Jay-Z Pulls American Gangster from iTunes

 •  XXL Magazine  •  by XXL Staff  •  57 Comments

If you’re looking to purchase the new Jay-Z album, which hits stores today, don’t bother checking Apple’s iTunes music store. Citing the cinematic feel of American Gangster, Hova has decided not to allow it to be sold on the popular digital music outlet. According to Jay, he feels the project—which is a concept album based on the Denzel Washington film of the same name—should be digested as a whole, and not as single tracks. “As movies are not sold scene by scene, this collection will not be sold as individual singles,” Jay said in a statement. Since its debut in 2003, iTunes has let users download individual tracks from officially released albums, allowing them to purchase only the songs they want rather than an entire LP. While the album is currently still listed on iTunes, customers will receive an error message if they attempt to purchase it. American Gangster will be available for digital download, in its entirety, at rocafella.com, amazon.com and rhapsody.com.

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  • fireforreal

    I feel that,Jay-z does have a banger with this album.Let the haters stand up and talk shit.

    • REESE

      I FEEL JAY ON THIS ONE.

      I JUST COPPED MY COPY FROM “F.Y.E”…NO DOWNLOAD SH!T.

      I LIKE ACTUALLY GETTING THE RECORD OR CD FROM THE RECORD STORE.

      IM NOT INTO THE DOWNLOAD THING (UNLESS ITS A MIXTAPE)

      YOU GOTTA LET THAT SH!T RIDE!!

      IT RIDES OUT LIKE A MOVIE.

      YOU NEED THE WHOLE THING….YOU REALLY DO.

      ITS A GOOD LOOK

    • Freddy Merc

      I ate Jigga Mans kids one night. they tasted real good!

  • http://xxlmagazine.com incognegro

    Thats what LIMEWIRES for its moslty just new track with old lyrics on his new cd. I wouldnt use limewire if these people put out classics. Usually its a couple good singles and the rest is filler music. Id be mad at myself if i bought the album i downloaded it and i dont even listen to it.

    • DANJA29

      Nigga, you’re fulla shit. “If these people put out classics”… you’d be goin’ even harder on Limewire than you already do, just like we all do.

      I didn’t go to the store and cop Ready to Die, 36 Chambers, Reasonable Doubt, etc. cause they were classics- I bought ‘em cause that was how I was gonna get ‘em. If there was Limewire back then, I wouldn’t have bought a GOT-damn thing.

    • Worley

      For real though. American Gangster is wack. He got about five joints on there. Save your money. Download it.

  • JustKC

    Its bout DAMN time. What ever happened to going out and buying a CD. The art in the cover slip, seeing who produced and arranged each track? C’mon man! That’s what its all about. You lil kids are killing music as we speak.

    • Dante

      You can find all of that stuff on the internet.

      • beatz23

        yeah but its still not the same as buying a physical album

    • Jagrmeister

      It’s “all about” the art on the cover slip? About giving a sh*T who produced each track. Really? The music’s all about the music. If you’re buying albums for the stupid drawings on the back side of the CD cover, you have serious problems.

  • http://mopowell.blogspot.com MOP

    I pre-ordered the album on iTunes and it showed up, but it looks like it’s been pulled from the store otherwise. Don’t let this keep you from picking up this album, it’s fire.

  • Dablockkid

    that’s gay on jay behalf

    I bootlegged the album any way, fuck itunes…
    lmao

    • esco

      im wit u on dis 1

  • zweirj

    Understand where he’s coming from, but there’s always the “Album Only” option and this will only make more cats “share” and download the joint from other joints they don’t have to “pay” to get it from.

    This is a mistake.

  • http://xxlmag.com Bol

    I heard that the TI who runs Universal has beef with Steve Jobs and is looking to start his own iTunes.

  • smog

    yeah what bol is saying makes more sense- how come jay didnt talk to itunes earlier and work it out so that people could only buy the whole album

  • Wax

    thats funny, because I had pre-ordered on iTunes and it downloaded automagically last night at 12:01 AM

    • http://www.myspace.com/gunitsoldier50xl Ether

      Did You Get Any Bonus Tracks With That Pre-Order?

  • Murk

    Damn jigga that’s about 100,000 sales you just threw away.

    You don’t HAVE to sell every song individually on i-tunes. If he just marked every song “album only,” they wouldn’t be sold individually.

