| "Blue Magic" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by Jay-Z featuring Pharrell Williams | ||||
| from the album American Gangster | ||||
| Released | September 20, 2007 | |||
| Recorded | 2007 | |||
| Genre | East Coast hip hop | |||
| Length | 4:10 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Songwriter(s) |
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| Producer(s) | The Neptunes | |||
| Jay-Z singles chronology | ||||
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| Pharrell singles chronology | ||||
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"Blue Magic" is the first single from Jay-Z's tenth studio album, American Gangster.[1] The song was released as a single on September 20, 2007. In the chorus, Pharrell sings an interpretation of the song "Hold On" by the R&B girl group En Vogue, who are also featured in the song. The name "Blue Magic" is a reference to a potent form of heroin sold by Frank Lucas at the height of his drug trade in Harlem, New York. An official remix features Pharrell and Trey Songz.
The lyrics in the first verse refer to Eric B. & Rakim's song "My Melody". Most of the song itself is a reference to the 1980s. Jay-Z brings up his time as an early age drug dealer with links to the Iran-Contra scandal and CIA and Contras cocaine trafficking in the US that rocked the 1980s and the Reagan Presidency.[2]
Blame Reagan for making me into a monster
Blame Oliver North and Iran-Contra
I ran contraband that they sponsored
Before this rhyming stuff we was in concert
Blue Magic also samples the 1931 horror film, Frankenstein.
Chamillionaire released a freestyle of this song for his Mixtape Messiah 4 called "What the Business Is". Royce Da 5'9" released a freestyle of this song called "Blue Magic". It was a "diss" track on Mistah F.A.B..
- ^ Shake (September 20, 2007). Jay-Z to Release 'American Gangster' Archived 2007-12-12 at the Wayback Machine. HipHopDX. Accessed September 27, 2007
- ^ "Mixtape Maestro | Blue Magic". Archived from the original on 2007-10-24. Retrieved 2008-07-17.