Customer Reviews

The Blueprint

5 star:		(289)
4 star:		(89)
3 star:		(25)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

After 5 CDs, Jay Z is trying to say that he has "The Blueprint" to the hip hop game. If you look at what Jay Z has done in the past few years, it's hard to argue with what he has to say. "Reasonable Doubt" clearly is his best release of all time. You had classics like "Brooklyn's Finest" w/Notorious BIG, "Can't Knock The Hustle" w/Mary J Blige, "D' Evils", "Can I Live", "Dead Presidents", etc. Jay Z has always found a way to reach hip hop fans. Even on "In My Lifetime Volume 1", when fans said that he was slippin' a bit when he tried to make a CD after his friend, Notorious BIG died. He still had classics like "Where I'm From", "You Must Love Me", "Imaginary Player" and "Streets Is Watching". Since then, Jay Z has been releasing his CD's on basically a yearly basis. He released the "Streets Is Watching" soundtrack and appeared on various songs. The best being "It's Alright" w/Memphis Bleek and "Murdergram" w/DMX and Ja Rule. The multiplatinum "Volume 2: Hard Knock Life" included "Can I Get A..", the impressive title track produced by the 45 King, "Coming Of Age (Part 2)" w/Memphis Bleek, and "Money, Cash,..." w/DMX. "Volume 3: The Life And Times Of Shawn Carter" was considered to be too commercial for some folks, but he still had the classic "Do It Again" w/Beanie Sigel and Amil, "Big Pimpin'" w/UGK, "Come And Get Me" and "It's Hot". The last 3 were produced by Timbaland, as well as the Nutty Professor 2 smash, "Hey Papi" w/Memphis Bleek and Amil. On his last release, "The Dynasty: Roc La Familia", Jay Z's CD featured Memphis Bleek and Beanie Sigel on various songs and was fueled by The Neptunes' produced 1st single, "I Just Wanna Love You" (Give It 2 Me). On "The Blueprint" Jay Z uses Kanye West, Just Blaze, and Bink for most of the production and he mixes some of the prior formulas used on his past few CDs for his new one. After one listen, you can tell that Jay Z was looking for a more soulful sound on this CD. This may be a disappointment to fans of Jay Z's hardcore sound. You won't find that on many songs on this CD. It seems like Jay Z is more relaxed and feels like he is #1 in the rap game and he can resort to that sound when need be. Clearly the best track on the CD is the Just Blaze produced, "You Don't Know". This song is one of the best tracks that Jay Z has ever made. Just Blaze created a great track and Jay Z takes it from there with his tale of hustlin'. "Renagade" with Detroit's finest, Eminem is also a nice track where the two go back and forth to the Eminem produced beat and tells how they have "Never been afraid to say what's on their mine now, any given time of day". This is a nice collaboration between the two rappers. "Girls, Girls, Girls" has Jay Z doing another thing that he does best and that is telling us stories about the ladies. He invites Q Tip, Slick Rick and the Diabolical Biz Markie to join him on the hook and the results are good. The most daring song on his CD has to be the Kanye West produced "Takeover" where he disses 2 of the best rappers out now, Prodigy of Mobb Deep and Nas. He dedicates a whole verse to each rapper. This beef apparently started with Nas apparently dissin' Memphis Bleek. Now it has escalated into Jay Z dissin' Prodigy and Nas for words they have said. This could get ugly eventually but I hope that everyone will keep this one on the microphone and in the studo and not out in the streets. Other highlights on this CD include "Song Cry", "Blueprint" (Momma Loves Me) which will remind folks of Jay Z's "Where Have You Been" and Beanie Sigel's "Still Got Love For You", "All I Need" and the bonus track on the end of "Blueprint". Overall, Jay Z fans will be pleased. This is another installment for Jay Z. Can he continue his run and stay on top? That remains to be seen.

Despite all that Jay-Z has accomplished in terms of commercial
success, street credibiity and record sales...most hip hop heads
are reluctant to call him the best in the game.
Why?
Well, for two reasons:
1) No matter how good Vol 1, 2, 3 and the Dynasty were, they
never reached the classic level of Reasonable Doubt.
2) The material on those four albums seemed too geared toward the
MTV crowd than the underground peoples.
With album #6...the rap game has officially been put on lock.
The Blueprint doesn't boast the normal list of big name producers. It isn't filled with party joints and commercial
hits (besides H to the Izzo). It isn't a promotion for Jigga's
Rockafella family. Guest spots are limited.
It is JAY-Z, pure and simple. The result is his best album since Reasonable Doubt, hands down.
Surprisingly, most of the songs on this album are slow and full
of emotionally introspective lyrics (similar to some of his past
work like Regrets, You Must Love Me and This Can't Be Life.)
And of course, there is the outstanding diss track Takeover and
Eminem drops in for a couple verses on Renegade.
My favorite track is Song Cry, where Jigga recounts mistakes that
led to him losing the love of his life.
In summary, Jay Z can no longer be considered just a consistent
performer with one classic album.
It's time that even the underground fans start recognizing the
king.

Jay-Z has come yet with another classic album.expect this time it truely deserves 5 stars or 5 mics in The Source as it recieved.Jay mixes 70's funk and soul with rhymes about the struggles,pressure,success,and joy growing up.I'll break down the songs.

1)The Rulers Back-Declares he's back on the throne and involves some nice lyrical skills as well.

2)Takeover-He yells back at his enemies on this track.tearing into Mobb Deep and Nas.

3)Izzo(H.O.V.A.)-Poppy nice single that proclaims in beating the struggles and pressures and he does it in a nice cocky way.

4)Girls,Girls,Girls-a song telling of stories of all the different girls he has been with.Also he gets some help from Biz Markie,Q-Tip,and Slick Rick.

