Jay-Z - Addicted To The Game (2001)

Jay-Z spent much of 2001 involved in disputes with other rappers, starting with a clash with Prodigy, after he took an issue with a Jay-Z line from 'Money, Cash, Hoes' that he felt alluded disparagingly to Mobb Deep and Prodigy's dispute with Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, and Death Row Records. Jay-Z later performed the song 'Takeover' at Summer Jam 2001, which initially attacked Prodigy, and had a line which referred to Nas, who criticized him on 'We Will Survive', to which Nas responded with a diss of his own, and Jay-Z straightaway added a verse to 'Takeover' that dissed Nas, and which would start a feud between the two rappers which lasted for four years. In September 2001 Jay-Z released his sixth studio album, 'The Blueprint', which he'd written in just two days, and which sold more than 427,000 copies, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200. Eminem guest performed and produced the track 'Renegade', while four others were produced by Kanye West, and it included future favourites 'Izzo (H.O.V.A.)', 'Girls, Girls, Girls', and 'Song Cry'. In October 2001, Jay-Z pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for stabbing record producer Lance Rivera at the Kit Kat Klub in New York City in 1999, but despite his sentence of three years probation for the crime, Rivera later recanted the allegations in 2023. By the end of this eventful year there were a dozen or so unreleased tracks from the 'Blueprint' sessions floating around the internet, so here is the fourth collection of out-takes from the rapper, this one covering the year 2001.    

Track listing

01 20 Bag Shorty (feat. Boo Gotti) 
02 People's Court 
03 Murda Marcyville (feat. Memphis Bleek & Geda K)
04 Show You How
05 Rock Steady (feat. Mary J Blige)
06 It's Obvious (feat. Rell) 
07 Mi Amor (feat. Angie Martinez) 
08 Addicted To The Game 
09 I Get High (feat. Memphis Bleek, Freeway & Young Gunz)
10 Supa Ugly 
11 Murda Marcyville (Remix)