By the early 2000s, Jay-Z wasn't just way ahead of the pack, he was in a league of his own.
From his 1996 classic debut with Reasonable Doubt to his mainstream crossover with Vol 2…Hard Knock Life to 2001’s much-lauded Blueprint, and the expansion of his Roc-A-Fella label, few could question his preternatural abilities, creative instincts and business acumen.
In just seven years, the kid from Marcy Projects turned hip hop entrepreneur had achieved more than he could have ever hoped for as an artist, and his departing gift to fans - billed as his 'retirement' record - was The Black Album.
Jigga’s initial plan was to do 12 tracks with 12 different producers, the album notable for its lack of prominent features as he’d done on previous albums.
The writing focused on tracing through his career, his rise from the housing projects and high stakes street hustle to hip hop megastar, The Black Album was set to be his most autobiographical and introspective work yet, and he didn’t disappoint.
His mum, Gloria Carter kicks off the album announcing the arrival of the last of her four children, Shawn, on ‘December 4th’.
He tells his rags to riches story, effortlessly asserting his supremacy in the rap game with countless quotable rhymes in ‘What More Can I Say’ and the Kanye West-produced, soulful horn sampling ‘Encore’.
When his foes ramp up their aggression, Jigga can counter with forcefulness, like on the Cedric the Entertainer assisted ‘Threat’, or simply, as Barack Obama was inspired to do, dust the negativity off with the flick of the wrist as on ‘Dirt Off Your Shoulder’.
On ‘Lucifer’, he wrestles with inner demons looking to exact revenge for friends he’s lost to senseless street violence. He grapples with the ever-present temptation to go back to his hustling lifestyle on 'Allure'.
He reconciles himself on 'Moment of Clarity' to the pain of growing up without his father, whilst also reconciling himself to having made certain creative decisions to secure wider appeal and commercial success, in lines such as:
'I dumb down for my audience and double my dollars, they criticise me for it, yet they all yell ‘holla’'.
On the album's best-known track, '99 Problems', complete with a skull thumping Rick Rubin beat, Jay takes on narrow minded music critics, and details being racially profiled in an encounter with highway police looking to bust him for guns or drugs possession.
His ‘retirement’ might have only lasted a few years, and The Black Album didn’t prove to be Jay-Z's swan song after all, but rather a brilliant classic record to punctuate the next phase of his hip hop ascendancy.
