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Today In Hip Hop History: Jay-Z Dropped ‘The Black Album’ 21 Years Ago

November 14, 2024 ItsHipHop Leave a comment

TodayinHip HopHistory:JAY ZDropped'TheBlackAlbum'YearsAgo

On this day in Hip-Hop history, Brooklyn’s own Jay-Z released his would-be retirement album, The Black Album. Although there was virtually no pause between The Black Album and new Jay-Z music (collaboration albums with R. Kelly and Linkin Park were released the following year), this album is easily the greatest retirement project of all time.

This album sounds more like a greatest hits album than the eighth project of an illustrious career. Starting with the first track, “December 4th”, this album takes the listener on a nostalgic journey. This opening tale of Hov’s origin sets the album’s tone and properly introduces Jay to an industry he feels has taken him for granted. This album is an opus to Jay’s distaste for the rap game. On numerous tracks, specifically “Encore” and “What More Can I Say”, Hov can be heard stating his frustration with being the one-punch man (a fictional superhero who can defeat any opponent with merely one punch, causing him to become bored with superhero work) of Hip Hop.

Aside from staking his claim as the greatest, Hov spent this album perfectly juggling his unique brand of bragging with the dropping of street knowledge you couldn’t pay for. Singles “Change Clothes” and “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” are perfect examples of the particular swagger Jay-Z brought to rap. His mature yet flamboyant lyricism is on par with the life described by Robin Leach. As the album progresses, Jay increasingly begins to put his would-be competition in its place with sheer willpower. From “Threats” to “Lucifer” it seems Jay is directly challenging the rest of the rap world to get on his level before they never again get the chance.

The album ends with two songs that could interchangeably be used as an outro. Both “Allure” and “My 1st Song” show Jay-Z coming to terms with the final chapter of his career coming to a close, even if he was planning a comeback.

Featuring production from Kanye West, Just Blaze, The Neptunes, Timbaland, 9th Wonder, Rick Rubin, DJ Quik, and even Eminem, it’s easy to see why this album is as amazing as it is. Aside from the prolific production team, Jay-Z put together one of his most successful albums without any features (aside from a hook sung by Pharrell). Commercially, the album peaked at #1 on both the Top R&B/Hip-Hop chart and the Billboard 200 chart (where it appeared twice, each for a week). The album also went triple platinum in the United States and appeared on music charts of eight different countries.

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Today In Hip Hop History: N.E.R.D. Released Their Third Album ‘Seeing Sounds’ 16 Years Ago

June 10, 2024 ItsHipHop Leave a comment

On this date in 2008, producer extraordinaire Pharrell Williams and crew dropped N.E.R.D’s third full length studio effort Seeing Sounds on Williams’ Star Trak label under the Interscope imprint. The album’s concept as well as its content revolves around the neurological phenomenon of synesthesia, as the album’s title suggests, the mixing of sensory modalities.

In an interview with MTV’s Shaheem Reid, Pharrell described synesthesia synesthesia, saying, “If you really analyze that, the most inspiration is probably deep inside a synesthesiac. So for us, ‘seeing sounds’ is what we relate to the most. We figured we’d make an album out of it. Energy and emotion was the criteria [while recording], but we made the music anticipating the [live] show. That was the most important thing…[The song] ‘Spaz’ is [an] old school, hip hop feeling with some drum and bass. It becomes a big, tall monster. It’s almost like this big gorilla looking down at you. If he smacks you, he kills you. His fingers are the size of your body. That’s kinda what we’re doing. We’re facing this big monster of, of what we know is out there, of what we see, that big monster of energy.”

Produced exclusively by The Neptunes, consisting of Williams and Chad Hugo, the duo went to Miami and L.A. respectively and consecutively recorded fourteen tracks(two bonus tracks) that aptly fit the LP’s concept title, which was originally named after the group.

A large part of the album’s promotion came from performing on Kanye West’s 2008 Glow In The Dark Tour, where the crew performed the top singles from the album, “Everyone Nose” and “Spaz”. The latter single was aso used in a Zune Music Pass commercial the same year.

Commercially, the album debuted at number seven on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 80,000 copies in its first week.^[Sales in the United States have exceeded 250,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.^[It peaked in the top 20 in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, while also charting in the several other regions, including Austria, Belgium, France and Italy.

Peace to Pharrell, Chad Hugo ,Spymob and everyone else involved and making this a part of Hip Hop history!

