HIP HOP CLASSICS: Jay-Z - The Blueprint Album

With a fortnight gone since our last classic thread, we’re back this Sunday with another classic thread and this week, we’ve got a biggun. Probably an album that garners near universal praise from all hip hop fans. An album whose production put newcomers Kanye West and Just Blaze on every emcees radar. We are of course talking about Jay-Z and his classic The Blueprint...

I know many will say The Black Album, but is this his best album to date? Sound off below

@Henry to pin

 

His best for sure. Excited to revisit this, it’s been a long time.

 

Eminem did NOT murder him on Renegade.

 

I've always assumed that was a narrative pushed by Em fans rather than common knowledge. I'm not even that keen on it. It's an OK track, but it has all the hallmarks of early Em production and I don't think it's aged that well.

 

Renegade was meant to be Royce and Em no?

 

Definitely my favorite Jay project, though it's not by far. Some of the best production ever from Kanye and Just Blaze and he was in top form as an MC too

Heart of the City is one of my favorite beats of all time

 

One of my favorite hip hop albums of all time.

 

I also think this is his best record, Black Album and Reasonable Doubt not too far behind obviously.

Need to do a full discog run though, I remember liking Kingdom Come a lot more than most, and I'm sure that hasn't aged well.

 

I remember liking Kingdom Come at the time because I was just happy to have a new Jay album after 3 years, but there's a lot of filler on it. Blueprint is number 1 for me, followed closely by RD and Black, with American Gangster not far behind those.

 

Were the three Blueprints considered to be a trilogy? Apart from 03 Bonnie & Clyde, I've never listen to 2 or 3.

 

I've never listened to BP2. I was 18 and still fairly new to rap when I heard BP3 but I liked it. Been a decade since I've given it a listen.

 

I think he was just capitalizing on the success of the original by using the Blueprint name 2 more times. BP2 could be cut down to a solid single disc album, but as a double album there's a lot of bad or unmemorable songs on there. BP3 is similar, some great songs with a fair amount of filler. They're both worth listening to but don't come close to the Blueprint.

The Unplugged album is also great and was recorded not long after this came out. I think it has 5 or 6 Blueprint songs on there.

 

Yes, the original was a Bad Meets Evil song and Jay Z replaced Royce's versus. Think this (among other things) led to Em and Royce's initial beef back in the early 2000s.

 

To be honest, I never really loved this album. It's good, but I never understood its classic status. Yes, the production is incredible and it put Kanye and Just Blaze on the map. That said, I never really got much into Jay Z until The Black Album, which is my favorite Jay album. I personally very much disliked the Vol. 1, Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 albums and Dynasty. So by the time Blueprint came out, I just wasn't very excited.

I was also a die-hard Nas fan, and during their beef, I think I just didn't like Jay because of that. Remember, back then, it was a very 'pick one or the other' type mentality for rap. I still to this day remember getting into long conversations/arguments at high school/college parties about Nas/Jay Z.

 

not a frequent hiphop poster on this site but this is one of my all-time favorite albums. my favorite hip hop album pretty easily, but even in general its top tier for me.

 

Speaking of this, I've always thought Takeover was a better song than Ether

That's my 24 year old opinion though lol, I was like 5 or 6 when those songs actually came out to be fair

 

“Heart Of The City” is an all time rainy day song.

 

As a song, I think I prefer Takeover. But only ever so slightly.

Still a bigger fan of Nas and Mobb Deep than I’ll ever be of Jay, though. Jay hasn't got an album like Illmatic in his discography or a single that's anywhere near as good as Shook Ones Pt.2

 

Well, to be fair, Shook Ones Pt. 2 is one of the best hip-hop songs of all-time.

 

I'm a huge Black Album fan, but I know nobody, including myself, that thinks it's better than the Blueprint.

Takeover > Ether

 

For me, Takeover is the better song but Ether is the better diss.

 

Idk "Takeover" feels like a more well-thought-out diss, and "Ether" is just Nas finding different ways to say "Jay-Z is gay"

But really though "Super Ugly" is a better diss track than either

 

That newcomer producer Kanye West, I think he's got a big career ahead of him

 

Maybe not the best (I can see the case for The Black Album or Reasonable Doubt), but certainly my favourite album from the best rapper alive. The amount of songs on this album that are among the best songs of all time is wild.

Also, yes, Takeover > Ether and Jay on Renegade > Em on Renegade (though Em is great on it).

Also Jay really had Michael Jackson singing background vocal uncredited, that's hard to beat.