Only 45 hip-hop albums in history have been given a rating of “5 Mics” (or 5/5 stars) from The Source magazine (Golding, “…The Source’s Five Mics”). Of those 45, only 15 were given the coveted “5 Mics” rating from the first time they were reviewed; the rest were originally rated lower but changed upon further review (Golding). One such album was Jay-Z’s The Blueprint, released on September 11, 2001. To this date, it has sold close to 3 million copies (RIAA, “Gold and Platinum”), and is widely considered by music enthusiasts to be one of the greatest albums of the 21st century (Complex, “100 Greatest Albums of the 2000s”). The Blueprint stands out as Jay-Z’s greatest album, because Jay-Z asserted himself as the king of hip-hop through his lyrics, and introduced two of the best producers of our time, Kanye West and Just Blaze, who combined to create a beautiful, diverse fluidity of songs. By combining elements of mainstream music and street credibility, Jay-Z was able to put out an album that appeals to all fans of the hip-hop industry. His tracks switch seamlessly from the gangsta rap genre (such as “Takeover,” “Jigga That N*gga,” and “U Don’t Know”) to more upbeat hip-hop (like “Izzo [H.O.V.A.],” “Hola Hovito,” and “Heart of the City [Ain’t No Love]”), helping to maintain a healthy balance and an impressively well-rounded project.
The Blueprint was a pivotal album in the history of American music for many reasons. In the weeks leading up to the release of The Blueprint, a terrible accident shook the world of hip-hop, especially within Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella music circle. On August 25, 2001, the 22-year-old recording artist Aaliyah died in a plane crash in the Bahamas. Aaliyah had been the longtime girlfriend of Roc-A-Fella co-founder Damon Dash, and the two had discussed future plans to be married before the young R&B star had left for the Bahamas to shoot a music video (Charnas, p. 594-5). After Aaliyah’s death, “for five days, Damon Dash barely moved from his bed. And for five days, Jay-Z sat with him” (p. 594). Even with an album set to release in less than two weeks, Jay-Z stayed loyal to his old friend and partner in his- and the music world’s- time of grief. Eventually The Blueprint’s release date of September 11 rolled around, and coincided with one of the deadliest terrorist attacks on US soil in history. The entire nation was in shock. But Jay-Z’s album still sold well, possibly because his music was primarily targeted at youth and young adults. This population segment may not have been as directly affected by (or realized the impact of) the attacks like the older generations of Americans (Johnson, “Jay-Z’s Music on 9/11”). A record store employee named Daniel Givens, who was working in his Brooklyn shop on the morning of September 11, had this to say about the aftermath of the attacks in relation to Jay-Z’s album: “That ability to function, to keep going, is what no doubt kept the city and nation together during one of the darkest times in the nation’s history. Food had to be purchased. Things had to be done. Even something as seemingly inconsequential as hot music, had to be listened to” (Johnson). And Jay’s project was listened to, with over 420,000 sales in the first week, it quickly reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart (Martens, “Jay-Z’s…Chart Dominance”).
The immediate effect that The Blueprint had on critics and fans proved to be monumental. Many of the classic albums in hip-hop history developed their reputation over time, gaining popularity with age. The Blueprint, however, was an instant hit. The record sales speak for themselves. After selling 420,000 albums in the first week, The Blueprint went on to eventually be certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and is currently closing in on 3 million sales in total. Jason Birchmeier of AllMusic claimed that the songs on the album are “all stunning, to the point where the album seems flawless.” Christian Hoarde of Rolling Stone labeled it as “one of hip-hop’s true coherent masterpieces.” Another review, by Soren Baker of the Los Angeles Times, says that Jay-Z’s album is mostly impressive because of it’s “solo collection” quality, stating “Jay-Z’s protégés, as talented as they may be at times, are nowhere to be found, allowing the rapper enough room to flex his tremendous talent.” All of these reviews were written within weeks of the album’s release in 2001, proving the quick and direct influence The Blueprint had over the music industry.
