Inspired by "The Grey Album", which collaborative EP by Jay-Z and Linkin Park was released in 2004?
The Grey Album The Grey Album is a mashup album by Danger Mouse, released in 2004. It mixes an a cappella version of rapper Jay-Z's "The Black Album" with samples from The Beatles' LP "The Beatles", commonly known as "The White Album". "The Grey Album" gained notoriety when EMI attempted to halt its distribution despite approval of the project from Jay-Z and the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.
Dear Summer "Dear Summer" is the third and final single from Memphis Bleek's fourth album, "534." The single is somewhat unusual because the song features no vocals from Memphis Bleek, the host of the song. The song only features vocals from featured guest, Jay-Z. At the time, Jay-Z was a retired rapper just making an appearance on his label-mate's song. The beat dropped and Jay began freestyling and they recorded the song when it was done without Bleek having rapped. He made the choice to give it to Jay-Z but still place it on his album and release it as a single. It was produced by Just Blaze. It contains a sample from Weldon Irvine's "Morning Sunrise". Jay-Z released his first song since beginning his brief "retirement". The song was called "Dear Summer", in reference to what Jay called the time of the year when he would drop a classic album or single every year for 8 straight years, and how he had to metaphorically leave "her", Summer."Jigga has some great rhymes about his decision to leave performance for his job as Def Jam's CEO".