Jay-Z – The Blueprint 3 [2009]

To Shawn Carter, the word “Blueprint” has always represented change. When Jay-Z released The Blueprint on September 11th, 2001, it was an answer to his critics, fans and his peers who claimed he’d lost his ability to be introspective. 2002′s follow-up Blueprint 2: The Gift and The Curse found Hov’ trying out his first double album and while it wound up having his most successful single on the pop charts (“03 Bonnie and Clyde”), the album as a whole was trash. After that, Jiggaman retired, came back, became the President of Def Jam, resigned as President of Def Jam, married Beyonce, joined Live Nation, AND went back to his roots. On September 11th, 2009, eight years after the release of The Blueprint, Carter’s eleventh studio album, The Blueprint 3 was here.

The two lead singles, as has been the case with almost all of Jigga’s prior releases, are dangerous, but perhaps none since the first Blueprint packed such a heavy one-two punch like “D.O.A.” (Death of Auto-Tune)” and “Run This Town”. The former is an attack against the music industry’s overusage of autotune. Jay stated in interviews prior to the single’s release that while he has no problem with autotune as a whole, he felt too many artists were using it as a crutch and saw it as a fad and gimmicky. The hypocrisy here lies in the fact that Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and some of Jay’s other collaborators had big autotune hits, with Kanye doing an entire autotune album last year. No I.D. laces powerful rock chords and Jiggaman kills the track with an unorthodox cadence and sharp rhymes. “Run This Town” has features Jay with two other hugely successful artists, Kanye and Rihanna. Jiggaman talks about what he does best – ruling the industry.

The main problem that Jay-Z faced with the creation of The Blueprint 3 is that he has such a deep catalog of music that there’s really nothing left for Jay to talk about. The man’s not selling drugs anymore, he’s filthy rich, he’s married to a dime, he been the President of Def Jam, he’s gone platinum a buncha times, and he’s not currently beefing with anybody (In fact, Jay even ADDRESSES this on the album’s opener “What We Talkin’ About”). So rather than force it, Jay mixed things up on The Blueprint 3 with a mix of creative song concepts, career retrospection, and his trademark brag-rap. What’s new on The Blueprint 3? Not much – but it’s heat either way.

Like Kingdom Come, there are only two truly weak moments on the album that I skip over. “Real As It Gets” sounds like a forced collaboration with the horrible Young Jeezy, a rapper that I still don’t understand exactly what Jay sees anything in. Jeezy has never been anything short of wack and Jay is just, there. The song accomplishes nothing. “On to the Next One” further cements my thoughts on Swizz Beats being the most overrated producer in hip hop, providing one of the most putrid piece of an instrumental to ever grace Jay’s discography. Filler – skip.

One of the things that makes Blueprint 3 stand out from other Jay-Z albums is that musically, it sounds like no other Jay album. The production is primarily handled by Kanye West and No I.D., with two donations from Timbaland & Jermone Harmon. When I read the name Kanye, I expected a horde of sped-up soul samples and dense, heavy beats. Impressively, that’s almost nowhere to be found, as we find the production team focusing more on experimenting with various soundscapes and atmospheric tones than your traditional hip-hop album. At first I felt it was a bit odd, but as I gave the CD more spins, I noticed it grew on me.

A lot of these polarizing soundscapes can be heard on such cuts like “Off That” and “Hate”. The former was scheduled to be the lead single from the album; probably because of Timbo’s uptempo electronica and the catchy-as-hell hook. “Hate” is another potential radio-friendly banger with Jay and Kanye addressing the critics. Jay’s performance on these songs are ehh… perhaps only slightly above average, but again, what does he have left to talk about? Jay perfected the grown-man brag-rap on Kingdom Come and it seems like he never hits that plateau on The Blueprint 3.

Concordingly, there are other parts of the album where you really see Jigga’s maturity creep in and make you proud. “A Star is Born” is somewhat of a hip-hop tribute track where Jay pays his respects to his peers in the game; including both his allies and his former rivals and can be seen as a jumpoff track for emcee J. Cole to get on. I originally did not like “Venus vs. Mars”, but it grew on me rapidly. It reminds me of the creativity Hov’ showed on “Girls, Girls, Girls” with a hook that sounds like it was a knockoff of LL’s “Doin’ It, but Jay’s rhymes about the differences and similarities between women works, specially since Beyonce makes an uncredited adlib during the hook. “Already Home” is one of my favorite tracks on the album. The thumping violin sample from “Mad Mad Ivy” carries the track and is the finest piece of production work found on the album. Like with “A Star is Born”, Jay addresses his peers; except this time he’s talking to the ones who want him to go home. He IS at home. “Reminder” is another strong brag-rap contribution with powerful production. The hook is borderline autotune, killing the entire point of “D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)” earlier on the album. “Thank You” is another great song, but after the outro to the Black Album, it’s really not necessary. It feels like Jay is truly running out of things to say despite making a run for it.

The Blueprint 3 ends with two great pieces that I feel will be remembered as Jay-Z classics. You have your obligatory Pharrell Williams/Neptunes track with “So Ambitious”, which beat-wise, sounds more Reasonable Doubt-ish than 90% of American Gangster and lyrically sounds like a leftover from The Black Album. The mid-tempo synths bring back keen memories of “Cashmere Thoughts” and “Can I Live”, and Pharrell’s hook is actually NOT annoying. Jay-Z’s rhymes revolve around finding inspiration and drive from those that try to bring you down, something I can talk for hours about if need-be (see the Black Album review). As typical with Jay-Z album closers, “Young Forever” is a masterpiece. Memories of the feelings I felt when I first heard “Beach Chair”, as Jay-Z speaks on his lore and legacy. The song has that epic finalizing tempo that gives me butterflies.

Without a doubt in my mind, The Blueprint 3 is Jay-Z’s most… unusual album to date. The music soundscapes on here are certainly more experimental than anything Jay has even touched (including “Beach Chair” and those ridiculous R. Kelly combo albums). It’s a jumbled amalgamate of sonic indulgence. Lyrically, it’s a bit of a step-down from American Gangster, but an overall better album because quite simply put: it has better songs. That’s all that matters in the end. I’m sure, in a few years some of us will probably look back on The Blueprint 3 and think “oh well, it’s the same ole Jay…”



…and I wouldn’t have it any other way…





4 Stars