The Black Album (Jay-Z album)

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The Black Album is the eighth studio album by American rapper Jay-Z, released on November 14, 2003, by Roc-A-Fella Records. It was advertised as his final album before retiring, which is also a recurring theme throughout the songs, although Jay-Z resumed his recording career in 2006. For the album, Jay-Z wanted to enlist a different producer for each song, working with Just Blaze, Kanye West, The Neptunes, DJ Quik, Timbaland, 9th Wonder and Rick Rubin, among others.

When The Black Album was released, it received widespread acclaim from critics. In its first week, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 463,000 copies in the United States. It became Jay-Z's top selling record of the 2000s decade, and by July 2013, it had sold 3,516,000 copies in the US. The Black Album was promoted with a retirement tour by Jay-Z and three singles that also achieved Billboard chart success, including the top-ten hits "Change Clothes" and "Dirt off Your Shoulder".

Video The Black Album (Jay-Z album)

Release and reception

Jay-Z had announced that The Black Album would be his final record and went on a retirement tour after its release. When it was released, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and sold 463,000 copies in its first week. According to Billboard, it became Jay-Z's top selling record of the 2000s and the 136th highest selling record of the decade in the United States. By July 2013, the album had sold 3,516,000 copies in the US.

The Black Album received widespread acclaim from contemporary critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, it received an average score of 84, based on 19 reviews. AllMusic's John Bush claimed Jay-Z was retiring at his peak with the album. Vibe magazine said it was remarkable as an apotheosis of his genuinely thoughtful songwriting and lyrics "delivered with transcendent skill", while Steve Jones from USA Today said even with "top-shelf work" from elite producers, the album was elevated by Jay-Z's uniquely deft and diverse rapping style. Writing for The A.V. Club, Nathan Rabin felt Jay-Z returned to "brevity and consistency" on an album that demonstrated his lyrical abilities and, more importantly, hip hop's best producers. Jon Caramanica wrote in The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) that The Black Album was both "old-school and utterly modern", showcasing Jay-Z "at the top of his game, able to reinvent himself as a rap classicist at the right time, as if to cement his place in hip-hop's legacy for generations to come".

In a less enthusiastic review for Rolling Stone, Touré argued that The Black Album was slightly inferior to Jay-Z's best records, namely Reasonable Doubt (1996) and The Blueprint (2001). Dave Simpson from The Guardian was more critical, dismissing the music as "an aural equivalent of that old American favourite, the schmaltzy biopic." In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau gave the record a back-handed compliment: "[Jay-Z] raps like a legend in his own time--namely, Elvis in Vegas". Nonetheless, he was impressed by the stretch of songs from "Encore" to "Justify My Thug" and wrote in a retrospective review for MSN Music that "the fanfares, ovations, maternal reminiscences, and vamp-till-ready shout-outs were overblown at best", but they have come to sound "prophetic" because of the entrepreneurial success and fame Jay-Z continued to achieve after The Black Album: "He's got a right to celebrate his autobiography in rhyme because he's on track to become a personage who dwarfs any mere rapper, and not only can he hire the best help dark green can buy, he can make it sing."

In 2005, The Black Album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, losing to Kanye West's The College Dropout at the 47th Grammy Awards. It was also ranked number 349 in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Pitchfork ranked The Black Album at number 90 on its decade-end list of the top 200 albums from the 2000s, while Slant Magazine ranked it seventh best on a similar list. In 2012, Complex named it one of the "classic" records of the previous decade.

Maps The Black Album (Jay-Z album)

Track listing

All song samples, writing and production credits are according to the album booklet.

Notes

^{^[a]} signifies an additional producer
"What More Can I Say" features additional vocals by Vincent 'Hum V' Bostic
"Encore" features additional vocals by John Legend, Don Crawley, Leonard Harris and Kanye West
"Change Clothes" features additional vocals by Danee Doty
"Threat" features additional vocals by Cedric the Entertainer
"Justify My Thug" features additional vocals by Sharlotte Gibson

Sample credits

"December 4th" contains a sample of "That's How Long" written by Walter Boyd and Elijah Powell Jr., and performed by The Chi-Lites.
"What More Can I Say" contains samples of "Something for Nothing" written by Thom Bell, Kenneth Gamble and Roland Chambers, and performed by MFSB, and "Keep Your Hands High" written by Tracey Lee and Christopher Wallace, and performed by Tracey Lee featuring The Notorious B.I.G..
"Encore" contains elements of "I Will" performed by John Holt.
"Threat" contains a sample from "A Woman's Threat" written and performed by R. Kelly.
"99 Problems" contains samples of "Long Red" written by Norman Landsberg, Felix Pappalardi, John Ventura and Leslie Weinstein, and performed by Mountain, "Get Me Back on Time, Engine Number 9" performed by Wilson Pickett, "The Big Beat" written and performed by Billy Squier, elements of "99 Problems" written by Tracy Marrow and Alphonso Henderson, and performed by Ice-T, interpolations of "Touched" written by Chad Butler and Bernard Freeman, and performed by UGK, and portions of "Children's Story" written and performed by Slick Rick.
"Public Service Announcement (Interlude)" contains a portion of "No One Can Do It Better" written by Tracy Curry and Andre Young, and performed by The D.O.C., and a sample of "Seed of Love" written by Raymond Levin, and performed by Little Boy Blues.
"Justify My Thug" contains portions of "Rock Around the Clock" written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers, and performed by Bill Haley & His Comets, samples of "Rock Box" written by Darryl McDaniels, Joseph Simmons and Larry Smith, and performed by Run-DMC, and an interpolation of "Justify My Love", written by Madonna Ciccone, Ingrid Chavez and Lenny Kravitz, and performed by Madonna.
"Lucifer" contains a sample of "Chase the Devil" written by Hugh Perry and Maxie Smith, and performed by Max Romeo.
"My 1st Song" contains a sample of "Tu y Tu Mirar...Yo y Mi Canción" written by Germain de La Fuente, and performed by Los Angeles Negros, and a vocal portion of The Notorious B.I.G.'s 1996 interview for MTV.