LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Jay-Z: Black Album
built 142 days ago
The way... was not easy and Jay-Z encountered more hard knocks along the road. When he could not get a record deal, Jay-Z, along with two friends, formed his own record label. The timing of Jay-Z's arrest in early December of 1999 for the stabbing of record executive Lance "Un" Rivera at a Times Square nightclub could not have been worse. His much-awaited album, Volume 3: The Life & Times of S. Carter, was due to be released right after Christmas and it was uncertain whether the negative publicity from this latest incident would hurt sales. However, for a man who grew up on the mean streets of Brooklyn this was just another one of the hard knocks that has formed his voice in rap.
Source:
On November 25, 2003, Jay-Z held a concert at Madison Square Garden, which would later be the focus of his film Fade to Black. This concert was his "retirement party". All proceeds went to charity. Other performers included collaborators like The Roots (in the form of his backing band), Missy Elliott, Memphis Bleek, Beanie Siegel, Freeway, Mary J. Blige, Beyoncé, Twista, Ghostface Killah, Foxy Brown, Pharrell and R. Kelly with special appearances by Voletta Wallace and Afeni Shakur; the mothers of The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur respectively.
Source:
In addition to making music, Jay-Z was ... interested in the corporate side of the business. Since 1994, Jay-Z had been producing records for other artists as chief of operations for the Roc-A-Fella label. The same handle he had for money in the drug business translated well into the music industry. He talked about his future at that time; "Although my album has already gone gold, it will be my last one. From this point, it's all about the business." Jay-Z did not retire from rap, however.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Black Album