The Black Album was led by three major singles “Changes Clothes” with Pharrell Williams, “99 Problems” produced by Rick Rubin and “Dirt Of Your Shoulders” produced by Timbaland. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 463,000 copies sold in its first week. Nearly two years after its release, the album went triple platinum.
Not long after he dropped the album, Hov released a documentary called Fade To Black. The film contains behind-the-scenes footage of JAY-Z making his last album and shows scenes of his critically-acclaimed performance at Madison Square Garden in 2003, which was meant to be his final concert before his officially retired. In addition to the album’s producers, other artists like Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliott, Foxy Brown, Diddy, Slick Rick and Questlove also appear in the film.
In case you didn’t know, Hov barely lasted a year before he returned to the music industry to promote his collaborative album Collison Course with Linkin Park in 2004. Relive The Black Album and check out some of the best music videos from the LP below.
