American Gangster

Today marks the 54th birthday of one of Brooklyn's finest, Jay-Z, the hustler-turned-rapper from the Marcy Projects who grew out of the shadows of Jaz-O, Big Daddy Kane and The Notorious B.I.G. to stake a credible claim to being the best rapper alive for more than a decade...

On November 14, 2003, Jay Z dropped The Black Album, his eighth and, at the time, final album. Less than two weeks later, during a show at Madison Square Garden, Jay officially "retired," ending the career of one of the greatest to ever do it. Ten...

Today marks the 5th anniversary since Jay-Z dropped Kingdom Come, officially coming out of his brief retirement, and XXL looks back at his best verses in that span...

Idris Elba sits down with The Life Files to discuss the process of how he got on the intro to the American Gangster album...

The RZA maintains that the Clan’s iron flag will stand tall forever...

The Rapper is set to star in three new films, including a crime drama with Edris Elba and Academy Award nominee Matt Dillon...

In a new interview with New York Magazine, former Jay-Z associate DeHaven tells some revealing stories about coming up with Jay-Z. While Dehaven alluded to having dirt on Jay in his series of "Jay-Z Exposed" YouTube clips, he failed to go into much detail...

In his latest post on his Huffington Post blog, Island Records Urban Music president Jermaine Dupri commends Jay-Z for refusing to sell his album in single tracks on Apple's iTunes Music store. He goes on, in a detailed rant, to explain why digital music sales sites like iTunes are disrespecting the people who create the actual music...

Jay-Z tops this week's Billboard 200 album sales chart with his American Gangster album, which sold 425,861 records in its first week. While this figure is lower than the first week sales of last year's Kingdom Come (over 680,000), it was still enough to give Jay his tenth number one album, tying him with Elvis Presley for the second highest number of number one albums (The Beatles still have a lo

According to early projections from Nielsen Soundscan, Jay-Z is on pace to score his tenth No.1 Album when first week record sales are tallied next Tuesday.

Jay-Z is teaming up with BET’s 106 & Park to host a free mini-concert in his home borough of Brooklyn this week.

If you’re looking to purchase the new Jay-Z album, which hits stores today, don’t bother checking Apple’s iTunes music store.