Songoftheday 7/5/24 - Yeah ma your dude is back, Maybach Coupe is back tell the whole world the truth is back...

 

 

"Change Clothes" - Jay-Z

from the album The Black Album (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 11

 

Today's song comes from rapper Jay-Z, whose seventh studio album The Blueprint 2 had spun off two crossover top ten hits on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" and "Excuse Me Miss", the latter reaching the top tier in the spring of 2003. Also that year, he was featured in three high-profile hits with Pharrell Williams' "Frontin'", Punjabi MC's "Beware Of The Boys (Mundian Ke)", and future wife Beyonce's "Crazy In Love". Later that autumn, the rapper returned with another set, The Black Album, two weeks before he announced his "retirement". The lead single from the record was "Change Clothes", which he wrote with producers the Neptunes (Pharrell and Chad Hugo). The verses find the rapper at the top of his game basking in his success and shuffling through the parade of ladies before him. Everything is transactional as he loves them and leaves 'em, with Pharrell giving the uncredited chorus backup. The production is bouncy and stands out from the normal plodding hip-hop fare that comes from outside New York. With a flashy music video that recreates a fashion show with a bevy of models (but notably no Bey), Jay-Z was back to his braggadocio past but with a silkier musical backdrop...

"Change Clothes" slipped in to the top ten on Billboard's Hot 100 in the final week of 2003, while peaking at #6 on their R&B Singles chart and #4 on the Rap Songs list. On the radio, the song made it on to the Mainstream Top-40 chart at #33, rose to #5 on the Mainstream R&B list, and #13 on the dance/R&B-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in the United Kingdom (#32) and the Netherlands (#40). The Black Album, which came out in November of that year, spent two weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and three atop the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over four million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2005, The Black Album was nominated for Best Rap Album, losing to then-upstart Kanye West's The College Dropout. 

Both Jay-Z and the Black Album will be back to the series.

(6/10)

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Here's Jay-Z performing for MTV promoting the album on its release...

Tomorrow I'll roll out my top hits of this past week, then on Monday SOTD will be back with another New Yorker addressing amnesia.