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American Gangster: Parental Advisory | 
| Artist: Jay-z
Label: Def Jam
Category: Music
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £4.98
You Save: £5.01 (50%)
New (57) Used (7) from £4.19
Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 6191
Format: Explicit Lyrics
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 001022902
UPC: 602517499898
EAN: 0602517499898
ASIN: B000WCDI6O
Release Date: November 5, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Intro | | • | Pray | | • | American Dreamin' | | • | Hello Brooklyn 2.0 - Jay-Z & Lil' Wayne | | • | No Hook | | • | Roc Boys (And The Winner Is)... | | • | Sweet | | • | I Know | | • | Party Life | | • | Ignorant Shit - Jay-Z & Beanie Sigel | | • | Say Hello | | • | Success - Jay-Z & Nas | | • | Fallin' | | • | Blue Magic | | • | American Gangster |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Conceived as an unofficial soundtrack to the Ridley Scott movie of the same name, American Gangster sees us getting reacquainted with a quite different Jay-Z to the mainstream-courting comeback kid that hooked up with Beyonce and Coldplay's Chris Martin on 2006's Kingdom Come. This, Jay-Z's second post-retirement album, is hip-hop to the bone: a record steeped in the sounds, iconography and soul of the New York underworld, with the lion's share of production handled by P Diddy's in-house team The Hitmen and guest spots from Beanie Sigel ("Ignorant Shit"), Lil Wayne (the crunk-like, Beastie Boys-sampling "Hello Brooklyn") and long-time rival Nas. The Nas track, "Success", is a particular winner, the pair burying the hatchet over a gorgonzola-scented organ break, rejecting the trappings of success with a truly lordly arrogance: "How many times can I go to Mr Chow's/Tao's, Nobu - hold up!/Let me move my bowels". Other highlights come with the Neptunes-produced "Blue Magic" and slick dealer's anthem "Roc Boys (And the Winner Is)", and while you feel American Gangster is something of a stasis for Jay-Z, an album that sees him revisiting those well-worn themes of hustling and shotting, it remains a treat to hear him on the mic. --Louis Pattison
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 His Best?.. Quite Possibly November 19, 2008
After the pretty disapointing Kingdom Come album 1 or 2 people questioned whether Jay still had the hunger to make classic albums and whether now it was just about collecting a paycheck, But on this album he came hard and made one of his best albums, if not his best.
Brought out when the film American Gangster dropped, you can definetly see the similar aspects in the two, in this album Jay has done something he hasn't done before and made every song a story like chapters in the film.
The album kicks off with the song Pray which features the voiceover of wife Beyonce, this song explains about him starting to build his empire through street hustling and hoping not to get caught by the police.
Overall a great album, definetly up there with Reasonable Doubt and Blueprint
Classic July 10, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Absolute classic. Jay's second best album in my opinion. Lyrically flawless, very good concepts and ideas and a near perfect selection of beats. A must have CD
AMERICAN GANGSTER June 21, 2008
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
Since 1996, when he released his debut CD Reasonable Doubt, Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, has been putting it down pretty much every year. My favorite tracks from "Reasonable Doubt" ended up being "Can I Live", "Can't Knock The Hustle" w/Mary J. Blige, "D'Evils" which was produced by DJ Premier, and "Brooklyn's Finest", a memorable collaboration between Jay-Z and the late, great Notorious BIG. 1997's "In My Lifetime Volume 1" was definitely influenced by Sean "Puffy" Combs with tracks like "Sunshine" and "I Know What Girls Like" w/Lil Kim, however, Jay-Z still managed to bring us some of the flavor from "Reasonable Doubt" with tracks like "Where I'm From", "Imaginary Player", "You Must Love Me", "Streets Is Watching" and "A Million & One Questions/Rhyme No More". Jay-Z clearly was affected by the passing of his friend Notorious BIG, but he still managed to put out a well rounded CD. A year later, Jay-Z was back again with Vol. 2, Hard Knock Life. The 1st official single, "Hard Knock Life" created a heavy buzz for this CD, as well as, the fact that "Money Ain't A Thing", which was on Jermaine Dupri's "Life In 1472" CD, "Can I Get A..." w/Ja Rule, was featured on the Rush Hour soundtrack and "It's Alright" was featured on the Streets Is Watching soundtrack, were also featured on this CD. My personal favorites included "If I Should Die" w/Da Ranjahz, "Jigga What, Jigga Who" w/Jaz and "Reservoir Dogs" w/The LOX, Sauce Money & Beanie Sigel. In 1999, Jay-Z returned with "Volume 3: Life & Times Of Shawn Carter". My favorites included the 1st single, "Do It Again" w/Beanie Sigel, "So Ghetto" and the 4 tracks that Timbaland produced on this CD: "It's Hot", "Big Pimpin' w/UGK, "Come & Get Me" and "Snoopy Track" which featured Juvenile on the hook. In 2000, Jay-Z released, what ended up being more of a collaborative CD between Jay, Beanie Sigel & Memphis Bleek, "The Dynasty: Roc La Familia". My favorite tracks were "This Can't Be Life" w/Jay, Beanie & Scarface, "Soon You'll Understand", "1-900-Hustler" w/Freeway, "Change The Game" and the 1st single, "I Just Wanna Love U". 