Holy fuck The Blueprint is sooo fucking good. Totally lived up to the hype Why have I not heard this album until now
Haha to be fair I'd already heard probably over half of it already because it's nearly impossible not to if you're a hip-hop fan, but the full experience was just awesome I actually listened to the first disk of Blueprint 2 like an hour ago and I actually liked it quite a bit. Listening to the second disk later tonight
What was you favorite track? My top three is probably Song Cry, Blueprint (Momma Loves Me) and Girls, Girls, Girls. That's Michael Jackson singing in the background by the way, uncredited.
The Just Blaze version of Girls, Girls, Girls is probably one of my favorite instrumentals of all time so I'd go with that for maybe that alone. Song Cry is definitely fantastic, and I love Heart of the City too. The whole thing is great though with maybe the exception of Hola Hovito if I had to pick a least favorite
Yeah Jay told that story at some point. It also features Biz Markie (which is pretty obvious), Q-Tip and Slick Rick, but unlike MJ they are mentioned in the liner notes at least.
BP2 has 1 cd worth of great stuff between the 2 discs. It's sandwiched in between 2 of his best albums though. You're in for a treat with the Black Album.
Yeah, listened to the second disk last night too and it definitely was weaker, though still a lot of stuff I liked a lot. Production through the whole thing is fantastic. Would have been great at 16-17 tracks I think Cool, I'll check it out
Actually really enjoyed this. He's still got it. Vol 2 was the first hip-hop record I ever bought so he'll always have a soft spot for me
@tdlyon going through the catalog has got me wanting to revisit the ones I don't usually listen to ... So everything besides RD, BP, BA, & AG The Dynasty is a lot better than I remembered. I think I wrote it off when I first heard it for having too many features, actually felt that it shouldn't be considered a Jay album. I think that was an overreaction
Yeah I really enjoyed The Dynasty. You can definitely tell it was initially meant to be a Roc-A-Fella album before it just became a solo Jay album but it's pretty fucking dope the whole way through Will be listening to Black Album in probably an hour or two
The Dynasty is good, yeah. It's also the reason why I consider Streets Is Watching OST to be a Jay album too, haha.
So yeah The Black Album was fucking awesome. Again, I'd already heard a lot of it because how could I not, but it's really fucking great all the way through. Having now heard everything pre-"retirement", my ranking so far is TB>TBA>RD>Vol 3>Vol 2>TB2>D:RLF>Vol 1 Kingdom Come is next but I don't have high hopes judging from what I've heard lol
It has a strong start and finish with some dull stuff in the middle. The songs with Pharrell and Beyonce were probably my last favorite there