Jay-Z's Blueprint 3 album review

Jay-Z's Blueprint 3 just sold 450,000 copies in its first week in stores, giving him 11 number 1 albums. The Beatles are the only entity in music with more number 1 records. Jay just passed Elvis. Jay is without question the most prolific artist in the history of rap music. No other rap artist has been critically and commercially relevant nearly as long as Jigga. Rap is a young man's game and Jay has found a way to stay modern and he has always done it on his terms. He is the face of hip-hop the world over. He performs at rock festivals in English; he vacations with Bono and kicks it with Chris martin (lead singer of Coldplay). He ran a label, he started a clothing line before it was cool and he owns a top notch hot spot in New York. Oh and he is married to the biggest and hottest female star out right now, Beyonce. There is a reason he is glossed Jay-Hova. On top of all of that, he sold out Madison Square Garden in something like 25 minutes for a 9/11 benefit concert this year. That is just a taste of who this man is and now onto reviewing the album I have been dying to hear.

1. What we talkin about- Over a pretty basic, but cool sounding beat, Jay just rips into everyone who is gossiping about him or his business. His flow is simple, but the delivery is crisp and he is not in a good mood as he says "That's just how the game goes I don't owe nobody jack/ Grown men want me to sit em on my lap/ But I don't have a beard and Santa Claus ain't black." Wow fall back people looking for a handout. The song is a great introduction to what he is doing on the album. He is the most successful rapper ever, but he can still get angry and he can still unleash his venom through his voice box and kill anyone, especially his former rap partner Jazz when he hits jazz with this "Even Jazz made some scraps/ He could've made more but he didn't sign his contract." In the third verse he switches up his delivery a bit, because that is who Jay is and it fits nicely with the closing remarks. An overall dope track. 5/5

2. Thank You- Over a Kanye West beat heavy on the horns, this is Jay's Sinatra track. I picture Jay in a suit, a drink, and a cigar on stage almost like a crooner. It is so smooth and so perfect. The beat glides with each measure and Jay just jogs all over it, having some fun. It is some nice, "I am actually rich, not rapper rich" type song where he boasts he pays waiters to keep the ice cold. That is a baller right there. But the third verse might be the illest Jay verse on the album. It is just WHOA and here it is fully:

I was gonna kill a couple rappers
But they did it to themselves
I was gon' do it with the flow
But they did it with their sales
I was gon' 9/11 'em, but they didn't need the help
And they did a good job them boys is talented as hell
Cuz not only did they brick they put a building up as well
They ran a plane into that building and when that building fell
Ran to the crash site with no masks and inhaled
Toxins deep inside their lungs until both of them was filled
Blew a cloud out like a L into a jar then took a smell
Cuz they heard that second hand smoke kills
Niggas thought they was ill found out they was...ILL
And it's like you knew exactly how I wanted you to feel

Wow. I mean how can anyone hate this album with that verse on it!? 5/5

3. D.O.A. (death of Autotune) - This was the first "street" single and Jay blows it up! No.ID gives jay some beautiful horns and a sick beat and Jay goes gutter on it ripping into so many of these ringtone rappers. Jay is a legend and you will never forget. The man sets trends and in this song he wants to crush a stupid trend. He goes off and he knows it when he says "this ain't politically correct/this might offend my political connects." Jay is so effortless with his breath control and his delivery that he makes it seem so easy to be a successful rapper. He rides this beat so beautifully, it is almost a crime. I am not sure he achieved his goal, but the song hits and I know other rappers have hated on Autotune, but none of them have the stature of Jay. 5/5

4. Run This Town- The first actual single finds a kind of weak Jay. Kanye laced Jay with a cool march style beat, Rihanna's chorus is catchy and powerful and the song is cool, but Jay just does not bring it as well as I would have liked. He gets off some good lines, especially in his second verse, but Rihanna and Kanye just come better. In fact, Kanye sounds straight up hungry using an aggressive voice, an attack style flow and interesting lyrics. Kanye is certainly using the song to remind people that he is a rapper and his delivery all over his verse keeps things fresh. He switches the rhyme patterns frequently and it makes me think this beat and Rihanna's chorus would have been better for a Kanye album. 3/5 for Jay, 5/5 for the other two.