  • H-LO

    Great move – I would get sick, too, imagining people throwing this album in their shuffle playlist with crappy mp3 quality, not having the attention span to listen an entire album.

    • Dante

      Maybe people don’t want to hear the whole thing because it is BORING.

      B.A.R.S.>>>>>American Gangster

  • Trickdd

    LIMEWIRE IS GREAT FOR CD’S LIKE THIS

  • Combat Jack

    Power moves right there.

  • MARK CARTEL

    son da album aint dat serious… its better than kingdom come…but not better than sum of his past work…its a good marketing stragety 2 get people 2 buy da actual album tho… OH… AND YES I WILL B BUYING DA BOOTLEG MUTHAFUCKA!!!

  • Worley

    Corporate shenanigans, um, “politics as usual.”

  • Da Kid

    In a way thats hurting jay but is dosent matter because all the TRUE hip-hop heads who appreciate the music are gonna go cop the real album anyway, and to anyone who dosent think its a classic is blind, deaf, and dumb!!!

  • David

    What if I want to put an Itunes track on a mix for my friend…. unless they log in to my account… they can not listen to that track on their Itunes.

    Itunes is a flawed medium that is only furthering the consumers desire to take what was made for them in the first place.

  • FORTY

    lol I buy some albums but majority of them I download. I wish there was a limewire back in the day. Niggas was paying 19.99 for a damn cassette tape and shit…..Napster set it off back in 1999, that’s when niggas officially started jackin music. It’s hard to go buy an album when you can download that shit in the matter of minutes.

  • http://kellsfetish.com Lo-Doe

    I ain’t mad at Jay. I think actually the hip-hop police should shut Apple down. A lot of artists may start recieving their path of guidance & take the road less traveled. E’body should PURCHASE the album & enjoy it.

  • cmakc

    Actually word is that iTunes themselves pulled American Gangster from iTunes, not Def Jam or Hov.

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  • TheKingFormallyKnownAsWarsaw

    i think that jay is smart for this move. I also believe that the hip-hop police should shut down Apple too. If you a true hip-hop-head u will buy this cd and not download it.
    IT’S THE ROC BITCHES!!!

    • Rednose pit bull

      anyone who wants to buy a full cd to listen to a few tracks is a fucking idiot..if you have enough money to waste on songs you wont listen to,then be my guest,but i work hard for my fucking cheese so fuck that..if he dont want to let people buy single tracks,then fuck him,they will download it free on limewire…jay z is rich so its not going to hurt him at all…he fucked himself,he could have made loot on them single songs,but since he wants to act like a bitch,he will get treated like a bitch….if i were him,id rather sell single tracks then to have it out there being downloaded free..atleast he makes loot idiot

  • Rednose pit bull

    i think jayz is a fucking cry baby! if i only want to buy one or 2 songs off his cd,then he should be happy to get that money..to tell me that i have to buy the whole cd? haha yeah right!! just for that,im not buying it at all,ill fucking download it off frostwire for free!! i bet after we all get it free on lime wire,or frost wire,hes going to really wish he sold it by the track!! hes rich as fuck,he needs to stop being a bitch…jayz just fucked himself!

  • Capostatus

    Gay-Z thinks his garbage is actually a concept album. Bitch ass nigga. Not his concept but an album based directly on the movie. That’s no concept album. This Nigga is becoming as dumb as a southern rapper. Your ass ain’t country boy so think like a New yorker. How can u wanna capitalize on someone else’s movie which u have no direct input in and expect people to buy your full album which is rather wack instead of downloading the 3 or 4 decent track that are actually on the album. Nigga u not that good. Now u swagger jacking of someone else’s work again. This nigga is a straight swagger jacking ass camel. The director refused for your ugly ass to do the official soundtrack so stop acting like a little bitch and put that garbage out on i-tunes b4 i get Jim Jones on ya dumb ass.

  • abrahamchiu

    I respect what Jay-Z is doing, but I think he should have kept it on iTunes and just required everyone to buy the whole album. I see that happen to a lot of movie soundtracks on iTunes, and I don’t see why he wouldn’t at least give the fans that. I digress, time to hit the record store.

