Jay-Z had plenty reason to celebrate his 54th birthday on Monday: He welcomed 19 new gold and platinum certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The billionaire hip-hop mogul received the new certifications for songs he has recorded over the last 23 years. Jay-Z earned 10 new gold plaques, three for tracks off 2003’s The Black Album, including “Lucifer,” “Encore,” “Public Service Announcement (Interlude),” Hypebeast reports.
Other singles include “Oceans” with Frank Ocean; “D.O.A.,” “Bam” with Damian Marley; “Lost One” with Chrisette Michele; “Family Feud” with Beyoncé; and “Girls, Girls, Girls” and “Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love).”
Five of Hov’s singles earned their first platinum certifications, including “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” and “4:4.” “Holy Grail” is now 5x platinum; “Young Forever” and “Big Pimpin’” are now 3x platinum.
Jay-Z’s Roc Nation celebrated the good news with a tweet shared on the rap legend’s birthday.
“Congratulations to JAY-Z (@sc) on his latest @RIAA certifications,” the tweet read.
It included a video montage of Jay-Z’s music videos for the newly certified and re-certified singles. Hova hasn’t released an album
since 2017’s 444, which included six singles he received new RIAA certifications for.In an interview with Gayle King last month, Jay-Z said his new music would need to have substance rather than be a collection of meaningless “tunes.”
“I already [used the word ‘retirement’], I can’t do that ever again,” he said in a clip shared by CBS Mornings. “I’ll say I wanna make music, but it has to be something important.”
He continued, “4:44, for example, was a personal story, but the amount of vulnerability in there allowed for a lot of people to explore the space.”
Jay-Z recently wrapped his “Book of Hov” exhibit at the Brooklyn Public Library, which chronicled his music career through personal memorabilia.
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