![]() His writing turned more autobiographical than it had been since Reasonable Doubt (and saw him burrow even deeper into his psyche than he had on his debut). The dense, warm, soul-sampling beats provided by Kanye West, Just Blaze, and Bink stole most of the headlines, but he was also rapping differently – with fewer syllables, sometimes slower, often hitting words more deliberately. With one album, Jay went from being one of the best living rappers to Best Rapper Alive vaulting into the company of immortals seemed like the next logical step.Īnd yet this was not simply a question of framing: The Blueprint marked an important stylistic shift for Jay. It recontextualized Jay’s career to that point, bookending a series of wildly popular records with two that argued for him as a serious, sober-minded album artist to the fans and critics who value such things. ![]() 1 album, and was hailed almost immediately as a masterpiece. ![]() The Blueprint, released on 9/11, was his fourth consecutive No. When Jay emerged from his brief retirement at the end of 2006 – just weeks before he dropped Kingdom Come – he delivered an extraordinary freestyle on Funkmaster Flex’s show: “‘ Hov got flow, though he’s no Big and Pac / but he’s close’ / How I’m supposed to win? / They got me fighting ghosts.” But back in 2002, when recording for Blueprint 2 had begun in earnest, Jay was at a commercial and critical high-water mark. Guru had argued that Jay needed a double LP to stand alongside the genre’s late giants, 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G. “Fucking Guru and Hip Hop, ha.” It wasn’t out of the blue: the year before, Young Guru, Jay’s longtime engineer and confidant, had given an interview where he admitted pushing Jay to make BP 2 a double album. 11 slot, above only Kingdom Come, his widely-maligned 2006 comeback effort. On his 44th birthday, the Brooklyn-bred legend sat down and ranked the 12 solo albums he had released at that point. The competitivespark that made him one of hip-hop's greatest talents shows in those moments,but it isn't enough to bring The Blueprint 2 to a roaring blaze.To understand The Blueprint 2: The Gift & the Curse, one should first know that JAY-Z isn’t particularly proud of it. Jay is certainly the objectof much envy these days, so it's understandable that, on this album, hereturns again and again to defending himself and needling his rivals. "I Did It My Way," which riffs on the classictune, is so fatuous it defies any excuse-making. "Guns &Roses," his collaboration with Lenny Kravitz (yes, you read that right),is audacious and awkward. He may be dating BeyoncéKnowles, but redoing Tupac's "Me and My Girlfriend" as "∐3Bonnie & Clyde" is unimaginative and unnecessary. On the songswith guest artists"Poppin' Tags" with Big Boi, Killer Mikeand Twista "Some How Some Way" with Beanie Sigel and Scarfacehe'sjust part of the tapestry Just like The Blueprint, The Blueprint 2 sounds good, but Jay's barely there. Of late, though, he's been subbingin top-dollar production for high-brow rhymes. No, the singlemost embarrassing development of hip-hop since the turn of the millennium isthe decline of Jay-Z from the game's most cunning linguist to a man sosatisfied with his position that he's content to rest on his laurels andchurn out minimally invasive verses.Ĭertainly Jay-Z at his worst is still an improvement upon most of the hip-hopcurrently clotting the radio, but once was a time where a new Jay-Z album meanta new standard for others to follow. The greatest shame in hip-hop today is not its avoidance of political and socialissues, not its preoccupation with materialism and attitude and not its relianceupon a limited set of producers to create a signature sound.
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