Kingdom Come (album) encyclopedia topics

Background

Kingdom Come was the first Jay-Z album released since 2003's The Black Album, which had been widely hyped as Jay-Z's "retirement" album. The video for that album's hit single "99 Problems" had ended with Jay-Z going down in a hail of gunfire. Jay-Z stated in interviews that that scene represented the "death" of Jay-Z and the "rebirth" of Shawn Carter. Because of this, Jay-Z had originally planned to released Kingdom Come under the name of Shawn Carter, but decided in the end to release it under his more-famous stage name.

Jay-Z's second single, "Lost One" (produced by Dr. Dre) addresses Jay's split with Roc-A-Fella co-founder Damon Dash, the death of his nephew, and supposedly his relationship with Beyoncé.

Past collaborators Kanye West and particularly Just Blaze made significant contributions to the album's production. This is the first time Dr. Dre has played a substantial role in a Jay-Z album, as he produced four beats and mixed every song on the album. Relatively unknown newcomers B-Money, Scyience, and DJ Khalil also contributed to the album's production, as well as Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin.

Kingdom Come's opening track "The Prelude" features the additional vocals and the return of Pain in da Ass who often featured on some of Jay-Z's earlier album introductions impersonating characters from movies such as Scarface, GoodFellas, and Carlito's Way. This sample music in the background is also used on the Quasimoto track, "Axe Puzzles" off the 2000 The Unseen.

The Album received positive reviews from most critics.

Carl Crawford uses "Dig a Hole" as one of his entrance songs when he comes up to bat. FOX used an instrumental version of "Oh My God" in a promo leading up to the 6th season premiere of 24.

Track listing

#	Title	Songwriters	Producer(s)	Featured Artist(s)	Time
1	"The Prelude"	S. Carter, B. Hughes, M. James	B-Money		2:44
2	"Oh My God"	S. Carter, J. Smith, G. Allman	Just Blaze		4:18
3	"Kingdom Come"	S. Carter, J. Smith	Just Blaze		4:24
4	"Show Me What You Got"	S. Carter, J. Smith, J. Boxley, C. Ridenhour, E. Sadler, M. McEwan, J. Pate	Just Blaze		3:43
5	"Lost One"	S. Carter, A. Young, M. Batson, D. Parker, C. Payne	Dr. Dre	Chrisette Michele	3:44
6	"Do U Wanna Ride"	S. Carter, J. Stephens, K. West	Kanye West	John Legend	5:29
7	"30 Something"	S. Carter, A. Young, M. Batson, D. Parker	Dr. Dre		4:13
8	"I Made It"	S. Carter, K. Abdul-Rahman, D. Winslow	DJ Khalil and Sahir Kabani		3:28
9	"Anything"	S. Carter, P. Williams, U. Raymond	The Neptunes	Usher, Pharrell	4:22
10	"Hollywood"	S. Carter, S. Smith, R. Perry	Scyience	Beyoncé	4:18
11	"Trouble"	S. Carter, A. Young, M. Batson, C. Pope, D. Parker	Dr. Dre and Mark Batson		4:53
12	"Dig a Hole"	S. Carter, K. Dean, S. Garrett	Swizz Beatz	Sterling Simms	4:11
13	"Minority Report"	S. Carter, A. Young, M. Batson, D. Parker, S. Smith, D. Fumo, E. DeCurtis	Dr. Dre and Sahir Kabani	Ne-Yo	4:34
14	"Beach Chair"	S. Carter, C. Martin, R. Simpson	Chris Martin and Dr. Dre	Chris Martin Nao Aron Wadhia	5:09

iTunes, Napster, and UK bonus track

#	Title	Producer(s)	Featured guest(s)	Composer(s)	Time
15	"44 Fours" (Bonus track)			S. Carter, D. Willis	3:08

Samples

The Prelude

"Keep the Faith" by Mel & Tim

Oh My God

"Whipping Post" by Genya Ravan

Kingdom Come

"Super Freak" by Rick James
"100 Guns" by KRS-ONE

Show Me What You Got

"Rump Shaker" by Wreckx-N-Effect
"Shaft in Africa" by Johnny Pate
"Show ‘Em Whatcha Got" by Public Enemy
"Darkest Light" by Lafayette Afro Rock Band

Dig a Hole

"Contains sampled copyrighted material under license from Tappan Zee Records, Inc"

Minority Report

"Non Ti Scordar Di Me" by Luciano Pavarotti

Limited Edition

The limited edition version of the CD was only released in the U.K and Ireland.It features not only the bonus track but also a live concert of Jay-Z in Britain and the making and behind the scenes footage of several videos.

There was also a limited special edition released in the U.S. that was available as the original explicit and an edited or clean version. This version contained the original album, and a bonus DVD with concert type of footage. It came packaged in a slip case, with a booklet that contained an exclusive cover.