Customer Reviews

The Blueprint 3 (Amended)

5 star:		(111)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(33)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

No one can stress enough the fact that Jay-Z is no longer the same man who hit the streets with Reasonable Doubt. If you are looking for that from Jay then you need to ask yourself two questions. 1. Why would you think he hasn't grown up? 2. Why haven't you?

Back in 1995 he was creating his music from his perspective in Marcy Projects, from the perspective of a hustler and man of the streets. He has since had 10 #1 albums and has become CEO of Def Jam, co-owner of the Nets, co-owner of the 40/40 club franchise, and husband to Beyonce Knowles. The man is a media mogul and multi-millionaire. He has friends like Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin. He has aged fourteen years. He has appeared on various Forbes lists. There is no way he can have the same perspective or outlook on life as he did in 1995 and his music reflects that.

If you can appreciate mature hip-hop with quality beats, a sophisticated sound, and inventive lyrics, then you need this album in your life. I sincerely appreciate this album because I love the depth and growth that this man is showing. At the end of the day he is the greatest rapper alive and nothing can take that away from him so it makes sense for him to be a trailblazer and take the game to greater heights. No one but him can do it and he does it well. I applaud him for that.

What Jay-Z is doing right now reminds me of Beyonce's I Am... album, which many people also criticized, and while I am no fan of B I had to admit that she showed tremendous growth and range with the ballad side of the release. Musicians have to take risks in order to advance the art which means so much to them. And, at the end of the day, they are people who have to grow up. Jay-Z is an adult. His rhymes are adult, his collaborations are adult, his beats are adult, his track selection is adult. And I love it.

I think this collection will open up Jay-Z to additional audiences. I've seen the other reviews here saying it's not really Hip Hop. Well, Hip Hop should be about progression of expression. Why should he continue to rap about the streets? There's more to life than running the streets, hustling in the streets, etc... His life has evolved and naturally his lyrics should reflect that. The true sell outs are 1) those making all this money for the record companies and still being involved in illicit activities 2)those making all this money and perpetuating a stereotype they do not even live (if they ever have). You can apply a "street" mentality no matter where your life takes you. If "street" equals keeping it real, hustling for a cause and keeping it harcore, then Jay-Z is all of that and more. His tastes have become more refined and discretionary. Last time I checked Street Life is not the American Dream.

To be fair I don't like this rating system. Its not fair to say that 3 stars for Jay-Z is the same as 3 stars for other crappy albums. At the same time this album is not a classic and my rating reflects that. The reason I am rating this album so low is because my expectation is so high. Hova was recently on Real Time with Bill Maher where he explained how his perspective has changed not only through his own monetary success but also due to his age. His music has become more adult over time. Evolving from his younger years posting up on a corner to creating his own businesses and clothing labels. This is exactly what he set out to do, unfortunately he has lost his hunger for the rap game.

The Blueprint was supposed to be just that, a blueprint to the rap game. If the rap world collapsed and someone came across this series they would have the ability to understand where the heart and soul of rap came from and why it existed to begin with. Unfortunately this album is not cohesive, delivers no clear message and appears to be a best of the B-SIDES album. Man does it hurt to say that! There are a few examples of his previous greatness such as Empire State of Mind and So Ambitious, but for the most part this is a solidly disappointing album. I'm sure people will say I'm hating on Hova. Not true, I just expect so much. He does integrate the current state of the world into his rhymes and production style as well, discussing the state of the war in the Middle East and current pop infatuation with Auto-Tune. Death of Auto-Tune was a song with so much promise; starting off by proclaiming himself "chairman of the board" unfortunately he fails to deliver.

Would I recommend this album? Absolutely. Jay-Z is one of the best who's ever been in the game. He has had an incredibly long career and I think his body of work should speak for itself. You cannot understand the hip-hop game without understanding Jay-Z. More than music he realized the limitations of simply rapping and spent his time focusing elsewhere crating businesses and a long sustainable legacy. Unfortunately his lack of focus on his music shows through with this effort.

First off, let me say that I am definitely a fan of Jigga. I loved Vol. 3, the first Blueprint, and the Black album. I even found tracks to like on BP2 and appreciated American Gangster quite a bit. Seeing him at House of Blues in Chicago performing classics as well as personal favorites like No Hook was awesome. Unfortunately, this album is.. just awful. I am extremely disappointed, and yet after at least 5 listens front to back and digging in to a few tracks I liked parts of... it doesn't change. The best strategy here is to take Jay-Z's own advice and 'buy my old albums.'

