Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life by Jay-Z

Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life, Jay-Z's third studio album, arrived on Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam on September 29, 1998, and it became the biggest seller of his career, more than 6 million copies in the US alone. Picking up where In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 left off, he spread the beats across a deep bench of producers, DJ Premier, Irv Gotti, Rockwilder, The 45 King, Stevie J and Erick Sermon among them, and the album swings between hard, gritty East Coast tracks and glossy, radio-ready bounce.

The title track, "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)", and "Can I Get A..." carry the double entendres and rags-to-riches swagger he built his name on. He also used the liner notes to talk through the songs himself, and printed the lyrics to one breakneck track in full. Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter followed.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.