On Sept. 11, 2009, Americans across the country remembered what happened on that same day in 2001, including Jay-Z. Eight years after the release of his critically-acclaimed album “The Blueprint,” Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter released his latest piece of work, “The Blueprint 3.”
The album features collaborations from Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Pharrell, Young Jeezy, Drake, Kid Cudi and J. Cole, a new artist on Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label.
Jay-Z seems to be in limbo. He can’t decide whether he wants to follow the formulas of the artists that sell more records than him, such as Lil Wayne and Kanye West. Or if he wants to rely more on himself and stick to the formula that’s made him the most wealthy and powerful hip hop artist of the past decade.
He makes a lot of statements on the album, but not without contradicting himself. The epitome of these contradictions can be found in the street single “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)” where he attempts to end a trend that was exploited by T-Pain, Lil Wayne and Kanye West, the latter two of which he has collaborated with frequently over the last few years.
The irony of the song is that West is the one who inspired the song. Once he heard the beat he said, “this song just needs to be against everything.”
Jay-Z took that idea and made a song against everyone in hip hop who was turning things, like using Auto-Tune software and wearing bright colors and skinny jeans, into gimmicks.
It’s fine that he wants to rip into these trends, but in interviews about the song he proceeds to give the most popular artists with the biggest fanbases a pass for doing it.
He said, “You shouldn’t be confused by the message. I’m not saying Auto-Tune is wack. But leave that for them [T-Pain, Lil Wayne and Kanye West]; it’s not for everybody. That’s how you stagnate hip-hop. You listen to the radio, and every single has Auto-Tune. So we have to get rid of that part.”
Despite it’s contradictory message, the song is still hot. It’s arguably the best produced song on the album with the horns and the drum breakdown, and Jay-Z, while he might be confused, still had plenty of quotables.
The two singles released already, “D.O.A.” and “Run This Town,” actually sound better in the context of the album. This might be because on the radio they don’t necessarily compete well with the other songs but, given the flow of the album, they are standout tracks.
On the song “On to the Next One,” which was produced by and features Swizz Beatz, Jay-Z tells critics who want him to go back to his old style and lyrics to “buy my old album.”
However, he has plenty of songs that echo his past work. Longtime collaborator Pharrell is featured on a song called “So Ambitious,” which is a reminder of their older songs together such as “Change Clothes” and “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me).”
“The Blueprint 3” provides an odd juxtaposition between Jay-Z wanting to retain the “king of rap” crown he took back at the beginning of the decade and passing the torch to the new generation by putting them on and giving them the credit he thinks they deserve.
He has an interesting position, in that he is by far the most relevant, experienced member of the hip hop community as he’s been active since the mid-90s.
On “A Star is Born” there are a lot of lyrics that can be viewed as backhanded compliments to the artists he names such as Eminem, Nas and T.I. New artist J. Cole comes in for a show-stealing last verse a la Lupe Fiasco did in 2005 on West’s song “Touch the Sky.”
“Hate” is a back and forth rap with Kanye West which sounds similar to West’s other collaborations, “Barry Bonds” and “Southside,” with Lil Wayne and Common respectively. The song is dripping with swag as each word-association-based punchline is delivered.
It’s a cool thing for a hip hop fan to hear the leader of the Roc Nation and his protégé able to trade interlaced verses in the same way that Jay-Z was able to trade verses with the late Notorious B.I.G. on “Brooklyn’s Finest” from his debut album “Reasonable Doubt.”
Kid Cudi can be found singing the chorus on “Already Home” which is worthy of being a follow-up to his own single “Day ‘n’ Night.” It’s too bad he didn’t save it for himself.
Nevertheless, this song along with “Empire State of Mind,” featuring Alicia Keys, benefit greatly from the guest choruses and overshadow Hov’s verses.
The most entrancing and ear-catching parts of the album are the collaborators. Hov is still his slick-sixteen-spitin’ self, but he was outshined on plenty of tracks by the featured artists.
In the sense of making a “new classic” in the vein of the original Blueprint album I think he succeeded in that this is an album you can put on and it works great as background music. Even if he has lost a step or two from his prime, Jay-Z is still one of the leaders of the pack, not only in hip hop but in all of music.