Here's the way I see it, after listening to hip-hop for about 15 years now. There are three main components to any track... beats, rhymes, and hooks. And that's the big issue here. Not a single track actually delivers high quality on all three fronts. A shocking number of tracks you will just instantly skip every time because some part of it you just can't stand to listen to. But I'll give some examples:

Death of Autotune - Some clever rhymes here, okay beat (the beat is great but the horns are terrible, reminiscent of the theme from Cheers), and absolutely awful Jay-Z "singing" on the hook. As much as I admire the purpose of this track because I hate Autotune... he's an example of someone who needs it *badly* when he tries to sing.

Hate - Um, I thought you just rapped about how we shouldn't use Autotune anymore. And then we get this track with an autotuned/pitch shifted repetitive use of the word 'Hater' throughout. Okay maybe Autotune wasn't actually used for this, but it certainly sounds like it. Having both Kanye's and Jay-Z's verses be extremely unimpressive (I've heard far better freestyles from both) doesn't help either.

Off That - Great beat, some quality lyrics from Jay. But the hook is horrible, and honestly if you are going to "feature" Drake on a track... can we have him rhyme at least one verse please? Featuring someone for a bad hook is just ridiculous. Are we still feeling bad about what happened on Renegade Jay?

Venus vs Mars - Great beat, clever rhymes. Awful, unimaginative hook. But yet, it's still one of the best tracks on this album. Seriously.

Young Forever - Great rhymes from Jay here. But to do it to the tune of an awful and well-known 80s track just kills it. I get it, he feels like he should be able to do these positive tracks. But it's not just a sample here, it's the entire horrible song with a little bit of drums added and Jay rapping over it without even synchronizing properly. To make it worse he tries to rap with a Jamaican accent for nearly an entire verse. Unlistenable, and in my eyes just embarrassing. It's so bad it makes me not want to listen to Jay-Z for a while, even his good material.

I could go on, but if you listen to it you can determine this for yourself. But as a last note, keep in mind that this thing is overflowing with features. There really is no substance here. Your best bet is to pretend this album never happened, and break out his old stuff.

Just like Hollywood, many record labels and artists will avoid new releases in the same week as a guaranteed top seller, but even The Beatles weren't enough to scare away Jay-Z. As the title suggests, The Blueprint 3 is the third offering of a series that began in 2001. This is not the first time Jay-Z has linked numerous albums into a series either. His second, third, and fourth albums released between 1997 and 1999 were also all considered volumes of one work.

The first part of The Blueprint series, released September 11, 2001 is easily one of Jay-Z's best works. He sounded confident and still at the top of his game after releasing huge hits like "Big Pimpin" at the very end of the 20th century. In The Blueprint 3 it is obvious that as a New Yorker, the release date of his first offering in the series still weighs on his mind. References to 9/11 add a new level to Jay-Z's Blueprint which originally spent more time setting himself apart from his competition in the rap community than it did in politics. Obama's rise to President is another topic that seems to have inspired Jay-Z's new approach to this album

Unlike the original Blueprint, part two involved a great deal of collaborations with other names in the genre and those collaborations continue into The Blueprint 3 with the likes of Alicia Keys and Kanye West to name a couple. Unlike part two, however, the collaborations in this album seem to be carefully executed with more attention paid to Jay-Z himself. The Blueprint 3 is not one of Jay-Z's best, but it does bridge the gap of differences between parts one and two while offering a taste of what is still to come from one of rap's most successful artists. Will his track "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)" ring true in the ears of other artists in the rap community? One can only hope.

Similar Artists: Nas, Mobb Deep

Track Suggestion: Empire State of Mind

To title this album Blueprint 3 sets the expectations high. Especially when coming off a "concept album" American Gangster with many hits making the stakes even higher. Now I am a Jay-Z Fanboy, so I was quite disappointed.

Run this town and DOA are decent tracks. 3 Other tracks stand out as good tracks with the rest so so.

Those other three tracks are "A Star is Born" which provides a brief history of Hip Hop 90's through current which will be a pleaser for Hip-Hop fans. Real as it Gets another good one, but felt Jeezy stole the show. And finally, Empire State with Alicia Keys.

Some OK tracks are Forever Young - which I swear probably was an auto-tune track at first or had Akon doing the hook, but then they changed since DOA - Rounding out the other OK tracks are Already Home and On to the Next One.

Seriously get this if you like Jay-Z but lower your expectations... Its unfortunate that this was Blueprint 3 because I feel the other 2 are far superior and even American Gangster is a better album.

