He was playing the music, and it was one of my first exposures to Jay-Z. So the first time I heard The Black Album, it was actually with my dad. And he unretired two years later with a comeback album, Kingdom Come.
He was onto other stuff now.īut he had things left unsaid. See, the thing about The Black Album is that the album was so great that Jay-Z literally decided to retire from rap after he dropped that album. One of the albums we didn’t get a chance to mention, but one that I have an appreciation for, is Kingdom Come (2006). I mean, after all–literally all of this man’s albums debuted at #1 so, yeah, he’s a legend. I mean, we didn’t even get a chance to talk about Reasonable Doubt, or Watch the Throne, or the Hard Knock Life series, or any of that stuff. This is a sidenote, but among this discussion, it became apparent that Jay-Z just had so much great material that there was no way anyone could name all his fire tracks and album. More music from 4:44, and even a track from his collaboration album with Beyoncé. Another homie mentioned his Blueprint 2 album, and another posted “American Dreamin'”, a song from American Gangster (which I definitely learned for sure could be considered his best work. I posted “Allure”, my homie posted “What More Can I Say”. Well that started a discussion about our favorite Jay-Z songs. I decided to name “Allure” the Song of the Day for December 4th, and posted it to the chat.Įvery song this man ever made with Pharrell has been legendary. I never realized how much quality each track had! I’m able to listen with my modern ear now, and it just helped me realize what a legend Jay-Z truly is. “Lucifer” was next (gas), and then track 13, “Allure”. The next track was “Justify My Thug”, and I found that I never even realized how good that song was. Track was going crazy, bruh! It’s been a while since I really heard this album, so I just let it play. There was no need to play obvious classics like “99 Problems” or “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”, so on my re-listen, the first song I actually listened to was track 10, “Public Service Announcement”. But dude… I didn’t realize just how good this album was! Man–now I have always acknowledged that this album was great and, in my opinion, his best album at least up until 4:44. I usually go to the group chat with me and my friends and post a song of the day, so I had to put up a song of the day featuring Jay-Z! The first album I listened to once I heard the news that it was his birthday was The Black Album (2004). The other day, December 4th, was Jay-Z’s birthday! Happy 50th birthday to the GOAT!Īs everyone knows, Jay-Z took some of his albums off of Apple Music, Spotify, and streaming services and put his whole collection on his own streaming platform, TIDAL.īut to celebrate his 50th birthday, Jay-Z released all of his albums, including some side projects like MTV’s Unplugged with The Roots, on Spotify! Kingdom Come is underrated! There are some hidden tracks on here that dudes need to hear!