Jay-Z: Unplugged
Live album by Jay-Z with The Roots
Released	December 18, 2001
Recorded	November 18, 2001
Venue	MTV Studios, New York City
Genre	Hip hop
Length	58:15
Label	Roc-A-Fella Def Jam
Producer	Questlove The Roots Ski
Jay-Z chronology
The Blueprint (2001) Jay-Z: Unplugged (2001) The Best of Both Worlds (2002)
The Roots chronology
Things Fall Apart (1999) Jay-Z: Unplugged (2001) Phrenology (2002)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Billboard	(favorable)[2]
Robert Christgau	[3]
Entertainment Weekly	(A)[4]
HipHopDX	[5]
NME	(7/10)[6]
RapReviews	(8.0/10)[7]
Rolling Stone	[8]
Village Voice	(favorable)[9]

Jay-Z: Unplugged is rapper Jay-Z's 2001 live album that contains some of his past songs with live instruments performed by the hip-hop band the Roots. The album, which sold more than 600,000 copies, was recorded during the taping of an MTV Unplugged 2.0 episode on November 18, 2001.

Track listing

All songs were produced by Questlove, The Roots; "People Talking" produced by Ski.

Sample credits

• "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" contains an interpolation of "I Want You Back", written by Berry Gordy, Alfonso Mizell, Freddie Perren, and Deke Richards.
• "Takeover" contains interpolations of:
  • "Sound of da Police", written by Lawrence Parker, Eric Burdon, Alan Lomax, Bryan Chandler, and Rodney Lemay.
  • "Five to One", written by Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Robby Krieger, and Ray Manzarek.
• "Girls, Girls, Girl" contains an interpolation of "I Love You More and More Every Time", written by Tom Brock (singer) and Robert Reif.
• "Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)" contains an interpolation of "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City", written by Michael Price and Dan Walsh.
• "Hard Knock Life (The Ghetto Anthem)" contains an interpolation of "It's the Hard Knock Life", written by Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin.
• "Ain't No Nigga" contains interpolations of:
  • "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)", written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter.
  • "Seven Minutes of Funk", written by August Moon and Tyrone Thomas.
• "Can't Knock the Hustle" contains interpolations of:
  • "Much Too Much", written by Marcus Miller.
  • "Fool's Paradise", written by Meli'sa Morgan and Lesette Wilson.
• "Song Cry" contain an interpolation of "Sounds Like a Love Song", written by Douglas Gibbs and Ralph Johnson.
• "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)" contains interpolations of:
  • "Give It to Me Baby", written by James Johnson.
  • "The World is Filled...", written by Christopher Wallace, Deric Angelettie, Sean Combs, Kit Walker, and Todd Shaw.

Personnel

Charts

Certifications