Inspiration, it’s the driving force behind everything thing. Whether it be from money, and icon, or in this case a movie. For Jay-Z inspiration came in the form of the film “American Gangster”.

The tale of Frank Lucas, the infamous drug dealer who pretty much ran Harlem in the early 60’s and 70’s and made upwards of about 250 million dollars.

The story goes that after viewing the film he became so inspired that he wanted to create a concept album built around the story in the movie along with his own personal experiences, mainly stemming from is childhood and teen years.

“When I saw the movie, the way Denzel portrayed the character, you know, we never seen a Black guy ascend this high in a movie before, to being over the mob. So immediately that struck with me.

Like the success of it all. I took that emotion and pulled it into my songs.”

And how lucky we are that he did. Rebounding off the critically mixed “Kingdom Come” Jay-Z presents “American Gangster” his first concept album to date. Its apparent from the first go round that Jay-Z puts his experiences as a youth in Brooklyn to good use.

Acting as a tour guide through the life of a gangster Jay weaves through lines effortlessly, coming off as the experienced lyricist that he is. It’s not as easy as you think though, like many Jay-Z offerings it might take a few listens to capture and understand every line.

What helps this Album so much, alongside with Jay’s lyric mastery is the production. “American Gangster” feels like and old school album deeply rooted in the soulful songs that it emulates.

Samples from Marvin Gaye and Al Green help add to aurora created. P Diddy, or what ever you call him these days, joins up once again with the legendary production duo The Hitmen to recreate some of the old Bad Boy magic.

Just Blaze, The Neptunes, No I.D, Dj Toomp and Jermaine Dupree help round out the list of producers that make this album worth listening too.

Alongside the brilliant production is Jay Z himself, who displays the lyrics and flow that helped put him on top of the Hip Hop world. There are too many lines from me to pick from to give as examples, and honestly that would only just kill the fun of going through all the great lines Jay delivers.

The only thing that irked me was the interjection of current world events into the mix.

Maybe I’m being to picky, ok I am, but this was supposed to be concept album.

As much as I loved to her Jay speak on some of the top stories of today, and he makes some good points too, it did make me aware that he kind of broke off from the original plan of the album.

Nonetheless, it doesn’t affect the high quality of the album.

Its kind of good to know that Jay-Z can still make a banger of an album.

After “Kingdom Come” came out a lot of people wondered whether or not Jay still had the will to keep going.

He’s got more money than any other lyricist in the game, somewhere are 550 million dollars, and 3rd only to The Beatles and Elvis in number one albums. “American Gangster” proves to the world that inspiration works for everyone, regardless of fame or fortune.