Jay-Z To Retire After Next Album

With seven platinum-plus albums, his stakes in Roc-a-Fella Records and Rocawear clothing, producing films and a distribution deal with Armadale vodka, Jay-Z’s future looks brighter than ever. Sales for his combined interests in 2002 are projected at more than $300 million. And yet, amongst all this success, there is talk of retirement. "My next album […]

With seven platinum-plus albums, his stakes in

Roc-a-Fella Records and Rocawear clothing, producing films and a distribution

deal with Armadale vodka, Jay-Z’s future looks brighter than ever. Sales for

his combined interests in 2002 are projected at more than $300 million. And

yet, amongst all this success, there is talk of retirement.

"My next album will be ‘The Black Album’

and then that’s it. I want to make it a prequel to Reasonable Doubt,

leading up to me having an idea for a song…and that’s how the album’s going

to end," Jay told the Los Angeles Times. He continued to explain that he

wanted to "loop the whole thing back together, make it a nice package,

and that’s it – it truly, truly is." Jay wants to move on to different

things.

At this point in his life, Jay-Z is ready to

offer his expertise to the rap game as an executive. His hopes include to become

more involved with Roc-a-Fella’s business element so that he can work with new

artists, watch them grow, help them along the way and ultimately succeed.

Currently, Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 2 hit #1 on

the charts and sold 545,000 copies in its first week. He also appears on the

8 Mile soundtrack and on Missy’s and Snoop’s new albums.