A 30 sec video clip of “Empire State of Mind” from Jay-Z’s new album Blueprint 3 has been leaked. In the clip you see black and white still shots of various landmarks in NYC. The video was shot in Times Square, Harlem and Ground Zero earlier this month and was directed by Hype Williams.
In other Jay-Z news, he and Alicia Keys are scheduled to perform tonight at Game 2 of baseball’s World Series (Yankees vs. Phillies). They will perform before the first pitch of the game. The performance was previously scheduled for yesterday but was postponed due to inclement weather forecast.
Based on preliminary sales numbers from Nielsen SoundScan, Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint 3″ shifted 476,000 copies in the week that ended at the close of business on Sunday
(Sept. 13) night. That will easily give Jay his 11th No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Jay-Z’s No. 1 achievement with “Blueprint 3″ will push him ahead of Elvis Presley as the solo act with the most No. 1 albums in the more-than 50-year history of the Billboard 200. And Jay-Z will now have the second-most No. 1 albums among all acts. The Beatles, with 19 No. 1s, have more.
Congratulations to Jay-Z and make sure you pick up The Blueprint 3 (It’s definitely worth the money)!
Kanye West appeared on the Jay Leno show last night to perform with Jay-Z and Rihanna. The interview wasn’t planned but he wanted to publicly apologize for his behavior from the MTV VMAs. As you can recall, he rudely interrupted Taylor Swift as she was trying to accept her VMA for Best Female Video. He ranted on why he felt Beyonce was more deserving to win in that category. Anyway below is a clip from the interview plus the performance of “Run This Town.”
Yesterday, Jay-Z announced that he will be holding a charity concert at Madison Square Garden in NYC on 9/11/09 – 8 years after the September 11, 2001 terriosts attacks. The name of the concert, “Answer the Call” will be Jay-Z’s way of “helping out and doing something.” Tickets go on sale 9/8/09 and all seats will costs $50! The goal is to raise more than $750,000 for the widows’ and children’s fund.
As you may already know Jay-Z’s Blueprint album dropped on September 11, 2001. The album sold over 426,000 copies in its opening week, becoming Jay-Z’s fourth consecutive album to reach number one on the Billboard 200. Blueprint happens to be one of my favorite albums by Jay-Z and this is coming from someone who mainly listens to R&B. Jay Z’s Blueprint 3 album will be in stores on September 11, 2009.
UPDATE: BP3 release date was moved up to September 8, 2009.
Side Note: It would’ve been nice for Cherry Connect to receive press passes for the event but I will do my best to snatch up tickets next Tuesday! Make sure you go out and support his album and his charity concert!
