Jay-Z - Blueprint 3

With Jay-Z’s temporary retirement now a distant memory, his eleventh studio album marks a return to the Blueprint series last seen in 2002. Hotly anticipated since first murmurings were uttered in the build up to last year’s Glastonbury, Blueprint 3 has all the well deserved, brash confidence of arguably the most important man in the urban music business today.

A statement of intent is the guitar influenced, drum heavy attack on the current landscape of popular music, D.O.A (Death Of The Auto-Tune) The song will certainly get heads nodding and minds thinking, especially given the irony of his allegiance to one of the pioneers of the modern incarnation of the auto-tune.

I am of course referring to part-time producer, part-time rapper, full-time award show speech interrupter, Kanye West, who features on current single, Run This Town, with stable mate, Rihanna. Jay boldly proclaims “You can call me Caesar” and with virtually anything the three superstars touch turning to gold, or should I say platinum, the track highlights the dominance of Jay-Z’s former Def Jam label and its affiliates.

Features are ever present with somewhat underwhelming guest appearances from, Young Jeezy, Swizz Beats, Drake, Kid Cudi and Alicia Keys who eases her way through the chorus of Empire State of Mind. (Dead Presidents anyone?) Uplifting and generally inspirational, the song speaks of the American Dream localised to the streets of the Big Apple. “Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do, now you’re in New York.”

Throughout the album Jay-Z alludes to how far he has come since the days before Reasonable doubt,

“Set sail, I used to duck shots but now I eat quail, I'll probably never see jail.”

While in sign of how far hip-hop has come in the ringtone era, he and Swizz Beats have an attempt at the southern swagger perfected by the likes of Dem Franchise Boys with lacklustre results on perhaps the albums weakest track, On To The Next One.

Having been in the game for some 20 years, Jay has to be commended for keeping such high standards in his lyrical delivery, flow and execution. No one has been as consistent in their wit, leading listeners in and out of breaks, before serving that killer punch line with such smooth assurance.

This is best exhibited on stand out track, Thank You, where Jay thanks his contemporaries for clearing the path for him to be where he is today.

“I was gonna kill a couple rappers but they did it to themselves, I was gonna do it with the flow but they did it with their sales, I was gonna 9/11 them but the didn’t need the help and they did a good job, them boys is talented as hell.”

So Ambitious is a F*** You to those who doubted a young Sean Carter when he decided to become a rapper and Young Forever further asks the question of: just who is Mr Hudson anyway and why does everyone from Kanye to Jay-Z want him on their track?

In the end, Blueprint 3 is a contradiction, Jay speaks as if he is doing something different and unique while shockingly embracing the Auto-tune on A Star is Born and employing the same weak rappers he castigates throughout. In the end, without being a poor album in modern day standards, Jay-Z comes across as a little hypocritical and just as much of a slave to the ringtone, auto-tune generation as the rest.

He came, he saw, he conquered and now he’s back just to rub it in.