18/Jay-Z/The Blueprint 3
Smoke break. A party. Shortly following this album’s release. Silent yet feeling good, I sat on the curb as the gaggle of ladies and gents to my left and my right and in front of me got their conversation on. A few laughs and short stories later, the topic of Jay’s 11th studio album came up. There was a lot of, “I don’t know mans”, and “he just don’t sound hungry”, and “it’s aight, but I don’t know, I just don’t feel as much as some of his earlier shit”. Now as someone who (a) loves music and discussing it, (b) loves the output of the one they call Jay-Z, and (c) was currently feeling this album, I surprisingly kept my mouth shut and just let them speak, when what I really wanted to do was stand up and shout, “enough with the complaining boo-hoos already”, “what is y’all talkin’ bout? I don’t know what y’all sayin’.” I mean, I can see if we were discussing Kingdom Come, where, admittedly, Jay did sound a little smug and disaffected at times, but KC this ain’t, THIS is The Blueprint 3, a rap album that knocks for damn near 10 tracks straight; a rap album in which the folks behind the boards (Ye, No I.D., Timbaland, Swizz Beatz) put their best foot forward, supplying Jay with an endless supply of dope beats to lace his stanzas/verses/slyly eviscerating and boastful bars atop. Who else but Jay could cascade so effortlessly with a story to tell over that Swizz On to the Next One beat? Who else but Jay could hail “DEATH TO AUTOTUNE!” so convincingly alongside instrumentation that is just as ostentatious as his bold, confident (and cocky) proclamation? Who else but Jay could construct a damn near anthemic ode to a major American city and have you sing along and tilt ya head back to it? Who else? Who can? Who dat? H to the Izz O, V to the Izz A (!), that’s who. Look, there’s a reason “they can’t focus on him” and keep talkin’ bout he. He talk, we listen, and 9 times out of 10, as is the case with this record, the words and sounds are more than worthy of our attention. Yeah…that’s what I wanted to say that night.
KEY TRACKS: D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)/Real As It Gets/On to the Next One
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