Jay-Z is back.

The cat has been let out of the bag. One of the worst kept secrets in the music industry has finally been confirmed. Jay-Z is coming out of retirement and releasing a new album on November 21, according to the new issue of Entertainment Weekly (see the cover).

Kingdom Come will be his first album since he retired with The Black Album, which was released in 2003. This will be the longest gap between Jay-Z albums since he burst into the music scene in 1996.

The new album will be released on Def Jam records, which he became president of after his retirement. Despite giving up on recording albums, he appeared on recent songs by Young Jeezy, Beyonce, Lupe Fiasco and Kanye West (to name a few), fueling the fire that his return was imminent.

According to several reports (including this article from Vibe) Kingdom Come will feature production from hip-hop’s biggest names, including Kanye West, Just Blaze, The Neptunes, Dr. Dre, Timbaland and Scott Storch.

This is great news for hip-hop, considering Jay-Z is one of the best artists of his generation, and he has a knack for making great albums.

Jay-Z is currently on a world tour, which involves both performing in concert and raising social awareness in poor countries. This great tour will be the subject of one of my upcoming blogs.