#17 - Phil

Jay-Z

The Black Album

2003

It took 33 days, but my favorite musician of all-time finally has a place on my countdown. Jay-Z was the first artist I ever followed when his phenomenal single, “Can I Get A…” dominated the radio stations back when I was in middle school. He continued releasing great hit after hit through the end of the 90s and into the start of this millennium. Before Hova, 2Pac and Biggie were considered the impenetrable godfathers of hip-hop. But today few rap historians would argue that Mr. Carter has established himself as the genre’s most successful artist ever, or as Jay himself puts it: “The Mike Jordan of recordin’.”

The Black Album was supposed to be Jay’s curtain call. And if it had been, it would have been regarded as one of the greatest final albums ever put out by a mainstream musician. If I could pick one track to represent this record, it would be “What More Can I Say,” one of Jay’s career-best lyrical outings. Like the rest of this album, it’s not just Hova’s farwell; it’s his testimony that he also will have the last word. So I’ll give it to him:

“And, no, I ain’t get shot up a whole bunch of times / Or make up shit in a whole bunch of lines / And I ain’t animated like, say, a Busta Rhymes / But the real shit you get when you bust down my lines / Add that to the fact I went plat a bunch of times / Times that by my influence on pop culture / I supposed to be number one on everybody’s list / We’ll see what happens when I no longer exist / Fuck this... What more can I say?” -P.W.

If only Jay-Z had truly faded to black as he alluded to in this record, he’d be considered more of a deity of hip hop. Instead he opted to stage an embarrassingly predictable comeback that has only contributed to my fear that hip hop has rapidly become pretty stagnant creatively. Nonetheless, The Black Album stands out as one of Jay-Z’s best... hell, one of hip hop’s best. My favorite song is actually “December 14th” and actually might prefer the Danger Mouse version from The Gray Album. Like on this song, the album is incredibly personal and tells a powerful story. - Ryan

Should've been his exit record. Instead we now have "Kingdom Come" and "The Blueprint 3", thanks a lot Jay. Anyway, "The Black Album" is one of Jay-Z's greatest records containing some big, defining singles in Timbaland-produced "Dirt Off Your Shoulder" and the colossal "99 Problems". The latter track also produced one of my favorite music videos of the decade, Mark Romanek's tale of city life - eventually ending with the anonymous assault and murder of Jay-Z, later defined by Jay as the rebirth of Shawn Carter. Beautiful record and video. Check out Vincent Gallo hangin' with Rick Rubin! - Steve