[Review] Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3

Artist: Jay-Z

Album: The Blueprint 3

Label: Roc Nation/Atlantic

Release: Date: September 11th 2009

Guests: Luke Steele (of Empire of The Sun), Kanye West, Rihanna, Kid Cudi, Mr Hudson, Pharrell, J. Cole, Drake, Young Jeezy & Alicia Keys.

Producers: Kanye West, No I.D., Al Shux, The Inkredebles, Swizz Beatz, Timbaland, & The Neptunes.

I have often wondered why so many people regard Jay-Z as being the greatest rapper alive. Sure, MTV one said that the title belonged to Lil' Wayne, and I personally believe Eminem cannot be matched for talent, although Fabolous and Cassidy are also as good.

I mean, Jay-Z never seemed to reach out to me in the past, and although my iPod does contain some 'Jigga' music, such as 'Show Me What You Got', 'Prey', and 'Change Clothes' as well as a few more, I never felt the urge to upload entire albums onto that MP3 player. With no disrespect to Jay, I admire his work, especially in the last six or seven years of his career, but I cant help think that without Beyonce being his celebrity girlfriend, with whom the couple collaborated on several occasions, Jay would not have the status he has right now.

I for one feel Nas won he feud, and I rate Nas as being a better lyricist. Jay tried to walk in Biggie's shoes and I also felt he was harsh to artists such as Mobb Deep and Joe Budden - maybe Jay was trying to be a little 'too dominant' with his apparent 'King of NYC' status. I also felt that the best rapper alive should not have been 'out-performed' by his three collaborators on 'Swagga Like Us'.

I am not saying that I am not a fan, in fact I have more to credit Jay with than I can knock him for. I have just been skeptical that too much was expected of The Blueprint 3. Afterall, his last album is listed as a favourite by Mr Obama, and was a tenth sraight number 1 in the US. Although not one of my favourite albums Jay has released, it was only intended to be a concept, and was very much different to the rest of his discography.

The Blueprint 3 began its origins a little over a year ago. Despite coming out of retirement in 2003, Jay announced the new album was going to be his best yet, and would be a classic. After a stunning headline performance at the Glastonbury Festival in 2008, Jay was buzzing. New interest from UK fans had developed from what I can only describe as being a performance of a perfectionist, as a red faced Noel Gallagher sat at home, no doubt wishing he had not bitched to a magazine about Jay (afterall, those publicity stunt comments did not really help sell many copies of the next album did it??). The fact that many people thought his performance was just going to be a standard string of hits, maybe some boos, and objects thrown seemed to lower the bar, for a music legend to do his work. Afterall, the UK has suffered in lack of Hip Hop gigs, and now, interest has sparked up, as Jay is now returning with the band, Coldplay, and demand could be no greater.

Within weeks, 'Jockin' Jay-Z', a Kanye West produced track was circulating the internet, and Jay-Z fans buzzed, as once again, a musical assault on Gallagher appeared in verse two, but for some reason, no reply came (maybe he was too busy arguing with his own brother). The commercial Jay-Z was back, despite a sleight hiatus. Two more tracks followed - 'History' which celebrates the victory of Barack Obama in the 2008 US Presedential Elections, and 'Brooklyn', featuring Santagold, a tribute to the late Biggie Smalls, and would later appear in the movie soundtrack. A track featuring T.I., Kanye West and Lil' Wayne was mouth watering for all Hip Hop fans, and despite appearing on T.I.'s 'Paper Trail' album, it was also set to appear on The Blueprint 3, along with new verses from Nas and Andre 3000 from Outkast. However none of these tracks would make the final cut, as I would find to my disappointment several months later.

The album was taking shape behind closed doors, but for some reason, there was no push behind the above records.records. For sure, 'History' had the right ingredients to be a chart success, but perhaps Jay was looking for another sound. Then Timbaland came out, and claimed he was producing the entire album - I was stunned not only to believe that, but also to think Kanye was not going to be working with his mentor. Jay denied this statement, and left me wondering what on earth was going on - after all, why would Timbaland claim this is it was not true?