  • c.lox

    buyin tha cd when it first come out at tha record store, puttin it in tha system —-then burnin a few blunts is what i do when im coppin a fav artist of mine……..

    i feel jay on this

    his entire LP is crackk

  • Jay is being Bitchmade

    come on, I heard each track, granted they were snippets on itunes, but this isn’t coming from a creative standpoint. If you actually believe this fool, you’re just another dumb-ass sheep being led along with the rest of the flock. This move is a purely economical one, it’s all business.

    The reality of the situation is that after Kingdom dropped, Hov’s sales weren’t what they were expected to be. Music isn’t selling the way it used to. Period. Kingdom was Hov’s first album on which he had a HUGE negative backlash. Never before was Hov but in that situation. Now, look at this release, it’s the same situation as before: PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY DIVIDED ON THE VALUE OF THIS CD. Is it hot or not? If there was crazy buzz about this, it would be sold on itunes single-by-single. However, the streets are talking and HOV and his camp know if they put it on itunes, niggas is gonna download only the lil’ shit they are feeling and his album sales are gonna see a huge drop….like last album.

    The ROC is just trying to combat this from an economic standpoint…end of story. With sales the way they are, and if you know your product ain’t the ish, you do what you must to guarantee you gonna see as much ALBUM sales as possible.

    Agree with me or not….I’m not a Jay hater…I actually love the guy (no homo) I think he should’ve put this album as a free download…like radiohead…couldv’e made more money that way….put out a box set like they did for $80 duckets. There’s different ways to combat this ish and not seem bitchmade about it.

  • Catastrophe

    i understand and feel jay on this… but i am pissed

    i pre-ordered it from iTunes, solely because it came with the liner notes…

    i went to download it this morning, and it gave me all the songs, but not the video or liner notes as promised, and i’ve been charged for it…

    also, itunes does on some cds make songs “album only”, which could have been done here

  • aduber

    GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE…I DOWNLOAD BITCHES,YALL R BAFOONS MAKIN THESE CATS RICHER THAN THEY ALREADY R,WHILE U GRINDIN..IDIOTS…THE SHITS KNOCKIN 5 MICS!!!!AMERICAN DREAMIN’

  • Vicious Seiger

    I bought B.A.R.S. and American Gangster and I’m sorry to say A.G. was a complete waste of my money. All this talk about it being as good as Reasonable Doubt is straight BS. The Production is where I feel this album fails. Jay couldn’t get Dre, Hi-Tek, Timbo, 9th Wonder, Premo, Kanye or Just Blaze to bless this highly forgettable album. Then you holla at Beans and Weezy for guest appearances, Beans I understand since that’s Fam but Weezy on a track representing Brooklyn why not MOP, Sauce Money or even dig up some Biggie Vocals from Puff. Jay this is his worst album period. This seems like some rushed out 4th quarter release to boost Def Jam’s sagging sales. Next Time, Jay don’t try this concept album shit out esp if you can’t pull it off. and last but not least how much did he break off Ridley Scott, Idris Elba and Denzel for all those vocal drops (why not spend that money on the album’s budget for better tracks). After hearing this dull ass album i kind of wish Jay stayed retired! 2007 has been a really crappy year for hip hop releases, I can only pray 2008 is better than this.

    • lollyu24

      Well, Lil Wayne is there b/c tht was his track. Jay asked him could he hv it and of course Weezy didnt say no. Ev’ry other feature (other Pharell-the producer) is a Def Jam or Roc affiliate. Besides, MOP is f**kin with GUnit and Sauce Money is still making bread from Vol 1 & 2. Let tht B*tch Breathe, let the man live. Like he said…If U dont like wht Im saying U can press fast forward or It Cost u NOTHING to pay me no mind. U choose. =)

  • teddy

    man who cares the only people who buy cds of itunes are old timers n idiots who dont know u can just do it for free its the hip hop spirit to take shit for free everyones already gonna download this of bit torrents of limewire pullin it off itunes wont mean shit

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  • Latino Heat

    man ya’ll sound like a bunch of crying ass nerds! i cant download jay-z! go buy the cd. it cost me a whole ten dollars at target. and by the way them muthafuckas was damn near gone when i went about 6 last night, so dude is selling actual cd’s. aint nothing like going to the record store and actually flipping through cd’s and finding underground bootleg shit you never even knew came out. all you 15 year olds bitching about itunes are the ones killing hip-hop. i buy bootleg cd’s but i still take the time to listen to the thing and see if it’s whack or not. i cant stand people who only bump singles, it used to be only broads that did that shit but now with all this downloading and itunes bs, everybody is doing it and its whach as fuck! yall are the reason labels are signing soulja boy and shit like that cause now labels are all about the quick buck. next time yall crying about hip-hop being dead think twice before you download the next big whack ass single.