While Jay-Z did only have one guest-featured verse on the album, The Blueprint was far from a one-man production. One of the people responsible for creating many of the album’s beats and eventually producing the songs made over them was Kanye West, a then-23-year-old aspiring artist from Chicago. West produced four of the thirteen songs on The Blueprint: “Takeover,” “Izzo (H.O.V.A.),” “Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love),” and “Never Change,” plus one of the two bonus tracks, “Girls, Girls, Girls (Part 2).” According to a reviewer at iStandardProducers.com, “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” was “the song that put Kanye on the map.” Using a familiar sample of “I Want You Back” by the Jackson 5, Kanye was able to create an incredible blend of pop and hip-hop; he made a track that could get tons of radio play [it reached #8 on the Hot Billboard 100 (Watson, “Jay-Z’s 20 Biggest Billboard Hits”)] and still garner the respect of hardcore hip-hop enthusiasts. After the success of The Blueprint, in part due to his own production skill, Kanye started to become a household name in the music industry. He released his classic debut album The College Dropout in 2004, and hasn’t looked back, becoming one of the most recognizable characters in the media for his creative genius, as well as his antics on and off the track. Had Jay-Z not given Kanye the opportunity to produce for him on The Blueprint, Kanye’s career may have taken a much different path, and the world of hip-hop would be in a much different place than it is today.
Kanye was able to create a theme for the entire album with his choice of samples on the tracks he was in charge of creating. For example, his sample of Bobby Blue Bland for “Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love)” and “Five to One” by The Doors for “Takeover” (Birchmeier, “The Blueprint”), create for the songs a soulful, yet gritty persona that fits Jay-Z’s delivery and style in a captivating way. Jay-Z chose Kanye for that role knowingly; in the outro to Kanye’s album, The College Dropout, Kanye speaks about his rise into the world of hip-hop and describes his first encounter with Jay-Z. Kanye explains “I got to meet Jay and he says, ‘You a real soulful dude’ (West, “Last Call”).” Jay-Z knew that Kanye could deliver some innovative beats for his album, especially after Kanye showed him what he had come up with. West describes it by saying “I played ‘Heart of the City’… I really wanted to give that beat to DMX. And I played another beat, and another beat. And I remember that Gucci bucket hat (that Jay was wearing), he took it and, like, put it over his face and made one of them faces like ‘OOOOOOOH!’ (West, “Last Call”).” Based on Kanye’s description of Jay-Z’s reaction to the beats, the Brooklyn MC knew before he even rapped over them that he had some classic material on his hands.
Another important producer involved with Jay-Z’s Blueprint project was Justin Smith, better known as Just Blaze. He produced three tracks off the album: “Girls, Girls, Girls,” “U Don’t Know,” and “Song Cry.” Like Kanye, Just Blaze was new in the industry at the time- just an aspiring producer trying to make a name for himself. Needless to say, he impressed Jay-Z with his work, and in Jay’s book Decoded, the rapper praises Just Blaze, saying, “He’s a remarkable producer, one of the best of his generation” (p. 22) and “his best tracks were stories in themselves” (22). The young producer sampled artists such as Tom Brock for “Girls, Girls, Girls,” Bobby Byrd for “U Don’t Know,” Bobby Glenn for “Song Cry, and Stanley Clarke for “Breathe Easy (Lyrical Exercise)” (Watson, “Jay-Z’s Biggest Billboard Hits”). Just Blaze was really able to demonstrate his musical versatility with these songs. Both “Song Cry” and “Girls, Girls, Girls” utilize melodious beats, and “U Don’t Know” and “Lyrical Exercise” are much harder, heavier sounding beats, but all four tracks somehow carry that same soulful vibe that Kanye implemented through his tracks. Since The Blueprint, Just Blaze has gone on to produce tracks for many different rap superstars (other than Jay-Z and Kanye) such as Eminem, Dr. Dre, Lupe Fiasco, T.I., and more. He was another artist whose career was further launched by the making and success of The Blueprint, a further testament to the album’s place among the most important projects of all-time.