Jay-Z Blueprint 3 and Incomplete Blueprint: Album Review
Article by Jim Tomas
When someone gives you a blueprint, they are essentially telling you how things are going to be. Jay-Z's original Blueprint album perfectly articulated the hip-hop life while his second Blueprint was left wanting for originality. Now, we have The Blueprint 3.
The difficulty of having created masterpieces in the past is future expectations. Listeners will accept nothing less than a masterpiece.
Jay-Zs new album, The Blueprint 3, is by no means a masterpiece but it contains enough brilliance to make it worth consideration.
One of the lead tracks off this album is "Empire State of Mind" featuring vocals from Alicia Keys. This song is so good that it challenges all of the others. With impressively strong vocals from Alicia Keys, Jay-Z sings of his life in New York city, a life that is far different from the one that he knew as a child.
As he sings, "In New York/Concrete jungle where dreams are made of/There's nothing you can't do", we are reminded that the world Jay-Z now inhabits is proof that for some people there is truly "nothing you can't do".
Jay-Z's beginnings were as humble as humility allows. Born Shawn Carter in the Marcy Houses projects in Brooklyn New York, Jay-Z reportedly led the "gangsta" lifestyle which he subsequently defined in his American Gangster album with lyrics such as these: "Blame Reagan for making me to into a monster/blame Oliver North and Iran-Contra/ I ran contraband that they sponsored/before this rhymin' stuff we was in concert".
So, is The Blueprint 3 an homage to his "gangsta" days or a reflection of the high-life he now leads with Beyonce?
It's a hybrid album with both remembrances of his past days and reflections on his current success. These sentiments are perhaps summed up best in the song "Real As It Gets" where he says, " Set sail, I used to duck shots but now I eat quail."
This album contains some solid tracks beyond that of "Empire State of Mind". In fact, the album begins with a great lick in "What We Talkin'About" with Luke Steels and "D.O.A. [Death of Auto-Tune]". Each of these tracks will leave Jay-Z fans, and hip-hop appreciators, with a grateful nod to the hip hop mogul.
But equally, there are some tracks seem laid down that aren't refreshingly original and may not bring you back for a second listen. Timbaland, who I am a great fan of, offers some tracks that are not up to his standard such as "Reminder" and "Off That". Additionally, we have Kayne West contributions such as "Hate" which again does not seem very original.
The Blueprint 3 makes me thankful that we can now buy songs instead of whole albums. Truly, there are some great tracks but there are others that seem conceived in a matter of moments. With this juxtaposition of good and bad, perhaps this album should be renamed "The Incomplete Blueprint".
About the Author
View the Top Rap Songs for personal critiques of the latest Top Ten Rap Songs. Also, see what rap songs have penetrated the latest Top Ten Songs on the market. The author, Jim Tomas, is a avid writer and musician who manages and critiques the leading music of our time.
