video, which Complex shared. In the clip, Obama begins, “First of all, Complex: you do not want to hear me rap. When I have tried to rap, my daughters have rolled their eyes, covered their ears. They think it’s painful. They even think my dancing is better than my rapping.”
He went on to speak about The Black Album‘s closing track, “My 1st Song”:
“Now, having said that, I’ve mentioned a couple of songs that even when I was running for president came up a lot on my iPod. One of them was ‘My 1st Song’ by Jay-Z, which is a song that I love because it talks about the struggle of just trying to make it. And sometimes you have to resort to false bravado and hustle and tamping down your insecurities, and when I was running for president, obviously, at that point, I didn’t know whether I was gonna make it, so somehow, that inspired me.
There’s a line in there, ‘Treat my first as my last and my last as my first and my thirst is the same as when I came.’ And I actually kept on listening to that song during the presidency because it was a reminder that — even when you do make it — having a little bit of that sense of still being hungry, still having to work hard, still having to prove something, that’s what keeps propelling you forward.
But, I’m still not gonna rap it.”
Watch a snippet of Obama’s answer below.