5. Empire State of Mind- I was not sure how this would go right when it started because the beat comes off so chunky, but then Alicia Keys' piano comes in and smoothes it out enough. The beat is still a little to chunky because the rest of the song is so smooth, so it is a bit annoying, but Jay is not going to let it get him down. Then when Ms. Keys' comes in on the HUGE chorus, it just gets awesome. Then when Jay begins the second verse with "Shit, I made the Yankee hat more famous then a Yankee can" you realize just how cocky Jay is and how well it works on this track. New York is always thought of a brash and cocky state and Jay embodies that in life and on this song. Alicia and Jay make a really good team, but I wish they had a better beat to run over. Jay totally mellows out in the third verse, which was almost disappointed, but he did it because the third verse talks about how New York can swallow people up if they are not careful, so it fits. 4/5

6. Real as it gets- This is the first hiccup to me, really. I have nothing against Young Jeezy, but this is a Jay-Z album and Jay does not need guest rappers, especially rappers who spit such generic verses. The beat is another horn heavy, kind of smooth, Jay-Z is operating on another level type beat and Jeezy's voice is great on the hook, because he has such a distinct voice, but Jeezy should have stayed on the hook. When Jay gets going, it is kind of lackluster for Jay. It does not have the energy or the substance to be an album cut really. I am not sure I would skip the track on the regular basis, but I would not be putting it on any awesome music play lists. Jay does get one good line off "Hov’s the audio equivalent of braille/that’s why they feel me in the favelas in Brazil" but it really is not enough. 2.5/5

7. On to the Next one- This song is produced by Swizz beats but could easily be The Neptunes circa 2001. However, Jay makes it work and he is out for blood right off the bat with the lines "Hov' on that new shit, niggaz like "How come?"/Niggaz want my old shit, buy my old album/Niggaz stuck on stupid, I gotta keep it movin/Niggaz make the same shit, me I make +The Blueprint+" and the whole song follows suit. The beat does get a little too cute at times and it is distracting, especially the chants, but Jay's lyrics get to be front and center because of it. Oh and the hook has got to go! He gets another shot at autotune and to people who follow trends, when Jay sets trends (this is a problem later in the album). It is a song full of HOT lines that jay delivers with such ease that it feels like he does not even take the haters seriously. 4/5 for lyrics, but overall 3/5.

8. Off That- Timbaland gives Jay a beat and I should be crazy excited about it because these two go together like stupid people and Saw movies. However, Timbaland delivers a beat that sounds like a left over for his collaboration album. Then on top of that Jay lets Drake on the hook. NO! Jay you are a leader, not a follower, no Drake. Drake is wack. For his part Jay does what he can. I am not sure why Jay chose this beat, but I think eh liked the tempo of it. Jay speeds up his flow a bit and uses his higher pitched voice for short couplet style verses and Jay is obviously having fun and Drake doesn't actually sound too bad on the chorus, but I still have to ask why! The song feels like a first draft, really. It is my least favorite song on the album 2/5.

9. A Star is Born- Kanye and No I.D more than make up for the last song with a really nice piano and 808 heavy track and Jay really gives his all in this song. Each verse gets better and I like the song concept of Jay giving props to these rappers from the late 1990s and the 2000s. Jay name checks a ton of guys, even some who have dissed him and he is out giving respect, but at the same time, letting us know that Jay has outlasted basically all of these guys. It is a really subtle way of showing that Jay really is the biggest dog in a genre of big dogs. The chorus is totally dope and the beat just stays exactly what it needs to be. I love the piano and I love how Jay sounds sincere with his voice, but still just a bit cocky. Some kid named J. Cole gets to rap at the end, which is crazy because I have never heard of the kid, but he comes alright, nothing terribly special and I would have rather heard another Jay verse, but it is not annoying enough to take off points. 5/5

10. Venus vs. Mars- The first time I heard this song, I hated it, just flat out hated it. I hated Timbaland's beat, Jay's voice, his flow and the hook. I was ready to not give it a second shot, but I did and the song is growing on me. It is a totally spaced out beat and Jay is totally laid back and his voice has dropped in tone a bit, but it kind of works because of how different it is from the girl on the chorus who sounds on the verge of orgasm. The song is about the differences between him and a fictional girl and how it works for the first two verses and then falls apart in the last verse. I am still not sure what it is doing on this album, as it does not fit what I think the album is supposed to be, but I really like the third verse and how the beat gets even more spaced out when the story unravels. 3/5

