Jay-Z took American Gangster off iTunes because he was against people buying just one song off of it!
Jay-Z is one of the most prolific rappers alive, and one of the richest. When he released his album American Gangster in 2007, it was initially available on iTunes for a dollar per song. Jay-Z then changed his mind and took it off because, “as movies are not sold scene by scene, this collection will not be sold as individual singles.”
Jay-Z sees his album as one whole work of art rather than individual songs and believes it should be enjoyed as a whole. The album was then only released to Amazon.com and Rhapsody.com in entirety. Even if this hurt Jay-Z’s profits, it is not likely that he’ll be hurting for money!