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, an abstract painter from NY who died from an overdose at the age of 27, has been a huge influence on Jay-Z throughout his career (Sneed, “…Referencing Basquiat”). A quote from one of Basqiuat’s paintings is “Most young kings get their heads cut off.” This line, apart from being a true statement about many monarchs of world history, means that once a person achieves a certain level of power, he will develop enemies, with a target on his back. Jay-Z asserts himself as the king character in this quote, and acknowledges his enemies multiple times throughout The Blueprint. One of the main themes of the front end of the album is Jay-Z’s beef with fellow New York rappers Nas and Prodigy from Mobb Deep, which he addresses directly in the album’s second track, “Takeover.” Jay-Z doesn’t hold back with his lyrics, going straight at Nas with lines like “Had a spark when you started but now you’re just garbage,” and “fell from ‘top 10’ to ‘not-mentioned-at-all.’” Jay cuts out the subtleties in this song, aggressively attacking his rivals and making his claim to be “King of New York” and/or hip-hop in general: “Y’all n*ggas gonna learn to respect the king/ Don’t be the next contestant on that Summer Jam screen.” When he performed this song live at Summer Jam that year, he showed a picture up on the big screen of Prodigy wearing ballet clothes as a child (Ahmed, “10 Things You Didn’t Know…”). The “Takeover” track sent a strong message that Jay-Z was taking his role as the leader or “ruler” of hip-hop seriously. The gritty nature of the beat, made by Kanye, came from his heavy sample of the song “Five to One” by The Doors. The effectiveness of “Takeover” stemmed from how Jay-Z delivered it. He was tenacious, but laid-back; he was gritty, but relaxed. He combined his malice with his natural aura of confidence behind the microphone. He wanted to convey that he could humiliate any rapper, seemingly without putting much effort into it. Naturally, the song attracted several responses from the criticized artists, with Nas’ “Ether” being the most notorious and noteworthy (Bever, “The Blueprint”).
One of the most lyrically impressive tracks on The Blueprint is also the only track that features a verse from another rapper. The 12th track, “Renegade,” was produced by-and features- Eminem, who had recently dropped his highly successful and highly controversial album The Marshall Mathers LP in May of 2000. Throughout “Renegade,” the two legendary MCs go back and forth with two verses each, and a hook after the 2nd and 4th verses. Jay-Z covers topics such as growing up in the ghetto without a father, selling drugs, and false accusations from critics, while Eminem raps about his controversial lyrics being censored by hypocritical parents, religion, and his portrayal as a media scapegoat (Decoded, p. 105). The two rappers’ ideas (and voices) come together on the hook, where they proclaim “Never been afraid to say/What’s on my mind at any given time of day/Cause I’m a renegade! /Never been afraid to talk/about anything, anything, anything, anything…” The widespread opinion of the hip-hop community is that Eminem outshined Jay-Z on this track (RapGenius, “…Who Killed Whom?”). During the notorious feud between Jay-Z and Nas, Nas called this song to light in his response to “Takeover:” a diss track aimed at Jay- Z called “Ether.” Within the song, Nas tells Jay-Z: “Eminem murdered you on your own sh*t.” And as far as lyrics and rhyme go, it’s hard to argue against that accusation. In his first verse on “Renegade,” Eminem begins with a couplet full of internal rhyme, and then proceeds to rhyme five syllables for 14 bars, with a continued abundance of internal rhyme. Here is a 4-bar sample of his poetic brilliance, with his rhyming emphases highlighted in bold: “Now who’s the king of these rude, ludicrous, lucrative lyrics? / Who could inherit the title, put the youth in hysterics? / Using his music to steer it, sharing his views and his merits / but there’s a huge interference: they’re saying you shouldn’t hear it! (Jay-Z, “Renegade”).” Jay-Z has plenty of great lines as well, such as “Motherf*ckers say that I’m foolish- I only talk about jewels/ Do you fools listen to music or do you just skim through it?” But while Jay-Z’s verses are both impressive, and arguably two of his better verses on the album, Eminem’s lyricism was more technical and complex. One argument made in Jay-Z’s favor is that Eminem’s lyrics don’t take on deeper meanings quite like Jay’s do (RapGenius, “…Who Killed Whom?”). While Eminem may possess the more audibly appealing verses, most of lines can be taken at face value, and have little depth. Jay-Z, on the other hand, with lines such as “Durag wrapping my waves up pockets full of hope,” creates a double meaning for the word “hope” (“…Who Killed Whom?”). Hope stands for drugs; on one hand, drugs bring hope to junkies by satisfying their cravings, and on the other hand, Jay-Z sells drugs in hopes of reaching financial stability.