11. Already Home- Jay lets Kid Cudi on the hook, which is a cop out and pandering, but at least it works. Cudi's voice is perfect for a song like this and Kanye's production, while not stellar has some nice strings in it. The song is about how boring it is when people keep talking about him and how wishing him to fall is pointless, because Jay is already set. It is a cocky song and it works very well because, Jay's swagger is unmatched. The lyrics are not crazy amazing, but his delivery is wonderful and he switches the rhyme patterns and the flow often enough to keep it all sounding fresh. And the third verse is amazing in terms of bragging and cocky swagger. He taught these young rappers what swagger was and this song is sonning all of them. Just killing these rap guys. 4/5

12. Hate- I have no doubts that people hate this song. In fact, I would put money on this being most people's least favorite song. Kanye's beat is just flat out weird and his 808s are very weird. Then they start rapping and it is just as weird. Kanye and Jay are rapping super slow and using weird speech patterns, and possibly making up words, or at least elongating words to make them sound weird. Yet, I find myself loving it because it is just two guys having all kind of fun being weird. Also, as an English major, I have to say Kanye's onomonpia is so ill making laser sounds! It is super funny. Jay is a jack of all trades and he proves he can hang with any beat, he can rap in any style and it can sound pretty good. Lyrically the song is nothing special, but the silly stuff in a song about haters, just goes to show how Jay and Kanye do not take any haters seriously. They are just toying with hate and I respect that. 4/5

13. Reminder- Timbaland disappoints again, but Jay does not. I ma not sure why this beat was chosen, but Jay-Z is not going to let it get to him and he is in top notch form on this track. Jay is out to remind everyone just who he is and what he has done for the game and just who he is. Bloggers cannot stop him, petty rappers cannot touch him and in case you forgot, Jay is the best. Not new territory, but Jay is almost 40 and still doin it, so this is the next part of his career. The second verse is so sick and ugly it made me squish my face. He is killin it on this song. Jay is at his best when he is reminding everyone he is the best. He does not lack for confidence and TImbaland's beat is actually growing on me as I write this review. This is the signature kind of song for Jay, but the line that seals it for me is "Then write sixteens in between runnin sixteen bid'nesses/All the while showin these young punks what the bid'ness is" When you are this good, it is all so simple! 4/5

14. So Ambitious- Most rappers have stories of people giving up on them. Jay has never really let those stories out, except for his father, but this song is about to change that. Pharell comes awesome on the hook; the beat is a classic Jay/Neptunes collaboration. Jay sets the tone with the opening lines "I felt so inspired by what my teacher said/said I'd either be dead or be a reefer head/now sure if that’s how adults should speak to kids" and from there it just steamrolls into an all out assault on people who told him he would never be anything. It is a great song, even if the concept is tired. It shows that Jay really is the Michael Jordan of this rap game. Jay's rise is well documented and is inspiring and that he continues to put out music and be relevant is stunning and this song is a testament to that. 4/5

15. Forever Young- Kanye West sample a cheesy song to give Jay a kind of cheesy beat, which leads to a concept that could be cheesy, but Jay and Mr. Hudson approach it very well and they avoid the mistake, but Kanye does not do them any favors, seriously, Jay's beat selection is kind of weak. Yes, Mr. Hudson does sound a bit like a generic Chris Martin and I would have rather heard Chris Martin and his piano, but Mr. Hudson has emotion in his voice which you need for a song about leaving a legacy, death and life. Jay's idea is that his music will always keep him young. After death he will be forever young because he has his music, his videos and his life. He paints a wonderfully vivid picture throughout the whole song about life and death. It is a really nice way to close the album. 2/5 for the beat, 5/5 for Jay, 3.5/5 overall.

The Blueprint 3 does not fit the Blueprint series and is, without question, the most inconsistent Jay-Z album, which is to say that it is still better than most other albums. This feels like Jay-Z is trying a little bit too hard to stay current, when that is not who he is. Jay sets trends, he does not follow them. He does not need guest verses from people like Jeezy. His beat selection is usually tighter and his verses more polished, but there are still enough gems on the album to make me like it. It is not the most cohesive album and I think a 12 song album would have been better, but the man just passed Elvis Pressley, so what do I know?