Shawn_Edwards's Blog

JAY-Z OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF HIS NEW ALBUM, AMERICAN GANGSTER, DUE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6

 

 

JAY-Z Creates Original Material to be Released in Conjunction With Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment’s American Gangster

 

(New York, NY; Thursday, September 20, 2007):  On November 6, Roc-A-Fella Records and JAY-Z will release the new album AMERICAN GANGSTER.  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 upcoming motion picture American Gangster,  which pairs Oscar® winners Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.  Based on the true story of criminal mastermind Frank Lucas, who came up from the streets of New York in the ’70s, the film is produced by Academy Award®-winning producer Brian Grazer and directed and produced by Ridley Scott.  It opens on November 2.

 

The conceptual, full body of work of the new album balances the line between pure entertainment and real life.  JAY-Z draws upon past experiences, speaking to the harsh reality of the drug trade still taking place in our nation's cities.  While not glorifying the Frank Lucas story, JAY-Z articluates the lure of a gangster's life and stands an example of one who chose to leave those streets behind to go on and become one of the most successful African-American entrepreneurs of our time.

 

Throughout AMERICAN GANGSTER, JAY-Z brings the audience into a world rich in familial relationships, hustling and the lasting effects of drugs on a community.  Through its musical tone, the album complements the story as told in the major motion picture release.

 

About the Film

 

Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Brian Grazer, Steven Zaillian and Ridley Scott team to tell the true juggernaut success story of a cult figure from the streets of 1970s Harlem in American Gangster.  Washington stars as Frank Lucas, a brilliant entrepreneur and self-made embodiment of the American Dream who comes from nowhere to rule the inner-city drug trade, and Crowe is Richie Roberts, an outcast cop zeroing in on who is outfoxing and outplaying all the familiar Mafia families as he closes in on this unexpected new streetwise superstar.