Jay-Z: The Black Album

The Black Album is the eighth studio album from Jay-Z, released November 14, 2003 on Roc-A-Fella Records. It was promoted as his final studio album, although Jay-Z subsequently announced a return to solo recording in 2006. The album was very well received by critics and was also a commercial success, debuting at #1 with nearly 463,000 copies sold in its first week and over 3 million to date. The black disc is accompanied by a black-covered set of liner notes and a black jewel case.

The album features only two guest appearance> One by Pharrell (in “Change Clothes”) and the other by Jay-Z’s mother, who speaks about his childhood in different portions of “December 4th”.

In early interviews, Jay-Z said that the album would be a return to his Reasonable Doubt sound (responding to criticism from some fans that his subsequent efforts were too commercial) and that it would be “for the streets”, with no promotion or singles; however “Change Clothes” and “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” were both successful singles.

He also claimed that the album would have a different producer for each track, and early magazine advertisements listed a series of numbers (representing tracks) and a producer for each number. The final album did feature a variety in producers, although Roc-A-Fella producers Kanye West and Just Blaze produced two tracks each, in addition to the two produced by frequent Jay-Z collaborators The Neptunes. Longtime collaborators DJ Premier and Dr. Dre did not produce any tracks. 9th Wonder saw a boost in popularity after producing “Threat” for the album. Jay-Z is credited as the second producer on the track for finding the R. Kelly sample that was included in the beat.

Singles

1. “Change Clothes”
   • Released: November 11, 2003
2. “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”
   • Released: January 13, 2004
3. “99 Problems”
   • Released: April 13, 2004

U.S. Billboard Charts

#1 on Billboard 200
#1 on Billboard Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums

- The above information was taken from Wikipedia