![]() And again, looking at Jay’s discography, if you had to pick one album which sonically and stylistically matches up the most with 808s & Heartbreak, which one would it be? The Blueprint 3. Similarly, it makes no sense to me that Jay-Z would be heading the war on Auto-Tune – although really, let’s face it, he wasn’t anywhere close to being the first to bring it up – when his confidante Kanye West damn-near single-handedly made it all the rage just a year ago with 808s & Heartbreak. Even worse, looking at Jay’s entire catalog, The Blueprint 3 is the album which most explicitly targets the “tight jeans” crowd, what with its esthetically minimalistic album art and sparse, frosty production. Second, I resent the fact that Jay-Z frequently disses the “tight jeans” crowd whilst simultaneously working with Kanye West – the metrosexual king – and the new school of like-minded cats like Drake, Cudi, Cole and Hudson. Sure, songs like “Change Clothes”, “’03 Bonnie & Clyde” and “Excuse Me Miss” fit the mold for said premise, but what about hit radio singles like “Roc Boys (And the Winner Is)…”, “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”, “99 Problems”, “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”, “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)”, “Change the Game” and so on and so on? Those are my joints! Again, I refute the premise that Jay-Z singles inherently suck in contrast with the rest of the record. Lemme first begin with some problems I’ve had with the album and then I’ll follow it up with the track reviews (which may or not have addressed those problems).įirst off, I don’t accept the premise that singles from Jay-Z’s albums are A) worse than the rest of the album, and/or B) should never, ever, ever be used as a barometer for the quality of the rest of the album. But for some reason, I feel like The Blueprint 3 deserves that kind of coverage. I rarely offer up album reviews in a track-by-track format because I prefer summing and sizing it up fully and analyzing it as I would a book (you never do chapter-by-chapter book reviews now do ya?). Unlike Jay tracks and albums which were hit or miss for me (usually hit) on the first listen, I realized that this one deserved some extra attention. The album definitely isn’t perfect, but given a few extra spins, I see the value in much of it. ![]() ![]() After lowering my expectations for the record – a knee-jerk reaction to lame single releases and leaked Timbo joints – I bashed the bejesus outta the album on Twitter all day long on Monday. All the way up to Hov’s recent release, The Blueprint 3, which made its “bootleg” debut just a couple of days ago. Since The Blueprint and the days of KaZaA, I’ve devoured every album since it leaked on the net. In the late ‘90’s/early-to-mid 2000’s, Jay-Z meant everything to me as far as hip hop was concerned. Release Date: September 11th September 8th, 2009
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