It also seemed odd that a few weeks before its release date, all three of the Timbaland produced tracks appeared on the internet. They were also rather weak by Timbo's standards and drew in a lot of critisism from fans on the forums and on social netowrking sites such as Twitter. Was there some tension between the two camps? What was going on behind the scenes?

Before all of this though, Jay-Z announced that the first official single from the album was 'D.O.A. (Death of The Autotune)' - another song that prompted rumours to a fallout behind the scenes, this time between Jay and Kanye. Jay was dissing autotune in this record, despite Kanye's recent use of the feature on his last album and other appearances he has made on other records. It made me wonder why Jay was dissing artists for using it, despite Kanye rebirthing his career with it. Funnily enough, it came just weeks after an internet rumour that Kanye had added autotune on a few of the tracks for The Blueprint 3, and Jay had demanded he took it off. Coicedence? There is no smoke without fire these days.

D.O.A. is a street single, perhaps influenced by Nas' outspoken activity in recent years towards the Hip Hop industry. The song became well received within the rap game, and there are several remixes floating around. It sort of reminds me of 'The Takeover' by using a similar style beat, as well as a rather angry sounding Hova.

The next single was set to be 'Off That' featuring the newest buzz in Hip Hop, Drake, and would be produced by Timbaland. Suprisingly, it was not to be the next big single, and in fact, was one of the songs which was leaked to a poor reception from fans. The beat is boring in my eyes, and Drake does not get a chance to shine like he has on previous records, as he merely sings the hook.

Instead, 'Run This Town' dropped featuring Kanye West and Rihanna, her first appearance since her ongoings with Chris Brown. After the song leaked, there was an anticipation over the video which soon followed to a good reception. The song has a good beat, a strong hook, and quite a good verse from Kanye (without the autotune funnily enough) although I felt Jay failed to do anything with it. Both his verses were dull, and meant nothing to the main core audience of the single - radio. The apparent greatest rapper alive wasn't shining, and I felt it was a missed opportunity to create a smash with three of the biggest names in urban music. I was just hoping the album would not disappoint.

However, when I listened through, closely to every track on the CD, I started to realise that Jay had been hiding something. Tracks began to stand out to me, and I began to regret ignoring the hype to the extend I did. Track 5, 'Empire State of Mind' with Alicia Keys has a bouncy beat and a 'good' set of versus, but Alicia sings a classic hook, and the hook alone could make his a future single, and probably a top 10. Track 15 features the UK band, Mr Hudson, fresh of the back of their smash hit, 'Supernova' with Kanye West, and is another amazing song, with a strong feel about it, although I later found out that the beat and hook sang by Mr Hudson are pretty much the same as the original sample - Aplhaville - Young Forever (1984).

Track 7, 'On To The Next One' featuring the trademark upbeat 'banging' beat from Swizz Beatz (sampling the 2007 smash hit 'D.A.N.C.E. by Justice) and for me, this song has the most 'Hip Hop' feel to it, and the only factor from this being a huge hit is the fact Jay swears too much to make a radio edit.

After this, there is an average song with Young Jeezy called 'Real As It Gets', and does not make much of an impact for me, several dull Timbaland tracks which I have removed from my iPod, and song with Pharrell which does not live up to the pair's previous collaborations.

So overall, to say I was not excited to hear this album would be wrong. But I cannot rate the album a top score based on the fact six of the fifteen tracks on the album are constantly on repeat on my iPod. I have now realised what it is about Jay-Z that makes him the 'great' he is - he is only as good as the beats he has. His flow is unique, but cannot turn a dull, monotinous and dry sounding beat into a good song, such as Fabolous, Eminem, Juelz Santana or Cassidy. But when given something explosive, such as 'Empire State of Mind', his level is raised.

I think this album will become a lead contender for album of the year in the commercial world, but I sense that it is not consistant enough to be an all-rounder.

7/10