The Original "Blueprint": The New Millennium's First Hip-Hop Classic
Written: Sep 25 '09
Product Rating:
Pros: The most focused work of Jay-Z's career. Warm, soulful and on-point lyrically.
Cons: "Jigga That N*gga" sounds like it was included on this album by accident.
The Bottom Line: Not many artists (much less rappers) make the best album of their career six albums in, but Jay-Z successfully blended soulfulness, cockiness and introspection on his landmark first "Blueprint" album.
speeddemon531's Full Review: The Blueprint [PA] by Jay-Z
When all is said and done, "The Blueprint" will be seen as the album that cemented Jay-Z's legend in hip-hop. While Jigga had certainly been successful prior to this album's 2001 release, that commercial success seemed to have come at the expense of...something. In the years between his debut, 1996's "Reasonable Doubt" and this album's 2001 release, Jay'd scored the biggest hits of his career (including the 5X Platinum, Grammy-winning "Hard Knock Life" album). However, with a decade's hindsight, those albums don't hold up very well (truth be told, I can't remember the last time I listened to any of them). While the first "Blueprint" may not bump quite as hard as it did eight years ago, it's still a very engaging listen-one of the few 21st century hip-hop records that can be listened to from beginning to end without necessitating a reach for the "skip" button.
Two things separate "The Blueprint" from most of the rest of Jay's catalog. First off-the production. Mainly helmed by Roc-a-Fella in-house producers Just Blaze and Kanye West (the first major production jobs for both), the album has a continuity of sound that's absent from most of not only Jay's albums, but most hip-hop albums in general. "The Blueprint" sounds like a complete, cohesive work rather than a collection of singles. There's a soulful warmth to this record, a sound that spawned a million imitators in the next couple of years as rap producers everywhere raided their parents' record collections and sped dusty old records up. However, try as they might, none of the followers could hope to capture the vibe that the best songs on "The Blueprint" had.
Which brings me to my second point-Jay's rhyming on this album is the most focused of his career. I've always been of the mind that Jay is quite the talented emcee (although maybe not quite as talented as he thinks he is), but many of his rhymes sound tossed off and a little lazy. Not so on "The Blueprint". For the most part, Jay is laser-sharp lyrically. While there had always been moments of introspection in his music, he'd never sounded as mature, as human, as he did on this album. From the melancholy "Song Cry" (on which Jay expresses regret over mistreating a former partner, a very un-hip-hop sentiment) to the church organ-spiked "Blueprint (Momma Loves Me)" (a sepia-toned verbal family album of sorts), you get the feeling that there's an actual expression of feelings here, a meaning behind the songs beyond the prototypical bragging about girls, cars and bling.
Not to say that "The Blueprint" is all sweet (or bittersweet) memories. Jay brings his war armor on several tracks. "U Don't Know" is one of those head-bangin', grab-your-nuts tracks that screams Brooklyn. While it's fine on it's own, Jay would successfully remix it with underground rap legends M.O.P. (making it even MORE Brooklyn) and put it on his next album, "Blueprint 2".
Then there's "Takeover". Everyone remembers it now as the first official shot fired in the now-infamous Jay-Z/Nas beef. Aside from the muddy, swampy beat (do folks even remember that Kanye produced this?), the track is notable for the icy precision with which Jay takes apart both Nas and Mobb Deep's Prodigy (a verse that effectively ended Mobb Deep's career). Despite the mean-spiritedness of it all, "Takeover" is still one of hip-hop's all time best diss records. And you can shoot me for saying this, but I still think Jay came out as the victor in this battle (I'm well aware that my viewpoint is in the minority-as Jay himself has conceded the battle to Nas in the past).
The rest of the album may not hit those highs, but is solid nonetheless. There's the clever "Girls, Girls, Girls", a song you can almost picture Jay delivering with a smirk on his face, and the hit single "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)", one of the more poppy tunes on the album with its' prominent Jackson 5 "I Want You Back" sample. Then there's "Hola Hovito", which gets its' bounce from a head-bopping Timbaland beat and Jay's charming off-key singing in the chorus, as well as the Eminem duet "Renegade". Produced by Slim Shady in what has now become his familiar dark, semi-gothic production style, this track lifts a giant middle finger to hypocrites who are critical of hip-hop music. While Jay's verses are solid, Eminem's verse is one of the best he's ever laid on wax. Even though I still think Em has squandered much of his talent on gimmicky raps, he always seems to rise to the occasion when paired with emcees who rival him either from a skill set standpoint or a commercial standpoint-witness his scenery-chewing on the recent hit "Forever", with Drake, Lil Wayne and Kanye West.
The album's only misstep comes with the lame "Jigga That N*gga". Not only is the production by the Puffy-esque Trackmasters a few steps below the rest of the album, by this point we'd gotten tired of Jay reminding us that "Jigga" and "n*gga" rhyme.
Prior to "The Blueprint", I liked Jay-Z enough, but wasn't crazy about him. However, this album officially put me on Team Jigga. For the first time since his debut, he seemed like more of a "musician" and less of a "rapper". Everything about this album is a win-the production is solid, Jay's flow is amazing, and this was one of the rare instances (up until that point) where his lyricism stood toe-to-toe with that exalted flow. With this first decade of the new millennium drawing to a close, "The Blueprint" stands with Kanye West's first two albums, Nas's "Hip-Hop is Dead" and The Roots' "Phrenology" as the best hip-hop albums of the past ten years. If you're being held at gunpoint and forced to buy one and only one Jay-Z album, "The Blueprint" (with "Reasonable Doubt" maybe a shade behind) is absolutely the one you should pick up.
"The Blueprint" by Jay-Z Released 2001 on Roc-a-Fella/Def Jam Records Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars
Track Listing: The Ruler's Back/Takeover/Izzo (H.O.V.A.)/Girls Girls Girls/Jigga That N*gga/Hola Hovita/Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)/Never Change/Song Cry/All I Need/Renegade/Blueprint (Momma Loves Me) + bonus tracks
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
![The Blueprint [PA] by Jay-Z](http://di2.shopping.com/images1/pi/49/67/e4/2002207051-177x150-0-0.jpg)
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.