Best way to sum this up - This is Volume 3 (The Life and Times of S. Carter) vs Vol 2 Hard Knock Life and In My Lifetime Vol. 1 - Meaning this is not as good as the previous 2 in terms of album trilogies

3.5/5 Stars

Step up your Game Jay!

I'll update this the more and more I listen to the album

First of all, I respect Jay Z, he's very talented and an amazing performer, but as far as this album goes (and a lot of his material) he is just saying that he's richer than you, got a better chick than you, that he is writing history for selling a lot, that he's "elite" and that he's so grow-up. If you're so grow up, why repeat that all the time? GROW-UP JAY. I mean, What's the point of saying that over and over again?? If Jay Z is so smart (and he is) why don't he say something that matters?? Wouldn't that be great?? I mean a lot of people got different goals in life, I am a piano player and I don't care if I will be rich or not, or will have a "beautiful bitxxh". I mean, yes it's easy for me, I just won't listen to the album ever again, but I think hip hop's legacy should be more than money, cash, hoes, status, etc. It's not that I can't enjoy some crazy extravangant shxt, maybe some crazy crime stories, it's just that, at this point in history, this is weak.

Jay Z do is writing history, with this album he has his 11th album in the nro 1 position, beating Elvis Presley, but when people in future listen to albums like these, labeled as "Albums from the greatest Hip Hop Artist Ever" they'll probably be so dissapointed, and will leave with a very awful taste of hip hop's nature. They'll be like "This stuff is interesting but is just disposable". It's a shame that this kinda albums will stay here for years, while some really great hip hop albums will be lost in oblivion.

Let's be clear, THESE LYRICS SAY NOTHING RELEVANT, at least not for a person who is struggling with real life. Maybe if you're a multimillonaire, 40 years old, you will feel related with this music, but to me that just ain't hip hop.

This multi-platinum albums will remain for most of our children and grandchildren as hip hop's legacy, and that's sad.

I completely agree with the reviewer that said there's "Nothing Relevant Here". After talking to my friend,that he thinks that this album is just like "Kingdom Come",that only the singles are the only good songs on here,I wouldn't even bother listening to it. I don't even think the radio songs are great at all. Just like someone said: all he raps about are money,cash,hoes,his status,etc.Things that a good majority of us can't relate to. A rich person can relate to this but not me. To all you jay fans out there,don't you get bored and sick and tired of listening to him brag of how much better he is than you? Going back to what PiggyAlice said; "These lyrics say nothing relevant, if your a person struggling with real life". This is not hip hop. It's sad that this album is getting such high reviews and sales. It really says that mainstream hip hop/rap is dying. This album is no classic. If your a fan of true hip hop and none of this pop rap music,then I suggest that you get Raekwon's new cd: "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...Pt 2",that's a classic.

He's at a point where he can produce anything and it'll sell.

Other than a handful of songs, a majority of these songs are not classic Jay-z-esk.

I'm not saying he sold out... Don't know if it is what it is... but, I was disappointed.

Relax people. I'm here to save you from your own overreactions. This is NOT the best Jay-Z album ever. Not even close. Maybe this is the best album that he can come up with at this point in his career. But "American Gangster" was genius, and that wasn't even that long ago.

But it's also not the worst Jay-Z album ever. (That distinction would go to "Kingdom Come") This belongs squarely in the middle of the Jay-Z discography. He tried some interesting, new things sonically. They don't always come off well, but he tried. Lyrically, he is brilliant. But at times his attempts to show you he can "switch up the trademark Jay-Z flow" don't come off well either. And some of the songs were downright hurt by artists he chose to collaborate with.

Other times there is a definite lack of cohesion to the album(the club banger, the radio singles, the ones for the ladies etc.)as if Jay is trying to please everyone, while repeatedly proclaiming that he's above you, and doesn't have anything to prove to you.

In fact, that may be the most damning thing about this album. On the majority of tracks, Jay reminds us again and again that he's a grown-up, that he's evolved, that this ain't Reasonable Doubt, that he hangs with Oprah and Obama. Great Jay, we get it. You have A LOT OF MONEY. And we don't. Way to talk down to your fans. Who did he make this album for? As a middle finger to his fans that were down from "Reasonable Doubt" and don't care for his new direction, or for fellow multi-millionaires?

If you are a Jay-Z fan, then

a)you probably already own the album.

b)nothing I say is going to stop you from buying it.

But you are a HIP-HOP fan, I can think of at least three other rap albums that are better than this one this year alone:

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II-Raekwon

Mos Def's new album

KRS and Buckshot's new joint