re: Jay Z vs Kanye West

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Yes he did. You are a dumbass.

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It is Jay-Z's last solo album for Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella, and his first concept album, which was inspired by the film of the same name.

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In 2006, Greg Calloway was approached by producer to produce a soundtrack for the film. He presented the idea to Atlantic Records chairman Craig Kallman, and one of the company's artists, T.I., got an acting role in the film; but the deal did not go further because Universal Pictures own the rights to the film - “It was a Universal film and they were not going to give the soundtrack to WMG (Atlantic's parent company)”.[26] Thus Scott brought back for the music Marc Streitenfeld, who had worked with him in A Good Year. The composer stated that "the overall tone needed to be something bigger and darker" given the characters' strong personalities, and while not being the original intention, he added shades of blues and soul music to fit the 1970s setting.[27] The musical score for American Gangster was record between April and May 2007 by Streitenfeld, with the help of orchestrator Bruce Fowler and conductor Mike Nowak, using an 80-piece orchestra recorded in sections as well as acoustic pre-records, performed by Streitenfeld himself. Additional score material was composed and recorded by Hank Shocklee.[28]
The official soundtrack album for American Gangster was released by Def Jam Recordings within a week of the film's release. In addition to Streitenfeld and Shocklee's score material, the soundtrack album also features songs influenced by music in the 1960s and 1970s, including from blues and soul musicians such as Bobby Womack, The Staple Singers, Sam & Dave, and John Lee Hooker.[21] Grazer stated that "I wanted to introduce a visual and sonic world that is a contained entity of the '70s", and Scott felt it was vital to have “the brand of music that was Harlem at the time.”[23]
Denzel Washington pressed Grazer into inviting rapper Jay-Z to write the film's score, but the producer "just didn’t think there’d be enough for Jay-Z to do" given the intentions to do a soundtrack filled with 1970s music.[21] The film's trailer was already using Jay-Z's "Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)", and the rapper was invited to an advanced screening. The film had a profound resonance on the musician, who decided to create a concept album, also entitled American Gangster.[23] The rapper recorded tracks that were prompted by specific scenes in the film. It was speculated that the album's release in conjunction with the film would attract a young audience and help Universal Pictures generate profits to recover from the film's troubled development history.[21] According to Jay-Z:
"It was like I was watching the film, and putting it on pause, and giving a back story to the story. It immediately clicked with me. Like Scarface or any one of those films, you take the good out of it, and you can see it as an inspiring film.

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HeadyBrosevelt (aka baggahammers) at 2:48pm

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