I missed the news a couple of weeks ago that Jay-Z released his entire catalog to Spotify for his 50th Birthday. A couple of my best and oldest friends showed me when we were hanging out over the weekend.

This release comes after years of holdout as he tried to get his own music streaming platform, Tidal, on the map. I was one of the few to use Tidal as my primary music app for about 3 years. I remember downloading it in Spring of 2016 when there was a free trial around Kanye's release of his "The Life of Pablo" album. I finally relented to joining the masses on Spotify earlier this year.

Jay-Z is probably my favorite solo rapper of all-time and his first album "Reasonable Doubt" is also one of my favorites. I particularly like the first song featuring Mary J. Blige, "Can't Knock the Hustle".