Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Chicago Tribune
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Entertainment Weekly	A−
Los Angeles Times
NME	7/10
Rolling Stone
The Source	4/5
USA Today
The Village Voice	A

Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter is the fourth studio album by American rapper Jay Z. It was released on December 28, 1999, by Roc-A-Fella Records and Def Jam Recordings. According to USA Today critic Steve Jones, the record marked a return to the street-oriented sound of Jay Z's 1996 debut album, Reasonable Doubt.Vol. 3... featured production from Swizz Beatz, Timbaland, K-Rob, DJ Clue, Rockwilder, DJ Premier, and Irv Gotti, among others.

The album was well received by critics and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 462,000 copies in its first week. It has since sold over three million copies and been certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Vol. 3... was released on December 28, 1999, and sold 462,000 copies in its first week, while debuting at number one on the Billboard 200. The sales week was thirty-percent more than the first-week sales of Jay Z previous album, 1998's Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life. On February 14, 2001, it was certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In 2009, the album reached sales of 3,093,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

In a contemporary review, Rolling Stone critic Kris Ex wrote that Jay Z "has become a better architect of songs" while hailing Vol. 3... as "his strongest album to date, with music that's filled with catchy hooks, rump-shaking beats and lyrics fueled by Jay's hustler's vigilance". Richard Harrington from The Washington Post found the record to be "full of reputation-building swagger, cataloguing of lyrical skills and autobiographical perspective". Reviewing the album in Entertainment Weekly, Anthony DeCurtis said it reconnects with Jay Z's urban demographic, "with flair", while Steve Jones of USA Today was particularly impressed by his lyrics and flow, finding both to be "razor-sharp as ever". In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau argued that Jay Z has too much at stake commercially to depart from "playing the now-a-rapper-now-a-thug 'reality' game with his customers, thugs and fantasists both", but he impresses with "a rugged, expansive vigor, nailing both come-fly-with-me cosmopolitanism and the hunger for excitement that's turned gangster hangouts into musical hotbeds from Buenos Aires to Kansas City". Fellow Voice critic Miles Marshall Lewis called Jay Z "the best MC in hip hop" and Vol. 3… "the quintessential 2000-model hip hop album".Soren Baker was less impressed in the Los Angeles Times, writing that the record lacks the "biting humor and spectacular wordplay" of his previous albums.

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