BP3

Let's be honest, hip hop would look entirely different today if not for the greatest rapper alive, Jay-Z. Looking to build on his 10 #1 albums, Jay is set to release the highly anticipated The Blueprint 3 next week. Reviewing a Jay-Z album is one of the most difficult tasks for a hip hop head because he is the greatest, so even a mediocre album is better than the best that most others could record. BP3 is not his best, but it's certainly above average for the God MC. (As per the usual with hip hop blog entries, this is a long one.)

Let me briefly run down Jay's discography. He released Reasonable Doubt in 1996--a supurb lyrical collection and his first album after ditching the drug trade on the streets of Brooklyn. He followed in successive years with In My Lifetime, Volume 1, Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life, and Vol. 3: Life and Times of S. Carter. Each featured a phenomenal track here and there, but none were as wholly remarkable as his first. Jay dropped The Dynasty: Roc La Familia in the fall of 2000 as a way to put on his team of Memphis Bleek, Beanie Sigel, Chris and Neef, and Freeway. Again--a banger here and there, but some don't even consider this a Jay-Z album because he rarely spit more than one verse on any song. The Blueprint, released on September 11, 2001, fit its title perfectly since it can be considered a blueprint of a classic album. This was and is his best recording to date. The Blueprint 2: The Gift and The Curse, a double album, followed and featured too many garbage tracks--this easily should have been a single disc. Jay released his "final" album before "retiring," The Black Album, to critical acclaim. After a brief "retirement," he returned in 2006 with Kingdom Come (decent) and an album in 2007 inspired by the movie of the same name, American Gangster (phenomenal). If you're counting at home, that's 10 albums in a span of 12 years.

When you've recorded as many albums as Jay, it's hard to believe that he'd have anything left to say. He doesn't flood the airwaves with mixtapes, though, a la Lil Wayne, so the fans thirst for every album release date. Jay's claims to fame as a rapper are that he relentlessly reinvents himself, he name-drops labels like whoa, and that his flow is not the same on any two tracks. When everyone else goes left, he's already finished going right and he's looking to change directions again. He's consistently inconsistent in that regard, and he continues the trend on BP3.

Let me get a couple tracks out of the way so I don't have to deal with them anymore. I could live without "Real As It Gets," featuring Young Jeezy, and "A Star Is Born," featuring J-Cole. In my best Randy Jackson, both are really just "ok for me, dawg" ..."for me, for you." Jeezy, as he tends to do sometimes, doesn't say a damn thing on the track, and Hov doesn't do much to pick him up. The latter features an unlistenable hook, an okay beat, and a forgettable feature from newcomer J-Cole. I understand Jay's purpose behind this track--propping all the young'ns who have made it, and he's trying to give another one a chance. I even liked his shout out to Eminem and subliminal admission that Em outdid him on "Renegade" in 2001. We could all likely go without these two tracks, though.

The biggest disappointment of the entire album is "Young Forever," a track that is rumored to be producer Kanye West's favorite. Heralded as the next "Flashing Lights," the track is more high school gymnasium than SOB's. Because of the sample, I can't shake the Napoleon Dynamite visuals as Mr. Hudson sings the hook. I was expecting big things from this beat, but now I'm glad it's the final track on the album so I can turn it off without missing anything.

We can group "Thank You," "Empire State of Mind," and "So Ambitious" together as songs with above average beats and hooks, but again Jay doesn't say much out of the ordinary. His wordplay is unrivaled ("You can't base what I'm gonna be on what everybody isn't"), but the message is familiar--I have more money than you, I made it out of Brooklyn, etc. I must mention, too, that Alicia Keys and Pharrell supply outstanding hooks to "Empire" and "Ambitious," respectively. Similarly, "Run This Town" is a great radio track that doesn't contribute much lyrically. The beat is HARD, Rihanna kills the hook, and the song features Jay-Z and Kanye. What else could a radio single need? They don't even have to say anything and it's a hit. I only wish Jay's lyrics were as on point as his flow in this song.

"What We Talkin' About" is a good intro track where Jay sets the tone by demanding no more talking about Dame Dash, Jaz-O, and Jimmy Iovine--in other words, I am too big to even think about prior petty Squabbles. He also shuns the Santa Claus role, fed up of newcomers asking him to give them whatever they want. "Venus and Mars" is an interesting track, and I think the jury is still out on this one. The beat is remiscient of 2003's "Justify My Thug," but this is the first Jay-Z track I can remember of its kind. He raps in a clever way about a girl so different than he ("I'm a Mac, she's a PC so she lives in my lap"), yet similar enough that they ride together like Bonnie and Clyde. He finds out she's not who she claims to be, as she goes off the deep end before leaving him. It's not your fun relationship-song from Jay like Bonnie & Clyde '03, and not your nostalgic one like "Song Cry," but somewhere in between. The only word I can think of is "interesting."

Of the six remaining tracks, five can compete with some of Jay's best songs to date (the one of the six, "Off That," is practically the same message as "On To The Next One," but not as good of a beat or hook). "D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)" is a track that Jay had to make--it suits him perfectly. The rap game is too bogged down by the autotuner; emcees are "T-Pain'in too much." In a perfectly suited line, he states that even though the country is in a recession, "the music you make gon' make it the Great Depression!" Jay even takes a shot at buddy Kanye by calling out rappers whose "pants are too tight," "colors too bright," and "voice[s] too light." The other song on the album that embodies everything Jay is about is the Swizz Beats-produced "On To The Next One." He effs the throwback jersey, effs the autotune, effs Cristal in favor of Ace of Spades, and says we should all be "afraid of what [he's gonna] do next." As a trendsetter, this song represents Jay to a tee. "D.O.A." and "Next One" are the two best beats on the album as well, cementing their status as the album's premiere tracks. Jay's flow on "Hate" is just bananas as he flashes back to his mid-90's fast flow. My only complaint is that the song is too short. Timbaland supplies a fiery beat for "Reminder," the real "big-boy" track on the album. It's a hard beat with a hard message to the haters--"what have you done to have an opinion of what I'm doing?" He reminds us that record sales don't lie and that he "writes 16's in between running 16 businesses, all the while showing these young punks what the business is." "Already Home" is the last track to mention and another blow to his haters. To the haters who say he looks like a camel, he responds that he's "mastered the draught." To his former Def Jam artists who say he was in their way, Jay asks how can he be in the way if he's in a different league? "HOV, I got my own lane already!" It's also worth mentioning that Kid Cudi is magnificient on this hook.

So there you have it--The Blueprint 3 in it's entirity. It's probably too soon to rank it among Jay's other 10 albums, but on a whim I'd put it behind The Blueprint, Reasonable Doubt, American Gangster, and maybe The Black Album. Jay-Z continues to be the premiere recording artist in rap, unmatched by anyone in the industry. This album will surely be his eleventh #1, and deservedly so.

IT'S YA BOY!