Blueprint 3 Album Review

In 2003, rapper Jay-z announced his retirement from the rap game and left us with the Jay-z classic known as The Black Album. As expected the retirement was short term and in 2006 jigga dropped the dud known as Kingdom Come, the album which he hailed to be "Grown Up Rap". With only 2 or 3 true quality tracks, the album is easily his worst but at that point the only album of his which strayed, for the most part, off the topic of drugs. In 2007 Jay went the themed route returning to his former comfort zone, capitalizing off of the success of the movie of the same name, and adding another positive notch to his legacy with American Gangster. No one really knew what to expect when Hov announced his next album Blueprint 3, even with the leaks of tracks like "Jockin Jay-Z", Brooklyn Go Hard"and "History". With a album called

Blueprint he couldn't possibly be delivering Kingdom Come 2.....or could he?

From the jump Hov lets us know what he's talking about and u can See the direction of the album is heading towards the Grown Up Rap thing again. "Now that that's that lets talk about the future/we have just seen the dream as predicted by Martin Luther/and you could choose ta/sit in front of your computer shootin youtube up/ or you could come with me to the whitehouse get ya suit up/ You stuck on bein hardcore, I chuck the deuce up." Jay spends a lot of time discussing the trends in which he helped create, kill, or trying to create or kill current trends. Subject matter however is not a problem for me on this album. The biggest problem i have is Jays flow not being the monster that it once was and realizing the fact that it probably never will be. With that said there are a few other problems with this albums i would like to address.

Those problems are titled "Off That" and "Reminder", the first two tracks to leak from the album and both produced by Timberland. "Off That" doesn't even sound like it belongs on the album at all and the Drake feature seems a bit forced. Reminder, though lyrically on point has one of the worst hooks I've heard in recent memory. When those songs leaked they bought the albums anticipation and expectations lower and lower. Then Venus vs Mars leaked and was much better than the previous two Tim tracks and saved some hope.

Little did we know Hov would make a Rivera like save with the rest of the album. Songs, "Thank You" "So Ambitious"and "Real As It Gets" immediately add a nice vibe to the album. Hov is able to make the Swizz Beats produced "On To The Next One" work for the album but the true gems on this album come in the form of tracks featuring freshmen Kid Cudi (Already Home) and J.Cole(A Star Is Born). Jay addresses the rappers who say he is in the way of their progress and the progress of the genre on "Already Home". "They want me to disappear/ like it's gon shift for them/ They say that I'm in the way/they want me to sit for them/but what they admitting is/ they ain't got shit for him" Then Jay in a brilliant move passes the torch to the first artist on Roc Nation, first by rhyming about the artist he watched blow up in his tenure in the game, ten Jay goes in about his own reign before giving J.Cole the fourth and BEST verse on Blueprint 3. J.Cole shows the hunger of a talented youngster and delivers a verse which will surely move him closer to the public eye "The flow cold as the shoulders of gold diggin hoes when a broke nigga approaches/Told ya I'm focused man/ I let u muthafuckas soak it in" The third true gem comes from the Alicia Keys assisted "Empire State Of Mind". For the 4:37 that the song plays I wish i was from NY as jay paints a Reasonable Doubt-Esque vivid picture about the big apple as Keys delivers a flawless hook with flawless vocals. This song has the potential to not only go down as an all time great Jay song but a theme song for New York as well.

Songs like "Hate" and "Forever Young" are OK depending on your mood. Feel like clownin then throw on Hate and listen to Kanye's useless but entertaining babbling. Kanye doesn't do the album a complete disservice, I mean after all he did produce a bulk of the album, gave jigga the idea for single "D.O.A" and the possibly the best verse for second single "Run This Town". Overall this album is not jays best by a long shot but certainly not his worst. I think BP3 actually accomplished what KC didn't, delivering the "Grown Rap" all the while making good music. So Kingdom Come 2? Maybe. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.