Eminem laces another Beat on this album with the intrspective Moment Of clarity. The next big surprise comes with the Rock sampling anthem produced by Rick Rubin, the heavy '99 Problems (And A Bitch Ain't One)' - maybe the most untypical Jigga Tune ever.Īnother highlight comes with the collaboration with West Side Beatsmith / Rapper Entrepreneur DJ Quik with the Madonna borrowing Justify My Thug, that also sounds like nothing else Jay-Z ever did before. After 'Change Clothes' and 'Dirt Off Your Shoulder' the super luxury bangers from 'The Black Album' 'Threat' with fantastic production by 9th Wonder and vocals by Cedric The Entertainer, who sounds exactly like the late great Old and Dirty Bastardcomes comes along and suprises you.

Just Blaze for the Intro and 2 other trax, Kanye West on 2 trax, Timbaland + The Neptunes for the Radio Hits with the clever hooks are names that we would expect on a Jigga album. The producers involved are carefully chosen. The packaging of this Vinyl gate-fold DoLp is special, so you get a direct feeling how important this statement is. Jay-Z's 9th and last album is a masterpiece. I am going to keep it just as a reminder that not all the records sound good and that I alway should check Discogs first! I guess it has been mastered and pressed in an historic period where CD were the new thing and nobody really cared about pressing good vinyls, also in the thanks section Jay is writing something like 'thanks to all the people who made this CD possible.' it kind of gives you a hint on how much vinyls were considered back then if he's only talking about CDs, maybe. I am not an experienced vinyl collector but I can surely say that this is one of the worst sounding records I own. Nothing of this would be relevant if the sound experience was good but unfortunately it feels very compressed and flat, i feel like there is no difference between this and an hi-quality mp3 version of the same album. The sleeves are missing the soft plastic interior coating and the vinyls are thin and already very scratched. very thin and not durable, the color chipped away already on some corners even if I always try to handle this thing good, ok is not a baby, but i am not using it to block the doors either, if you know what I mean.

I was pretty disappointed by the overall quality of the gatefold paper.

I bought it brand new at a local record store, I have never been a big Jay-Z fan but I'm a huge Hip-Hop head and the black album is something I felt should be in my collection.

Jay z the black album cover