![]() ![]() He asked if we wanted an encore, but before anyone can answer he places his name next to Michael Jordan and The Grateful Dead. Jay’s eighth studio is a king’s tantrum masked as a moment of lionization. Eminem was about to run into a creative wall he’d never recover from, 50 Cent hadn’t reached the zenith of his commercial power, Kanye West was far from being a lyrical peer, Aubrey Graham was still a teen soap opera star. In 2003, Hov was operating in a space where social media was barely in its infancy, stealing digital files was more of a concern than streaming, organizing discs into a binder was still a thing. “There’s never been a nigga this good for this long / This hood or this pop, this hot or this strong,” Jay spits over the “Something for Nothing” sample. Jay pleads with the audience, “What more can I say to you? You heard it all,” which is severely depressing and darkly humorous when you consider how bored the world’s most successful rapper has to be in order to make an entire song about the subject. The Black Album is a work of sheer disgust at the excess of success. According to him “The game ain’t hot,” and hip-hop was now “corny.” His stated reason for leaving the genre behind was clear. Every piece of major label music is a publicity stunt by necessity, wrapped in an artistic package. He was asked if his retirement was a publicity stunt. I could think of other ways to get attention,” Jay-Z defensively told Touré in a 2003 New York Times interview. ![]()
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