Preferred subscriber, Jay-Z.Photo: Getty Images

On the front page of today's Times "Arts" section, Def Jam president and commercial spokesman Jay-Z announced plans to release another new album on November 6, his second since promising to quit recording in 2003. But, instead of being an advertisement for Budweiser Select like last year's Kingdom Come was, American Gangster will apparently be an ad for — sorry, "a concept album" "inspired by" — the upcoming Ridley Scott–Denzel Washington movie by the same name, which is based on a New York story about seventies Harlem heroin dealer Frank Lucas. "It immediately clicked with me," Jay told the Times. "Like Scarface, or any one of those films, you take the good out of it, and you can see it as an inspiring film."

Against our better judgment, we're officially excited. It can't possibly be worse than Kingdom Come … right?

For Jay-Z, Inspiration Arrives in a Movie [NYT]

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