THE "BLUEPRINT 3": iN reTRosPEcT

#rublogs Jay-Z's "Blueprint 3". Da verdict is out from the ICE perpective. Peep dis: http://tinyurl.com/ycdyh2z

Before Sugar-Honey, Tea and I bombard you with our honest opinions, we believe that in the interests of objective and fair journalism we must at least represent Jigga fairly.

Track List:

1. What We Talkin' About
2. Thank You
3. D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)
4. Run This Town
5. Empire State of Mind
6. Real As It Gets
7. On To The Next One
8. Off That
9. A Star Is Born
10. Venus VS. Mars
11. Already Home
12. Hate
13. Reminder
14. Young Forever

So here are some stats from billboard.com (http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100#/search/blueprint):

• Jay-Z has recorded a total of 16 albums


• Many of them have reached the number 1 spot on the charts and stayed there for some time


• Currently, "The Blueprint 3" is chillin' comfortably at no. 2 on the Billboard 200, no. 1 on the Rap Albums chart and no. 13 on the European chart.


• The album has been on the charts for a total of 3 weeks.

Now... As a person, you should know that when a thing is good or bad, you're probably not the only one who can see that. So... Being the Ice-man, you not what opinion I'm going to have. All day, every day. But before I delve into the gunk that is "The Blueprint 3", some valued opinions from a few like-minded individuals:

From Culturebully (http://www.culturebully.com/jay-z-the-blueprint-3-review):

"So what does 'innovation' look like to one of the greatest emcees of all time? Pretty much the same ol' sh*t, except with more synthesizers..."

"In hip-hop, 'that next level shit' is almost always based around how the music sounds... Very rarely do artists try to be innovative by saying something new..."

From Prefixmag (http://www.prefixmag.com/reviews/jay-z/the-blueprint-3/21904/):

"He's like a classic rock group (like, say, U2)... we expect him to keep delivering same-old, same-old new music.."

And finally, from rap.about.com (http://rap.about.com/od/reviews/fr/JayZBlueprint3Review.htm):

"[Timbaland] the man who once provided the ultimate backdrop for Jay's futuristic flow sounds stuck in an early millenium time warp..."

(RoLLInG mY eYES)

Here we go folks:

So, my initial listen of the album went sportingly. I listened. I held my tongue. I was as good as good can be. But something became all too obvious: THIS ALBUM LACKS COHESION!

Sure Jigga's beats are sick. Sure he has the right to call himself one of the best rappers of all time. I hand him all these freebies. (cHeEkY grIN) But to have an album whose tracks are not at all related to each other is not what I'd consider worthy of the self-proclaimed 'best rapper alive'. (HAHA - NOTE THE QUALIFIER 'ALIVE'). From songs about New York, to a song about reminding people that he's still got his street edge - IT ALL DOESN'T ADD UP. Jigga goes from electro, to hardcore, to pseudo-soul, back to electro. This in itself is not bad - it worked well for Lupe Fiasco's "The Cool". But even that had a central theme/focal point of reference. Jigga's attempt is just all over the show.

Other than that, I can't hate on the old man much. Joe Camel - as he's called by most hip-hop headz because he can go on and on and on - has made a fair attempt at reinforcing his (somewhat imaginary) position as King of hip-hop. This SHOULD BE HIS LAST ALBUM. Any more after this will just be a waste of time and money. And I doubt that as an audience we're stupid enough to keep buying the same ol' gimmicks.