Issue date: 11/10/04 Section: Arts

It seems like only yesterday Jay-Z released his 1996 debut Reasonable Doubt. At the time he was still trying to find his footing in hip-hop among other New York rappers. He was far from a millionaire and Roc-A-Fella Records was only a pebble.

Fast-forward 8 years and albums later, Shawn Carter had reached the apex of his career. The day was Nov. 25, 2003 and Jay-Z sold out Madison Square Garden in two hours, a feat that not even the likes of Biggie or Nas had accomplished.

Jay had still not come down from the high off the buzz surrounding his most anticipated work, The Black Album, released only two weeks prior. It supposedly was the last his fans would hear of him.

With all of those accomplishments under his belt there was nothing more to do than give the Empire State his biggest concert ever. This is what inspired directors Michael John Warren and Patrick Paulson to make "Fade to Black," a concert film documenting the hype surrounding Jay's "supposed" retirement and everything leading up to the performance of his career.

Although "Fade To Black" manages to get the audience's feet tapping and heads nodding it falls short in portraying Jay as an artist. The long list of special guests that stood by him onstage was in no way as interesting as what previously happened off stage, away from the lights and crowd, in the studio.

The real guest performers of the film were the producers of the album. Jay worked with amazing beats from Timbaland, Pharrell Williams, Kanye West and Rick Rubin. Even Jay himself was left floored at some of the beats they were playing for him.

He had to return the favor and use his astonishing ability to create songs without actually writing anything down.
Doing more that just listening but actually feeling the rhythm of the beats Jay performed verse after verse and song after song with rhymes that he had only constructed in his head.

Everything that was shown about Jay-Z's passion for the music and the daily heartache that people of the inner city face should have been at the core of the movie, but granted this was a concert film. Even though the filmmakers felt the best way to carry "Fade To Black" was through the concert, the performances paled in comparison to what was happening backstage before and after the show.

This isn't the first time the Jiggaman's career has been documented. In 2000 the film "Backstage" revolved around the Roc and others on the Hard Knock Life Tour.

"Backstage" was covered in the way that "Fade To Black" should have been.

The actual concert was a very small part of the movie, which gave viewers a chance to see the artists as humans in their everyday lives. "Backstage" had shown both the business side and artistic side of the hip hop industry and how these rappers deal with the paths they had chosen for themselves.

In the eyes of his die hard fans Jay-Z can do no wrong in "Fade To Black" but if he really wanted to impress the general film watchers he should have taken some pointers from "Backstage" while Warren and Paulson should have them taken notes from the film to have seen the way a concert documentary could have and should have been done.

"Fade to Black" is currently showing in Loews Copley Place and is rated R.

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