Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	A−
Entertainment Weekly	B+
The Irish Times
NME	5/10
Pitchfork	8.6/10
Q
Rolling Stone
Uncut
USA Today

American Gangster is the tenth studio album by American rapper Jay Z. It was recorded as a concept album—inspired by the 2007 film of the same name—and was released on November 6, 2007, by Roc-A-Fella Records. The album features production from Diddy & The Hitmen, Just Blaze, and The Neptunes, among others. Guest appearances include Beanie Sigel, Lil Wayne, Pharrell and Nas.

American Gangster was released to commercial success, despite being pulled from the iTunes Store at Jay-Z's request, at the time of its initial release. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 425,861 copies in its first week, while tying Elvis Presley for the second most American number-one albums. American Gangster received widespread critical acclaim and was viewed as a return to form for Jay-Z after the 2006 album Kingdom Come.

Jay-Z originally stated he recorded nine tracks for the album, but the final track listing accumulated fifteen overall cuts (two bonus tracks). He also stated that almost every song is based on a specific scene from the film based on Frank Lucas, a former drug kingpin.Def Jam executive Tracey Waples noted each track from the album will have its own "mini-film".The Album cover and music videos were costume designed by June Ambrose. As for the direction of the album, Jay-Z used personal memories he hadn't touched on in a while, specifically memories from his early life when he lived in Brooklyn's Marcy Houses.

On November 9, 2007, Jay-Z appeared on the Charlie Rose Show to discuss the album. When asked about how the film gave life to this album, he stated "It's a New York City true story, you know. So as soon as the movie came on, it was like familiar, things that my pop seen and my uncles seen and, you know, different things like that, things I've seen growing up. So they resonated with me in a way, the story, as well as, I mean, even though everything happens, you know, the way it turns out, you know, it's one of those movies that where you champion the bad guy, because the bad guy, you know, he don't seem like a bad guy, and the good guy — I mean the good guys are bad. You know, that complex — the complexity of human beings in this thing was amazing to me. I loved the complexity of the human beings".

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