2001 brought us The Blueprint, which clearly should be in most people's Top 3 Jay-Z albums. My favorite tracks were "Takeover", which lyrically challenged Mobb Deep's longevity and the fact that Jay-Z thought that "Illmatic" was the only CD of Nas with any relevance, which wasn't true, "Renagade" w/Eminem, "U Don't Know", "Song Cry" and "Blueprint (Momma Loves Me)". 2002 brought us the double CD, "Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse". There were many good songs on this release, but they were clearly overshadowed by the filler tracks that were on both CDs. Some of them being unbearable at times. My favorite tracks were "The Watcher 2" w/Dr. Dre, Rakim & Truth Hurts, "Poppin' Tags" w/Big Boi, Killer Mike & Twista, "Excuse Me Miss", "Hovi Baby", "Meet The Parents", "Some How, Some Way" w/Beanie Sigel & Scarface, and the remix to "U Don't Know" w/MOP. 2003 brought us what was supposed to be Jay-Z's last CD in The Black Album. I figured that Jay-Z would just take a break and come back, which he did of course, but "The Black Album" is definitely one of my favorite Jay-Z CDs of all time. My favorites included "What More Can I Say?", "Allure", "Lucifer", "Moment Of Clarity" and "My 1st Song". 3 years later, Jay-Z returned with Kingdom Come. I personally liked the CD because at the time, it seemed that was the place where Jay-Z saw himself at that point of his career. Fans expected to get another "Reasonable Doubt" 10 years later and he wasn't ready to release that type of CD at that moment.
Well ladies and gentlemen, less than a year later, that moment has arrived with "American Gangster". Jay-Z either did his research on Frank Lucas or he was able to get a very advanced copy of the movie. The reason why I say this is that Jay-Z does an A+ job of merging "Reasonable Doubt", which were the true life and times of Shawn Carter before he started rapping, the life and times of Frank Lucas and several events that happened throughout the movie "American Gangster". Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) from The Wire, who is also a DJ by the way, gets things started along with Angel Wood by providing the intro and Jay-Z takes over from there. As reviewer "Josephll" stated, "Pray" gives you a clear indication of what to expect from this release. Beyonce provides the spoken words, the lovely Cheri Dennis, along with Shannon Jones provide the haunting "Pray For Me" on the background vocals and Jay-Z gives you various moments that happened when he was a hustler and he manages to capture the moment of various scenes in the movie "American Gangster". This is definitely my favorite song on this CD. He also shows you that he was listening to Kanye's "Graduation" CD as he points out that "Everything I seen, made me Everything I Am". "American Dreamin'" clearly has an old school feel to it as the production of Diddy, yes Diddy, LV & Sean C (Grind Music) make excellent use of an oldie but goodie with Marvin Gaye's "Soon I'll Be Loving You Again". The track doesn't do as good of a job of storytelling as "Pray" did but it's still a track worth listening to. I was surprised that Jay-Z featured Lil Wayne on "Hello Brooklyn 2.0" but the more I listen to the track, the more that I like the song. It probably would have been better if Lil Wayne hadn't had 26 mixtapes and 175 guest appearances this year..lol "No Hook" has Jay-Z bringing up several events that led to the fact of why he was hustlin' in the streets in the first place. His father basically played no role in his life at all and the streets kept callin' until he finally answered. He does his best to characterize this as a street anthem as he says this is not for commercial usage and to not call it music. "Roc Boys (And The Winner Is...) is the 2nd single from "American Gangster" and features a "sick" horn sample that Grind Music used from "Make The Road By Walking" by The Menahan Street Band. Even your great uncle will be doing a 2 step to this track as Jay-Z celebrates all of the success from the benefits of being a hustler. "Sweet" continues where "Roc Boys" left off at a slower place as you may blink and think you're