  • Rednose pit bull

    anyone that thinks you should have to buy a whole cd is a fucking idiot…if i were j,id sell single tracks rather then piss us off and make us end up downloading it free!i would have paid for each track untill that fake motherfucker tried to tell us we have to buy the whole cd,well guess what,i got the tracks for free now! if j wants to act like a punk bitch,then lets treat him like one!!!

  • you must not love your computer

    everybody on here talking about limewire… if yu have a professional run a virus scan on your computer before you get limewire and then after you start downloading those “free” songs, you would notice that the trojan and other viral load on your computer skyrockets. i’ve had a computer crash on me via limewire corruption. those songs come from someone else’s computer and you never know how clean the files are. i don’t really know where the songs are coming from on i-tunes, but i would think it would have to be from a safer source because they wouldn’t want that liability on their hands. CDs are probably the best way to go…the problem is, no one will buy them because most of the albums suck and i’m not paying 20 bones for 2 songs. That being said, i would rather pay $15-20 for an album i like, than to download it and then have to replace or repair my computer. it really is simple economics.

  • somdweller

    Yeah i remember seeing this advertised on itunes. they were hypin’ the pre-order of this album really tough. mp3 players and the ipod particularly completely changed how a lot of people listen to music. why would someone (an i-pod owner) go out and buy an album from the store only to go home, download onto the computer and transfer it to an mp3 player. it’s a waste of materials

    • True 2 Da Game

      I buy and pay for every single song and CD that I listen to because I consider it to be supporting and encouraging better hip-hop music. If I’m an artist and all I can count on is selling bangers, then why be creative at all? I only get from I-Tunes what I can’t find in the store or don’t want to wait to receive from Amazon. Very rarely will I buy a single from an album that sucks…and I can’t explain that, I just don’t. I don’t mind when I-Tunes has the album only option, because I still get to sample the CD first (which isn’t exclusive to I-Tunes anymore BTW). It’s all good.

      In short, if you actually PAY for your music, and you’ve been around computers and experienced loss of data before and KNOW personal tendencies to not back up data enough, then you would definitely understand why copping the CD is a better option.

  • Rednose pit bull

    yes you can get viruses from limewire if you download an exe file..you will not get a virus from an mp3 file,and even if you do download a virus,it will not infect ur computer untill it is opened,and by then ur virus scan will tell u not to open it..only fucking idiots get viruses from lime wire or frost wire,if you know anything about viruses then you wont have any problems

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  • ticc

    Who wants to go to a record store when i can listen to the record beforehand on itunes pick the songs i want and don’t have to leave the house or even buy it anywhere in the us with my iphone fuck Jay. if it was a concept album then make it all one track so that you have to listen to it from start to finish. Jay z has fallin off and all yall fools have fallin off if you still buy cd’s . the record companies have been scamin us for years now it is their turn karma is a BITCH

  • progeny

    yall gotta read the shite you’re writin cuz it’s just makin jay’s point. hov is rollin in it and this was never about the money. think about where this brotha came from. he made this album cuz this movie meant something to him, he thinks it should be taken as a whole. he ain’t stupid, he knows yall will get it free if you want it that way. everybody thinks everything is a business but sometimes an artist doesn’t want people to mess with their art. i ain’t tryin to knock yall, do what you gotta do, but don’t bust on the man because he made an artistic choice. i’d think it’s worse if he was just tryin to take yall’s money a dolla at a time. the movie is great, the albums is great, so let is go. give the man some respect, i think he’s earned it over the last ten years.

  • MEMPHIS TN

    GOOD SHIT JAY… ALBUMS A CLASSIC.. GET OFF YALL ASS AN GO BUY THE ALBUM. ALBUM OF THE YEAR!!!!

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  • American Gangster

    have u heard about King Hova?
    its his 08 shit
    he has Beyonce on it and i heard hes doin something wit Game and Nas and Quan Cassidy T.I. and something i overheard from bleek he said tht he mite be gettin Amil back.

  • yeh

    why the fuck is yall talkin like dis???

    You sound like a bunch of idiots, seriously. Learn how to talk