"Blue Magic" is the first single from Jay-Z's tenth studio album, '' American Gangster''.Shake (September 20, 2007)
Jay-Z to Release 'American Gangster'
. HipHopDX. Accessed September 27, 2007 The song was released as a single on September 20, 2007. In the chorus, Pharrell sings an interpretation of the song "

Hold On Hold On may refer to: Music Albums and EPs * ''Hold On!'' (album), by Herman's Hermits, 1966 * ''Hold On'' (Trapeze album), or the title song, 1978 * ''Hold On'' (High Inergy album), 1980 * ''Hold On'' (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album), 1987 * ...

" by the R&B girl group

En Vogue En Vogue is an American vocal girl group whose original lineup consisted of singers Terry Ellis, Dawn Robinson, Cindy Herron, and Maxine Jones. Formed in Oakland, California, in 1989, En Vogue reached No. 2 on the US Hot 100 with the single ...

, who are also featured in the song. The name "Blue Magic" is a reference to a potent form of heroin sold by

Frank Lucas Frank Lucas (September 9, 1930 – May 30, 2019) was an American drug trafficker who operated in Harlem, New York City, during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was known for cutting out middlemen in the drug trade and buying heroin directly ...

at the height of his drug trade in

Harlem, New York Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Harl ...

. An official remix features

Pharrell Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom h ...

and

Trey Songz Tremaine Aldon Neverson (born November 28, 1984), known professionally as Trey Songz, is an American R&B singer and rapper. His debut album, '' I Gotta Make It'', was released in 2005 through Atlantic Records. His follow-up album, '' Trey Day' ...

. 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 The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

that rocked the 1980s and the Reagan Presidency.

''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 ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ...

''. 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.''.

Music video

The music video was directed by

Hype Williams Harold Williams (born August 1, 1970) is an American music video director, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Early life Williams was born in Queens, New York. He is of mixed African-American and Honduran descent. He attended Adel ...

with costumes designed by June Ambrose. It was first shown on

BET Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los ...

's ''

106 & Park ''106 & Park'' is an American hip hop and R&B music video show, set up in a countdown format, that was broadcast on weekdays at 6:00 pm ET/5:00 pm CT on BET; it aired on a one-day delay on BET International. It was the network's highest- rate ...

'' on October 11, 2007. The video shows the recording artist and dancer

Teyana Taylor Teyana Me Shay Jacqueli Shumpert ( Taylor; born December 10, 1990) is an American singer, actress, dancer and choreographer. In 2005, she signed a record deal with Pharrell Williams' Star Trak Entertainment imprint. Afterwards, she choreographed ...

, dancing and

popping Popping is a street dance adapted out of the earlier Boogaloo (funk dance) cultural movement in Oakland, California. As Boogaloo spread, it would be referred to as Robottin in Richmond, California, Strutting movements in San Francisco and San J ...

throughout the video. The video appeared at the bottom of BET's ''Notarized: Top 100 Videos of 2007'' on December 31, 2007. The video was noted for prominently featuring wads and a suitcase full of

500 Euro note The five-hundred-euro note (€500) is the highest-value euro banknote and was produced between the introduction of the euro (in its cash form) in 2002 until 2019. Since 27 April 2019, the banknote has no longer been issued by central banks in ...

s, and it was noted that the video gave the

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

media attention at a time when the

U.S. dollar The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the officia ...

had sharply lost in value against most major world currencies such as the euro, pound Sterling and Canadian dollar.David Usborne
"Rappers join models in insisting on euros as greenbacks fall further out of fashion"
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', November 17, 2007. Accessed February 9, 2017

Charts

References

External links

* {{authority control 2007 singles Jay-Z songs Pharrell Williams songs Song recordings produced by the Neptunes Songs written by Pharrell Williams Songs about drugs Songs written by Jay-Z 2007 songs Songs written by Denzil Foster Songs written by Thomas McElroy Songs written by Foster & McElroy Roc-A-Fella Records singles Music videos directed by Hype Williams