Blueprint, his “serious” soul-beat album and Blueprint 2, a big, sprawling double-album that’s critic-proof really, because of course it’ll be a mess–it’s a double album! Black Album, was a retirement victory lap and then, Kingdom Come his regal return. American Gangster, some street shit when the regal stuff didn’t work out so well, vaguely connected to a movie of the same name because once you’ve rapped about how you’re beyond street rap, you can’t rap about hustling straight and get away with it…unless it’s couched in some concept.
And now there’s Blueprint 3, set to “drop” on September 11th, leaked yesterday and seemingly, about Jay’s undeniable victories of the past (a tradition, in his head at least, established by this Blueprint trilogy) and his continued relevance–buttressed by hip, young guests like Kid Cudi and Drake. Like previous not-really-concept, concept albums from the dude, Blueprint 3 seems intent on telling listeners what it’s doing instead of simply doing.
BP3 certainly gives off the feeling of a “final” album from Jay Z: Looking backward and forward, trying to recreate long-gone zeitgeist and capture the now just as well. The problem is every song/minor statement that builds to a album/big statement is mind-bogglingly out of place. Can you kick off your “I’m comfortable in my own skin” album with “What We Talkin’ About”–a song that devotes much of its time to ex friends and business partners? Can you end your album about how you’re a wizened, forever relevant dude with a song that declares you’re “forever young” so much it implies the opposite?
Like every Jay Z album–save for Reasonable Doubt and Black Album which surprise, surprise, hang-on and actually sell their concepts–Blueprint 3 is something of a mess, but there’s quite a few things here and there that would go a long way to making Jay’s latest more listenable and less damned embarrassing. Here’s what Jay can do to save BP3 and it isn’t too late–he’s got a week. Pardon the hubris here, but I really think it’s a pretty dope album with this tracklist.
2. “Already Home” (featuring Kid Cudi)
3. “Empire State of Mind” (featuring Alicia Keys)
4. “D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune)”
5. “Run This Town” (featuring Kanye West & Rihanna)
6. “On to the Next One” (featuring Swizz Beatz)
7. “Off That” (featuring Drake)
8. “Reminder”
9. “Hate” (featuring Kanye West)
10. “Venus Vs. Mars”
11. “Young Forever” (featuring Mr. Hudson)
12. “Real as it Gets” (featuring Young Jeezy)
13. “So Ambitious” (featuring Pharrell)
14. “What We Talkin’ About” (featuring Luke Steele of Empire of the Sun)
15. “A Star Is Born” (featuring J. Cole)
Tracks 1-6: These first six tracks are a look into the past, though tempered by 2009. Continuing the sonic tradition of the other Blueprint albums, if not in sound (corporate-sheen soul-beats) than in energy–they sound relatively conventional, slightly more sophisticated, and maintain a level of fun and enthusiasm. Jay’s rap-rapping on these tracks and though there are some clunkers, he’s on a respectable enough level of cruise-control.
1. “Thank You”
Not only does this sound like a first track, but it wisely introduces the tensions that stretch and confuse BP3. Namely, a mix of humble reverence to this rap game that’s made him a big, fucking superstar and persistent desire to still remind everybody about how important he is. This has worked better in the past, especially on Black Album where he was still king of the world and on the tail-end of pretty much defining the first half of the decade’s rap sound but I think he touches some of the five-years ago swagger–before we all called it swagger–on this track.
As I said before, the album simply cannot begin with “What We Talkin’ About”. The song sounds like a killer intro but Jay’s decision to address essentially irrelevant critics/foes–that’s to say, by 2009, anyone who cares about Jaz-O or Dame or the Roc isn’t a Jay Z fan anymore–on the very first track just kinda ruins the whole album. That said, the song needs to be there because it’s proof Jay’s still street–if only in the sense that he still isn’t mature enough to not shut up about dudes talking shit on him. I’ve moved it towards the end of the album.
“What We Talkin’ About” is also false-advertising in the sense that you think the album’s gonna be Jay’s synthy, party-time, old man version of hipster rap but then there’s plenty of basically normal, Jay Z songs (like the first six tracks on my version), so it’s extra weird to kick the album off like that. I put it as a kind of final movie montage track, second to last on the album.
2. “Already Home” (featuring Kid Cudi)
3. “Empire State of Mind” (featuring Alicia Keys)
This is a quick intro, song-suite within a larger suite about Jay in relation to his hometown and critics: “Thank You”, “Already Home”, and “Empire State of Mind”. Placed later, a song like “Empire State of Mind” becomes tedious, especially right after another female-sung hook (“Run This Town”)– but not bogged-down in clueless sequencing, it’s fairly affecting and a culmination of the cynicism and joy that opens the album.