I think this song solidified Eminem’s position with Jay-Z among rap’s elite; anyone who can hang with a tried-and-true legend like Jay on his own album deserves recognition. Because Eminem was the only guest feature on The Blueprint, perhaps Jay-Z realized Eminem’s talent, and respected him enough to allow him to showcase his skills, while simultaneously using a power move to subliminally hint that Eminem was the only current rapper worthy of featuring on his songs. This further emphasizes Jay-Z’s ascent to the king of hip-hop through The Blueprint. Plus, with Eminem under scrutiny in the public spotlight so much for his lyrics in The Marshall Mathers LP, he seemed like a perfect fit for the overall message of this track: The public may not approve of our behavior or lyrics, but we refuse to change our ways (Decoded, p. 105).
Jay-Z decided to wait until the end of the album, on one of the bonus tracks, to showcase some of his more impressive lyrical abilities. On “Breathe Easy (Lyrical Exercise)” Jay-Z utilizes metaphors and similes throughout the entire song, comparing his life on the streets to a physical workout (Decoded, p. 147). Some of his best lines comes at the beginning of his second verse: “Suckers/ Get your weight up/ Not your hate up/ Jigga man is diesel/ when I lift the eight up” (146). Jay-Z revisits his partiality for double (or triple) meanings here, and explains in his book that “an ‘eight’ is a .38, and quantities of drugs.” He goes on to describe an even deeper meaning of the line, saying “it reminds me of a photo of Shaq [nicknamed “Diesel”] lifting Kobe [who wears number 8] after the Lakers won their first championship in the Kobe/Shaq era” (147). So, in a matter of ten words, Jay-Z is able to allude to his drug-selling, gun-toting past and also compare his recent success with that of the early 2000s Los Angeles Lakers dynasty. Very few MCs in history could display that amount of depth in their lyrics. What’s even more remarkable is that Jay-Z begins the song with a spoken intro where he references the fact that he memorizes all of his verses without writing them down (144). There is a constant flow of metaphoric wordplay that prevails throughout the track. In the first verse, he compares his daily street routine back to a workout routine by saying: “I run the block (run)/ Pull up in a drop (pull up)/ Push up on my money (push up)/ I’m in great shape dunny” (144). By using more double meanings, Jay is able to cleverly convey his theme of “hustle” in the song, both the hustle needed to complete an exercise (and eventually become a champion) and his hustle to make a living in the streets (and eventually make a name for himself or “get to the top”). This verbal masterpiece was an effective way to bring about the conclusion of the album. Jay-Z had already shown that he could handle beef with “Takeover,” make an upbeat, poppy song that still had street credibility with “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”, pull at your emotions with “Song Cry,” and that he had plenty of style and swagger with “Jigga That N*gga.” With “Breathe Easy (Lyrical Exercise),” Jay-Z completed the balance and well-roundedness of the album by displaying his aptitude for pure lyricism and wordplay. The Blueprint has all the elements of a true classic hip-hop album.
Some rappers take months and years to come up with an album, a song, or even a concept. In 2001, The Blueprint was said to be “written in two days and recorded in a fortnight” (Beyer, “The Blueprint”). Paired with the fact that Jay-Z claims to keep all of his verses memorized in his head, that kind of efficiency says quite a bit about Jay-Z’s organization and drive as an artist at that time. As quickly as the album was created, it received the highest of praise from fans and critics alike upon its release. At a time in our country’s history when people needed something to rally around, something to distract them from the tragedy of September 11 and the death of Aaliyah, “Jay Hova,” the freshly entitled ruler of rap, came through and delivered an album that would never be forgotten. He brought with him Kanye West, who became one of the biggest names in music as an indirect result of his involvement, and Just Blaze, another producer who went on to have great success in the industry. He put Eminem’s skill on display at the highest stage in hip-hop at the time: the sole guest feature on a Jay-Z album, which launched the Detroit MC into new levels of stardom. The Blueprint may have been created in a matter of weeks, but its impact on the world and its influence in the music industry is something that will live on forever.
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