One of the biggest artists in hip-hop, rapper Jay-Z surprised fans in 2003 when he announced he would retire following the release of his hotly anticipated collection ^The Black Album. In November of 2003, not long after the album hit stores, Jay-Z staged a special show at New York City's ~Madison Square Garden, in which he performed alongside some of the most popular and influential acts in hip-hop and R&B, including R. Kelly, Beyoncé Knowles, Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliott, ?uestlove, Pharrell Williams, P. Diddy, and more. Billed as Jay-Z's final solo performance (though he would stage a collaborative tour with R. Kelly in the fall of 2004), Fade to Black is a concert documentary that captures both the action on-stage and the celebration behind the scenes; the film also features an inside look at the making of ^The Black Album.