Jay-Z performs his 'retirement' concert at Madison Square Garden

Why it matters

November 25, 2003. Jay-Z played Madison Square Garden as a sold-out "retirement" concert, two weeks after The Black Album dropped. The guest list was the entire family of his late-90s and early-2000s career: Mary J. Blige, Beyoncé, Foxy Brown, Memphis Bleek, Ghostface Killah, Pharrell, Missy Elliott, R. Kelly, Twista, plus members of the Roc-A-Fella roster. The concert was filmed for the 2004 documentary Fade to Black, directed by Pat Paulson and Michael John Warren. The footage is one of the better documents of Jay-Z's late-90s and early-2000s commercial peak as a live performer. The retirement, of course, did not stick. Jay came back three years later with Kingdom Come (2006). The "retirement" framing turned out to be partly real (he stepped away from recording for several years to run Def Jam as president) and partly marketing (the Black Album sold harder for being framed as the last one). You can argue both things are true. You can also watch Fade to Black and see what Jay's MSG show looked like in 2003. It looked like the kind of room one rapper has worked his entire life to fill.