Most mornings are uneventful. I wake up, glance at my phone to ensure there aren’t any frantic texts about missed planes or needed conference line numbers, go running and then sit down with my coffee to check over the early bird emails that I couldn’t check before I went to bed. Yesterday morning, however, I woke up to this in my inbox:

Celebrating the birth of Blue Ivy Carter!

Buzz and increased anticipation surrounding “Watch the Throne,” the collaborative album between Jay-Z and Kayne West, exploded again yesterday with the release of the mini-doc “Watch the Throne.” The 10-minute short follows the duo behind the scenes to learn and watch the creative journey of “Watch the Throne.” In traditional music doc fashion, it is fast paced and choppy—but it works.

Well, maybe not the noise, but more pleasing sounds. There’s no shortage of visual beauty on the JESS3 blog. Why not complement that with something more appealing to the ears?

Jay-Z’s new live video for “Pray”.

American Gangster: Jay-Z’s album and the Original Soundtrack are both worth checking out.

New video for Jay-Z.

Preview “Don’t Cry”, from the “Assorted Donuts” mixtape by DJ Soul.

Listen to an interview with Jay-Z from 1996.

The Best of Both Worlds tour falls apart with each artist blaming the other.