Draft:Lucifer (Jay-Z song)

"Lucifer" is a song by American rapper Jay-Z, and track 12 on his 8th solo studio album, The Black Album, released in 2003. The track details Jay-Z's reaction to the death of fellow rapper, The Notorious B.I.G. The song contains a sample taken from Chase the Devil, performed by Max Romeo. The track was produced by Kanye West, who also provided background vocals.

Background
As detailed in his memoir Decoded, Jay-Z recalls the death of fellow rapper, The Notorious B.I.G. Biggie and Jay-Z were close, and had previously collaborated on the song Brooklyn's Finest, off of Jay-Z's debut studio album, Reasonable Doubt. They had also collaborated on some of Biggie's songs, such as I Love the Dough. Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, spoke to his fellow Brooklyn-based rapper right before his untimely demise.
 * "“He wasn’t a troublemaker at all. He was just a funny, charismatic guy. For him to die so senselessly – I spoke to him that night, and he was so happy to be in Los Angeles, after the whole East Coast-West Coast thing.'"

Production
The song was entirely produced by Kanye West, built off of a sample of the reggae song Chase the Devil, by Max Romeo. In a video, Jay-Z and West can be seen working in the music studio together. It also shows West singing what would become one of the hooks for the track. The song was written by Jay-Z and Kanye West, with additional writing credits attributed to Hugh perry, Armend Cobi, and Maxie Smith, respectively.

Lyrics
In an MTV interview, Jay-Z stated:
 * "'I wanted people to have the proper context of rap, the generation, what we went through, these emotions behind these songs. A song like 'Lucifer,' it's really about the struggle and really about dealing with death and having that feeling. The evil is inside of you, not this mythical character with pitchforks and things like that. Dealing with a feeling of wanting revenge.'"

In his book Decoded, Jay-Z describes the song as one dealing with the pain of losing fellow rapper, The Notorious B.I.G.

Critical Performance
In a review for The Black Album, Pitchfork said the song "comes off a bit too close to flavour-of-the-month material for an album that promised to avoid easy singles," as well as describing some of the wordplay as "beginner's-level." However, they also praised Jay's lyrics: [Jay-Z's] verses make up for these slights by following an incredibly intricate structure, somehow managing to land on religious imagery every time the sample comes up." They also praised the Kanye West production, saying it "retains a snaky bounce without going down the obvious ragga route."