Kingdom Come (album)

Kingdom Come is the Grammy-nominated ninth studio album from American rap artist Jay-Z released on November 21 2006.

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 Rosario Dawson.

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.

Samples
The Prelude Oh My God Kingdom Come Show Me What You Got contains elments from *"Rump Shaker" by Wreckx-N-Effect Dig a Hole "Contains sampled copyrighted material under license from Tappan Zee Records, Inc" Minority Report
 * "Keep the Faith" by Mel & Tim 
 * "Whipping Post" by Genya Ravan
 * "Super Freak" by Rick James
 * "100 Guns" by KRS-ONE
 * "Shaft in Africa" by Johnny Pate
 * "Show ‘Em Whatcha Got" by Public Enemy
 * "Darkest Light" by Lafayette Afro Rock Band
 * "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.