Big Apple Music Scene

Jay Z’s American Gangster sitting at # 1

by Mike on November 17th, 2007

Hello Brooklyn….

Billboard.com has Jay Z’s American Gangster at number one in the Billboard 200 for records with the greatest airplay.

The new album, American Gangster, is Jay Z’s 10th number 1 album - selling 425,000 copies in it’s first week.  Only the Beatles have more number 1 albums…pretty crazy.

The album is Jay Z’s first concept album created around the current Denzel and Russell Crowe film.  He has stated that almost every song is based on a specific scene from the film.

Here’s what Jay said about it on Charlie Rose,

It’s a New York City tale, you know. So as soon as the movie came on, it was like familiar, things that my pop seen and my uncles seen and, you know, different things like that, things I’ve seen growing up. So they resonated with me in a way, the story, as well as, I mean, even though everything happens, you know, the way it turns out, you know, it’s one of those movies that where you champion the good guy, because the good guy, you know, he don’t seem like a bad guy, and the bad guy — I mean the good guys are bad. You know, that complex — the complexity of human beings in this thing was amazing to me. I loved the complexity of the human beings.

The album is his best in years.  Check out tracks:  Blue Magic and Fallin’ 

Check out this clip of Jay Z freestylin’ at a recent gig…courtesy of Hip Hip Roll

Jay Z will also be on this month’s cover of Rolling Stone.

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POSTED IN: Albums, Big Apple News, Gigs & Shows