4. “D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune)”
5. “Run This Town” (featuring Kanye West & Rihanna)
6. “On to the Next One” (featuring Swizz Beatz)
This begins the next suite within a suite, here one where Jay Z talks some fairly awesome shit and brings in some sort of weirdo, presumably more No I.D than Kanye squawks and scronks type production. “Jockin’ Jay Z” can probably go in here too, maybe after “Run This Town”. We’re moving into the next bunch of tracks which to me are more the vaguely “new” or an attempt at a new sound going on in BP3.
Tracks 7-12: So yeah, these next bunch of tracks are what I think most assumed, based on the guest list and some of the pre-release talk, BP3 would sound like: Lots of synths, a safer version of Hell Hath No Fury, Jeezy’s three albums (a better trilogy than Blueprint by the way, or even Kanye’s Graduation, loaded with a slightly up-to-date guest list. Thing is, these songs work pretty damned well one after another, a kind of evil, wandering mix of tough-guy, synth rap.
7. “Off That” (featuring Drake)
Jay and Drake begin this song by saying “Welcome to the future” and so, it makes sense to begin this part of the album with “Off That”. Besides the improved listenability of my re-sequencing, it adds in these little details–like Drake in effect, announcing the shift in sensibility–that suggest the album wasn’t just grafted together but there’s some genuine narrative and emotional arc to the fucking thing besides Jay, over and over being like “I’m still really important”.
8. “Reminder”
9. “Hate” (featuring Kanye West)
10. “Venus Vs. Mars”
11. “Young Forever” (featuring Mr. Hudson)
12. “Real as it Gets” (featuring Young Jeezy)
The sonic arc here is towards things increasingly light and airy-sounding–like a dance mix that gets less aggressive as the night goes on. We’re kinda in like 1999 Jay Z land here and that’s a good thing. It also compartmentalizes the production to some extent, with the non-Kanye and No I.D beats sorta lumped together. A track like “Young Forever” is a real head-scratcher but it shares some open-space with “Real As It Gets” and both sound maudlin but victorious–an alright description of BP3 as a whole.
Tracks 13-15: One of the ideas is that these “suites” I’ve developed overlap a bit, like the “future synth” part is hinted at with “On to the Next One” and established on “Off That” and here, these final three tracks, particularly melodic funhouse mirror Vegas-sounding songs all heavy on legacy-talk, first rumbles in with “Real As It Gets”.
13. “So Ambitious” (featuring Pharrell)
14. “What We Talkin’ About” (featuring Luke Steele of Empire of the Sun)
Yeah, this songs works, like he’s finally mastered some sound he’s got in his head that failed miserably in the form of “Beach Chair”, and waited until the end–but not the very end–to address hopeless clowns like Jaz-O and Dame Dash. All the stuff about how carrying a strap and worrying one’s moms becomes damned affecting and sincere advice here because it has the album’s experiences behind it now–it’s not just Jay grabbing at anything to dominate the street dudes he long-ago ditched.
Coming after “So Ambitious” which once again highlights Jay’s self-mythologized entry into this rap shit and before “A Star is Born”, the track that recounts rap mythology as a whole and wrestles with the pool of new talent that simply by existing, moves Jay to the side, lightens the obnoxious aspects of the song and sorta justifies his confused contempt.
15. “A Star Is Born” (featuring J. Cole)
There’s something deeply cynical about this song, Jay casually recounting rap history almost as if he’s all above it and implicitly making the point that he’s still around (and a star) and they…aren’t. At the same time though, he’s just as implicitly saying, this stuff’s moving on. It touches on the tensions of the entire album, has enough joy and melancholy in there, and just has the feeling of a wrap-up, like a “shit sorta evens out” Wes Anderson type conclusion and not the denial of everything that is the real album-ender, “Forever Young”.
And then, handing the track over to a relevative newcomer, J. Cole is a quiet sign of confidence, the kind of do, not show, thing Jay Z once mastered. Remember how “Encore” came on toward the beginning of Black Album and you were like, “Why the fuck isn’t this the final track of his (then at least) final album?”. Well, same thing with this.
further reading/viewing:
-”Late Registration Redux” by ME
-”Trimming the Fat: Ruff Draft & Detroit Deli by ME
-Fade to Black (2004) directed by Pat Paulson & Michael John Warren
-Eureka (1983) directed by Nicolas Roeg
Are You A Serious Comic Book Reader?
It’s already been half a year since Usher unleashed his hit song Lil Freak, and I still like it. The sample is wonderful with his passionate vocals and the horns mix well with Nicki Minaj’s fierce rapping style. Even though this single didn’t chart as high as Usher’s pop song, OMG, Lil Freak is the better song, maybe the best on the album.
Nicki Minaj
27 Nov 10 at 9:04 pm
I Will have to visit again when my course load lets up – nevertheless I am taking your Feed so i can go through your web blog offline. Thanks.
like us on facebook
11 Jun 12 at 7:43 pm