5)Jigga That Nigga-a nice bobby party track for yall to bounce to.

6)U Don't Know-Another good song talking about the streets and his hustful ways.

7)Hola Hovito-Another hot jam in which Jay proclaims he's the best and does a nice job on.

8)Heart Of The City(Ain't No Love)-A song adressing all the young haters on the street.Nice tune.

9)Never Change-Another heartwrenching song talking about his struggles and times growing up.

10)Song Cry-A song talking from a broken Jay about a girl he love d and broke her heart.

11)All I Need-Nice tune to chill out too.

12)Renegade(Feat Eminem)-A tight song releasing all the stress on the media,haters,society,etc.And Eminem takes it up a step on this one.

13)Momma Loves Me-A song thanking his momma and all the ones who raised him and surrounded him.

(Bonus)-Breath Easy(Lyrical Exersize)-good song talking about how Jay his and remains lyrically fit and emcees can't keep up wit him.

(Bonus)Girls,Girls,Girls(Remix Feat Chante Moore)-more tales of all the girls that he has been with.

Although IZZO, Renegade, and a few other tracks are all very good, the album as a whole is weak. It is, as the fast few Jay-Z albums have been, a album with a few good tracks and alot of filler tracks. Jay's first 3 albums, up to Volume 2, were generally solid. They were consistant and solid ablums, and showed that Jay still lived close to his roots. However, Blueprint, is inconsistant and weak, and represents a Jay-Z that has left the streets, but is still trying to rap about them. Leaving the streets is fine - in my opinion - as long as you don't try to pretend that you're still living ghetto. On this record, Jay is pretending.

Jay-Z's Blueprint is a brilliant album. Everything just clicks right on this CD. The production is hot, the lyrics are original and thoughtprovoking, and the guest appearances are few. Of course, the stand out song on the album is "Renegades" which features Eminem. This song could be HUGE if released as a single and could really push this albums record sales up a lot. The album has fun party songs like "Girls, Girls, Girls" and the now overplayed "H.O.V.A.", but also gets serious on tracks like "Blueprint" and "Song Cry". If you like Jay-Z you will love this CD. I dont know if its his best ever, but its certainly his best in the past 3 years. Cop this album.

What's not to love on this album? I mean, it dropped on the day the Towers fell and it did great sales-wise. Cam brought to light the fact that his Renegade verse wasn't completely orginal on that diss record, but many of his "inspired" tracks were joints that he considered retakes on a successful formula. The production was superb, though.

Only behind his debut which was a classic. This album made him even more bigger and better then ever. A lot of great songs on here like the diss to Nas and Mobb Deep which was "The Takeover" and all the singles where great. This album is worth having in your collection because Jay-Z is one of the best lyricist and if you don't agree then you hating. Anyways just buy this album you won't regret it I promise and if you don't like it then you are not a hip hop fan you are a bubblegum pop fan. JUST BUY IT!

Jay-Z's Blueprint to Hip-Hop has positioned himself as the "King Of New York", this album to taken him one HUGE step further towards greatness. Starting off with the "Slick-Rick" influenced track, "The Ruler's Back" where Jay-Z tells the world why he is the best MC today and why nobody else comes close. It then follows up which started the greatest Hip-Hop fued, since Biggie and Pac, but without all the drama and violence, they kept it strictly on wax. "Takeover" takes a direct stab at Queensbridge's "Nas" and "Mobb Deep". "Izzo (Hova)" was takes Jay-Z's "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" single to a new plato, following his lust for women in the single "Girls, Girls, Girls" where "Q-Tip", "Bizmarkie" and "Slick Rick" show a help-in-hand. As far as the production work goes, almost flawless as "Just Blaze" shows up for "U Don't Know", "Timbaland" shows up for "Hola' Hovito" and Kanye West shows up "Heart Of The City" and also "Eminem" shows up "Renegade" among others. The Jigga Man finishes off the album with the track "Blueprint (Momma Loves Me)" where Mr. S. Carter has to get somethings off his chest. Clearly Jay-Z's finest, scratch that Hip-Hop's finest.

When Jay-Z dropped "The Blueprint", needless to say, he cemented his spot as the top MC on the East Coast with this classic and proved that he was the ROC in physical form. And you'd be looking stupid if you doubted the fact. The production is probably the most memorable aspect of the album, since this had more soul and rock influences than any Jay-Z album in the past, courtesy of Jus Blaze, Timberland, and more notably, Kanye West. Lyrically, he's almost up there with "Reasonable Doubt" as he rips through his NYC affiliates Mobb Deep ("You are not deep/I hold triggers to crews/you little f*cks/I got money stacks bigger than you/when I was sellin' weight/back in '88/you was a ballerina/I got the pictures, I seen ya") and Nas ("went from Nasty Nas to Esco's trash/had a spark when you started, but now you just garbage") on the classic dis track, "Takeover". There's plenty of radio-friendly tracks, but Hov really shines on the serious tracks such as the tale of jealousy "Heart Of The City", "Songcry", and the somber story of his life up to this point, "Blueprint". Don't sleep on one of Hip-Hop's most recent classics, cop this ASAP. 1

this cd is by far Jay-Z's best...coming less then a year after his last cd, which was also very tight, i wasn't sure how this was going to be. I bought it the day it came out and paid more then I would have wanted to, but I haven't regretted it, totally worth it, for any fans of Jay-Z, rap fans, or just those that are looking to expand their musical horizons, this cd is needed...As he himself says "if I ain't better then BIG, I'm the closest one..." He is right, since the loss of Notorious and Pac, Jay-Z has stepped up and offered a consistent and solid beacon in the rap world. If I had to pick a track, I gotta say the Takeover is hot, but you gotta check out this whole album!