Jay-Z – In My Lifetime, Vol. 1

Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, songwriter, record executive, businessman, and record producer. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential hip-hop artists in history, and often cited as one of the greatest rappers of all time. Jay-Z says his earliest exposure to music was through his parents’ record collection, which was mostly of soul artists such as Marvin Gaye and Donny Hathaway. Royce da 5’9″ and Fredro Starr of Onyx both describe Jay-Z’s emphasis on flow in the book How to Rap—Starr: Jay-Z uses ‘rests’ to provide structure to a verse and how he uses ‘partial linking’ to add more rhymes to a verse. In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 is his second studio album, released on November 4, 1997, via Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam. The album debuted at #3 on the US Billboard 200 chart and was certified Platinum by the RIAA. It features guest contributions by Lil’ Kim, Foxy Brown, Babyface, Blackstreet, Teddy Riley, Too $hort, and Puff Daddy. Producers for Reasonable Doubt such as DJ Premier and Ski contribute to a limited number of beats on this album, though the majority of the production is handled by Puff Daddy’s production team The Hitmen from the Bad Boy label, giving the album a generally glossier sound than its predecessor.

2 x LP
Label: Roc-A-Fella Records
Cat. # 731453639218