It's been leaked...sounds pretty epic to me so far, no guest vocals I believe.

Comes out Black Friday.

Jesse Jackson is not gonna like this

With the CD being leaked, they may be moving up the release date from Friday, 11/28
They first considered 11/18 release, but are now eyeing Friday, 11/14 also.

Metallica suing Jay Z

Hopefully Jigga will pop a cap in Hetfield and Ulrich

[the love disappears inside of me when it comes to metallica]

he sounds like the old "Reasonable Doubt" Jigga.

Eminem, Neptunes, Kanye West and others produce.

Excellent album, but a couple of uninspired/weakly produced tracks.

Is this going to be his final album? I thought that was the point right? Just curious, because that guy is the only guy I know who puts out more albums than master p did in his prime. What is he, on a monthly release schedule

I got it, and am in love with it already. Don't really know what my favorite song is yet. But some of his vocals have been really good. G-Unit Album leaked today too, need to check that out..

But when Black Album comes out I am deffinatly picking it up and supporting Hov one last time. Has been one of my favorites for along time

(he is stopping making full length cds, but will guest and soundtraks and stuff.)

The first leak of teh Black Album was a fake. A real one is out now, and it sounds a little bit better.

Anyone have any favorite songs yet? Encore is amazing, IMO. The G-Unit album is good as well, check it out.

what was in the first leak that made it fake?

not tryna start problems about illegal music or anything (as zI have done before on this site) but where do people get grasp on leaks. who leaks them, how do people get them?

Best songs IMO:

December 4th (Produced by Just Blaze)
What more can I say (Produced by The Buchanans)
Encore (Produced by Kanye West)
99 Problems (Produced by Rick Rubin)
My 1st Song (produced by Aqua and Joe 3h Weinberger)

I'm giving it an 8.5/10.

Didn't like the songs produced by DJ Quik (disappointing since he's one of my favorite producers), Eminem and the Neptunes tracks were average at best.

I'm gonna be buying this anyway since it's a solid effort.

And from MTV.Com

Jay said that while the pirating has hurt the album's set-up, he has a few tricks up his Roc-A-Wear sleeve so sales don't slack. Like Obie Trice and the G-Unit, he too is including three golden tickets in three different copies of The Black Album (see "G-Unit, Blink-182, Puddle Of Mudd Offer Fans Golden Opportunities").

"I got a golden ticket giveaway going on too," Jigga explained. "I got three Mercedes Benzes, not one, not two ... three Mercedes. They can't get the Maybach, let's not get crazy, but it's something nice though. I did something with Mercedes where they used some of my lyrics in their ads, so I already had some dealings with them. The album was coming up and I was like, 'Give me three of those joints, let the people have them.' That's how simple it was."

As second-place prizes, Jay is giving away 10 books with all his lyrics printed in them.

Don't worry about Jay-Z... somehow I think he will be okay financially

Change Clothes by the Neptunes (the first single) is growing on me a lot.

I really like the album. I've been looking forward to it for a long time, but when the teaser single leaked I was torn. What More Can I Say is very good, but I couldn't get into Change Clothes and Go. Thankfully, that is the only skippable track on the album to me. I love Kanye West's production on Encore and especially Lucifer. Eminem's production sounds just like every other Em production (dark, dark, dark) and I'm getting sick of it, but Jay's vocals really come through and save the track. My favorite songs right now are the 9th Wonder produced Threat (sounding very Primo-ish) and the Rick Ruben produced 99 Problems (please come back to hip hop, Rick). While most people hate it, I like the Quik track except for a corny-ass chorus. As far as the G-Unit album, there are about 4 or 5 excellent tracks and a lot of "Thug Love" tracks...somewhat disappointing. Interestingly, the rumor is that Roc-A-Fella leaked a fake and that a Dre produced track will show up on the final Black Album, but I'll believe it when I see it. In any case, I'm going to buy both when they hit stores on the 14th.

This album is better than I could imagine it would be. Even the tracks I dismissed at first ("Change Clothes and Go" for example) are running through my head while I'm at work. Kanye West absolutely brought the goods with "Encore" and "Lucifer" and Timbaland's beat is a true head-nodder on "Brush Your Shoulder Off" (even if the hook sucks). 99 Problems is a great song, reminds of something Rick and LL Cool J could have put on "Radio" back in '85. Overall, this album is a must-buy, and if this IS Jay's last album, he's going out on top.

Jay is probably my favorite rapper. Period. I like him more than The Roots, OutKast, Mos Def, Talib Kweli etc.

I can't wait to get this album, which I will be paying for. I have only heard four songs so far: December 4th, Encore, Change Clothes and Go, and What More Can I Say. All excellent, but can Hov top Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint? We shall see...

IMO he doesn't top Reasonable Doubt. Blueprint, maybe.

Never been much of a fan of Jigga, other than a few of his singles (I do have the Unplugged album, soley for the Roots). Great MC, but I get tired of the bling bling lyrics in a lot of his songs. But I just had to listen to the Rick Rubin produced song - man, that's great stuff. Wish he would've done the whole album. I agree - he definitely needs to do more hip-hop production.

BTW, HipHopSite.com is having a promotion where you get two mix CDs if you pre-order the album.

Only Jay Z album I really enjoy is Reasonable Doubt. Heard The Black Album, didn't think it was too bad. Much better than what I expected, not a big fan of his.

I've heard that some Best Buy and Circuit City stores are already selling this ($9.99) and that it does not have any bonus tracks. I guess I'll have to swing by mine to on my way to school and see if it's out yet. Word is that once you take off the plastic wrapper the entire cover is black with no pictures or anything. Very Prince-like.

99 Problems
#6 (forgot the name)

^
2 best tracks

#6 is "Dirt off your shoulder" (produced by Timbaland). Meh, an average track IMO, but to each his own.

So rap music sampling music isn't enough, now they are using album titles from other albums.
Prince had an album called THE BLACK ALBUM.

Yeah but he was obviously ripping off the Damned.