12/28/2023 0 Comments Blueprint jay z![]() In addition, instead of rallying the Roc-A-Fella family around his songs (as on his eleven-month-old Roc La Familia album), Jay-Z takes on most of the tracks single-handedly, without guest rappers. Here, Jay-Z and his producers (especially Kanye West) turn to vintage soul, fueling almost every song with a stirring vocal sample: Al Green, Bobby “Blue” Bland, David Ruffin and the Jackson Five, for starters. In many ways, The Blueprint is a new-school old-school album, full of playground boasts, harmless battling and simple odes to the good life.ĭelving further into his roots, Jay-Z deepens his sound on The Blueprint. “Blueprint (Momma Loves Me)” offers the hustler’s autobiography, but not in the sensational gangsta-in-the-embryo style of classics like Ice Cube’s “The Product.” Instead, he names family members, and listeners get to envision them fussing over a spoiled baby Shawn Carter, changing his diapers and scrubbing soap behind his ears. Half of The Blueprint becomes, then, a battle album, in which Hova, from on high, attacks Nas, Prodigy, and all manner of prosecutors and persecutors. Jay-Z's Verse on DJ Khaled's 'God Did' Is a Master Class in Mature Lyricism Elsewhere, he’s the “God MC,” “the eighth wonder of the world,” and, in one of many overstatements of his ability, he raps, “If I ain’t better than B.I.G., I’m the closest one.” and, on this album’s hits, Hovito and H-to-the-izzoh V-to-the-izzay). Jay-Z makes earlier rap megalomaniacs pale in comparison as he identifies with Jehovah (nicknaming himself J-Hova, H.O.V.A. It’s no longer enough to be the godfather he portrayed on Reasonable Doubt he must now be God himself. Though Jay-Z came on the scene like he’d stepped out of the pages of The Robb Report, obsessed with the make of his watch and the president in his billfold, he has almost outgrown his materialistic obsession. Not unlike Tupac and his Makaveli persona, personal and legal problems have provoked Jay-Z to write what may be his most personal, straightforward album but also his most self-aggrandizing work. In addition, he had become one of hip-hop’s most dissed artists, with Nas, Prodigy of Mobb Deep, Jadakiss and others attacking him in song. Jay-Z was awaiting two criminal trials, one for gun possession, another for assault. There’s something about being persecuted, or at least believing oneself to be persecuted, that makes people embrace and reaffirm their own identity - witness Jay-Z’s sixth album, The Blueprint.Īt the time of its recording, Jay-Z was feeling less Rockefeller and more Michael Milken - nine songs on The Blueprint were reportedly cut in two days. That’s why the more someone like Eminem is criticized, the more unapologetic and extreme his lyrics become. This is how the rap game works: when someone is pushed, they push back harder.
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