actually listening to a rap version of the "Superfly" soundtrack instead of "Amercian Gangster". This is another stellar production from Grind Music. The Neptunes stop by to bring us "I Know". Hopefully, you won't think this song is actually about a female. Jay-Z does a good job of disguising what the real meaning of the song is, which in my opinion, is about how much people actually need "blue magic" and the affects on them if they don't have it at the current time or if they are fighting the addiction of it. I hate to keep bringing this up but Grind Music clearly have outdone themselves with the production on "Party Life". Jay-Z goes back to his "Imaginary Player" days as he officially shuts things down with "Ya Boy is Off The Wall, These other n______ is Tito". "Ignorant S____" features Beanie Sigel as Just Blaze, who has produced several Jay-Z classics and one of my all time favorite Jay-Z collaborations with Freeway & Beanie Sigel, "What We Do", samples The Isley Brothers' "Between The Sheets" for one of my favorite tracks on this CD. One reason why I like this track so much is that when you hear this sample you are use to hearing Biggie and his anthem for the ladies "Big Poppa". Just Blaze samples a different part of "Between The Sheets" to create a track that would pass for being a street anthem, especially with Jay's and Beanie's lyrics on the track. "Say Hello" is another nice track that is produced by DJ Toomp, who produced TI's "What You Know" and Kanye West's "Big Brother" from Kanye's "Graduation" CD. "Success" is produced by NO ID and Jermaine Dupri and features another track that has Jay-Z and Nas on the track. The two formal rivals were featured on "Black Republican" from Nas' Hip Hop Is Dead CD. Both of these tracks are stellar collaborations, in my opinion, but some fans expected better results from songs that featured Jay-Z & Nas. "Fallin'" is also produced by NO ID and Jermaine Dupri as Bilal joinis in to deliver some nice vocals this time around. "Fallin"" would have been perfect in the movie when Frank decided to leave the officer the turkey at his doorstep and then all of a sudden the officer's car blows up shortly thereafter. Frank Lucas knew that would come back to get him in the end. "Blue Magic" is the 1st single but oddly it appears as a bonus track. Regardless, when you hear the Neptunes track thumping in your speakers and Jay's slick slang on the track, the last thing you will worry about is whether it's a single or a bonus track. The title track closes thing out, however, Just Blaze shouldn't have came up with a track that sounds too much like "Show 'Em What You Got".
Overall, as I stated before, Jay-Z does an A+ job of merging "Reasonable Doubt", the real life and times of Frank Lucas and the events that happened during the course of the movie "American Gangster". I personally feel that "American Gangster" is right up there with "Reasonable Doubt", "The Blueprint" and "The Black Album", which are my 3 favorite Jay-Z CDs. Lyrically, Jay-Z shows that he is still deserved to be in the conversation with the best rappers today. I am not talking about the MTV list that had Jim Jones and other non lyrical rappers that find their ways up the popularity charts these days. I am talking about legitimate lyricists in 2007 like Jay-Z, Nas, Common, Phonte from Little Brother, Talib Kweli, etc. If you have been a fan of the majority of Jay-Z's releases, you should also add "American Gangster" to your collection.
Hova's best since The Blueprint February 15, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I haven't heard Jay-Z on fire from start to finish since The Blueprint. Each tune is a story in its own, with thought provoking bars backed with jazz/old-schoolesque beats. The standout tracks in my opinion are Brooklyn 2.0 (with an unstoppable Lil' Wayne providing a flawless verse), Say Hello, Success (with Nas spraying his usual fire..need I say more?), Party Life, Blue Magic and of course Roc Boys. Add this to the list of Jay-Z's best LP's; Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint.
 Doesn't live up to expectations. January 28, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Handful of really good tracks - Pray, No Hook, Roc Boys....,
I was going to list all the 'ok ones' - then realised all the rest
are okay. But too many 'ok' tracks equals boring and dull.
There's too much self congratulation here to for such a mediocre effort.
To be expected with JZ i know - fine when he's on form but not here.
Overall it just doesn't live up to expectations. Certainly not in the same league as Blueprint or Reasonable Doubt. Can do better - should tried harder.
On the other hand it just may turn out to be a slow burner, so I reserve the right to change my mind !!!
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