Jay-Z: American Gangster

American Gangster

American Gangster is the tenth studio album from Jay-Z, released November 6, 2007 on Roc-A-Fella Records. American Gangster is Jay-Z’s first concept album, which was inspired by the film of the same name. The album features production from Diddy & The Hitmen, Just Blaze, and The Neptunes, among others. Guest appearances include Beanie Sigel, Lil Wayne, Pharrell and Nas. Jay-Z also released an a cappella version of the album on the date of his 38th birthday, December 4, 2007, which lead to a mass amount of remix albums flooding the Internet.

Music critics praised American Gangster, and noted that Jay-Z was trying more “complex lyrics”. The album was released to moderate commercial success, despite being pulled from the iTunes Store, selling 425,861 copies in its first week and debuting at number one on the Billboard 200, tying Elvis Presley for the second most number one albums and was certified Platinum by the RIAA. The album received universal acclaim from most music critics, based on an aggregate score of 82/100 from Metacritic. Rolling Stone magazine named American Gangster the third best album of 2007. The album has sold over 2 million copies as of 2009.

Jay-Z originally stated he recorded nine tracks for the album, but the final track listing accumulated fifteen overall cuts (two bonus tracks). He also stated that almost every song is based on a specific scene from the film. Def Jam executive Tracey Waples noted each track from the album will have its own “mini-film”. As for the direction of the album, Jay-Z used personal memories he hadn’t touched on in a while, specifically memories from his early life when he lived in Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects.

On November 9, 2007, Jay-Z appeared on the Charlie Rose Show to discuss the album. When asked about how the film gave life to this album, he replied:

It’s a New York City tale, you know. So as soon as the movie came on, it was like familiar, things that my pop seen and my uncles seen and, you know, different things like that, things I’ve seen growing up. So they resonated with me in a way, the story, as well as, I mean, even though everything happens, you know, the way it turns out, you know, it’s one of those movies that where you champion the bad guy, because the bad guy, you know, he don’t seem like a bad guy, and the good guy — I mean the good guys are bad. You know, that complex — the complexity of human beings in this thing was amazing to me. I loved the complexity of the human beings.

Jay-Z would have the film—American Gangster—playing on the monitors above the recording booth to keep him inspired. In an interview with MTV producer LV from The Hitmen said:

Jay would have the beats…He’d do the record, and he’d send it back to us. We’d fill in the blanks as far as making them full records. From having live horns, live strings, live drummers. This percussion dude, he was coming in with bottles, banging on bottles, just sprinkles of shit. We went all out. We brought in musicians to bring it out. Jay probably just heard a sample and some drums. Once we got the vocals back, we brought in all the extra candy.

Beanie Sigel and Lil Wayne are two of the few featured guest spots on the album, in which Sigel appears on the new version of “Ignorant Shit”, and Lil Wayne joins Jay-Z on the Beastie Boys-sampling “Hello Brooklyn 2.0″. Jay returned the favor on “Mr. Carter” from Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III. Also, fellow New York City rapper and former rival Nas is featured on the No I.D.-produced track “Success”, while the Neo soul singer Bilal sings the hook on “Fallin’”, but is not officially credited.

Jay-Z pulled American Gangster from the popular iTunes Store. Jay-Z stated “as movies are not sold scene by scene, this collection will not be sold as individual singles.” However, the album is available for digital download, in its entirety, at Amazon.com and Rhapsody.com. Those who pre-ordered and paid for the entire album from iTunes were still able to download it.

Singles