The post Today In Hip Hop History: N.E.R.D. Released Their Third Album ‘Seeing Sounds’ 16 Years Ago first appeared on The Source.

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Today In Hip Hop History: Jay-Z’s ‘The Black Album’ Turns 20 Years Old!

November 14, 2023 ItsHipHop Leave a comment

On this day in Hip-Hop history, Brooklyn’s own Jay-Z released he would-be retirement album The Black Album. Although there was virtually no pause between The Black Album and new Jay-Z music (collaboration albums with both R. Kelly and Linkin Park were released the following year), this album is easily the greatest retirement project of all time.

In its entirety, this album sounds more like a greatest hits album than the eighth project of an illustrious career. Starting with the first track, “December 4th”, this album takes the listener on a nostalgic journey. This opening tale of Hov’s origin sets the tone of the album and properly introduces Jay to an industry that he feels has taken him for granted. This album is an opus to Jay’s distaste with the rap game as a whole. On numerous tracks, specifically “Encore” and “What More Can I Say”, Hov can be heard stating his frustration with being the one punch man (a fictional superhero who can defeat any opponent with merely one punch causing him to become bored with superhero work) of Hip Hop.

Aside from staking his claim as the greatest, Hov spent this album perfectly juggling his unique brand of bragging with the dropping of street knowledge you couldn’t pay for. Singles “Change Clothes” and “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” are perfect examples of the particular swagger Jay-Z brought to rap. His mature yet flamboyant lyricism is on par with the life described by Robin Leach. As the album progresses, Jay begins more and more to put his would-be competition in its place with sheer willpower. From “Threats” to “Lucifer” it seems Jay is directly challenging the rest of the rap world to get on his level before they never again get the chance.

Featuring production from Kanye West, Just Blaze, The Neptunes, Timbaland, 9th Wonder, Rick Rubin, DJ Quik, and even Eminem, it’s easy to see why this album is as amazing as it is. Aside from the prolific production team, Jay-Z put together one of his most successful albums without any features (aside from a hook sung by Pharrell). Commercially, the album peaked at #1 on both the Top R&B/Hip-Hop chart and the Billboard 200 chart (where it appeared twice, each for a week). The album also went triple platinum in the United States and made appearances on music charts of eight different countries.

The post Today In Hip Hop History: Jay-Z’s ‘The Black Album’ Turns 20 Years Old! first appeared on The Source.

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Pharrell to Open Up Private School in Virginia For Low-Income Families

June 14, 2021 ItsHipHop Leave a comment

Six months ago, Pharrell started his non-profit, Black Ambition a non-profit aimed at supporting Black and Latino entrepreneurs launching companies in the tech, design, and healthcare industries. Recently, Pharrell is expanding his philanthropic efforts by opening up a private school for low-income students.

Through Yellow, Pharrell’s education-based non-profit, the multi-platinum producer plans on opening a school, Yellowhab, in Norfolk, VA’s Ghent neighborhood for low-income students. Kids between third grade and fifth grade will be able to be enrolled in the school. Tuition will be free for the first year, with costs to be taken care of by charitable donations.

In the first year, 40 to 50 students will be enrolled in the school. Rather than grouping the kids by grade level, Yellowhab will group children by skill level instead. “The challenge is that if you’re progressing too slow relative to some benchmark, then you’re tagged with that title ‘remedial’ or something like it,” Executive Director Mike McGalliard said. “And that’s detrimental to your evolving self-concept, to your sense of what you can achieve. It’s oppressive, and it’s a weight kids carry.”

In a statement picked up by The Virginian Pilot, Pharrell spoke on the importance of Yellowhab’s bespoke teaching style. “If the system is fixed and unfair, then it needs to be broken,” Williams said. “We don’t want lockstep learning where so many kids fall behind; we want bespoke learning designed for each child, where the things that make a child different are the same things that will make a child rise up and take flight.”

As to why Pharrell chose Norfolk to be where the school is located, Williams said that it is due to the city’s housing segregation and because the city is planning on redevelop three public housing complexes.

“Residents [are] being displaced from their homes with potentially limited housing options available which limits options for the children,” Stephanie Walters, Yellow’s director of engagement, told The Pilot. “We have a great relationship with the City of Norfolk and want to be a part of the solution in supporting the community with resources and support.”

Yellowhab’s curriculum will be centered around STEAM, (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), and will open up a middle school after the first year.

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