Tuesday, November 6th, JAY-Z will release his 10th studio album. Already receiving rave reviews, AMERICAN GANGSTER, is JAY-Z’s first conceptual work of art. Separate from the official motion picture soundtrack, this collection of all-new original material is a musical journey and lyrical interpretation of snapshots from the motion picture American Gangster.
The album will not be sold on iTunes to respect JAY-Z’s creative vision of AMERICAN GANGSTER being experienced as a complete story. “As movies are not sold scene by scene, this collection will not be sold as individual singles,” stated JAY-Z. The album is available in its entirety in traditional retail stores as well as at rocafella.com, Amazon.com and rhapsody.com.
In support of the AMERICAN GANGSTER album, JAY-Z will embark on an up close and personal 5 city tour. Each city sold out in less than a minute, Philadelphia in 30 seconds, Los Angeles in 11 seconds and Chicago in 8 seconds. The intimate performances will feature songs from the new collection.
JAY-Z Nation, launching on November 5th at 5pm (EST) will air a special live concert playback from the forthcoming performance at the House of Blues in Chicago (11/7) as well as special editions of Street Certified, DJ Green Lantern: The Invasion, and The Nation’s Top 20 Hip Hop Countdown hosted by JAY-Z.
The channel will feature music from American Gangster as well as other JAY-Z songs and will include personal introductions by the artist himself. JAY-Z will also play some of his other favorite Hip Hop artists and discuss what each means to him.
Fans will be able to hear the story behind AMERICAN GANGSTER when a special edition of VH1’s “Storytellers” airs on Thursday, November 8th. In a rare and intimate performance, JAY-Z performs and shares the inspirations behind each of the songs, which serve as scenes from this cautionary tale.
Also, this week, JAY-Z will debut the video for “Roc Boys,” his newest visual component of the AMERICAN GANGSTER tale. This video will be an excerpt from the AMERICAN GANGSTER film currently being filmed.