Cinema Science

I'm not even sure what this next bit of news means or how it could have come about but it seems that Jay-Z is recording an album of new songs inspired by the upcoming movie American Gangster. The project is being described as a ''concept album'' and will be released in November. He has already recorded nine tracks, with most of them inspired by a specific scene in the movie. The hip-hop mogul quietly began work on the album over the past few weeks after he saw a screening of the Ridley Scott directed film, in which Denzel Washington portrays Frank Lucas, an early 1970s Harlem heroin kingpin. He tells The New York Times that he thinks fans will be struck by movie's portrayal of a black man reaching such heights of success, even on the wrong side of the law, much like the Al Pacino antiheroes Tony Montana and Michael Corleone. ''It was like I was watching the film, and putting it on pause, and giving a back story to the story,'' he said of the record. Producer Brian Grazer initially asked Jay-Z to do the soundtrack, but the rapper instead offered to make his own album released in conjunction with the film.