Jay-Z – “The Blueprint 3″ Review
Here is an artist known for his lyrics and being able to write quickly and efficiently, while still holding onto a concept worth-while. Jay-Z is one of the biggest rappers in the industry right now, as he certainly is and will always be a legend, but it seems about time for him to retire for real this time. If not, then he probably needs to take a good 5 years to find something meaningful to write about.
“I shouldn’t be so popular.” This is a quote from the second track of this album, which pretty much sums up Jay’s career post-Black Album. Jay-Z use to be one of the more prolific lyricists in the game; it seems now that he is more concerned with talking about how awesome he is rather than something meaningful. Simple rhymes about how much of a badass you are, or about how much money you have, is more suited for gangster rap, not for hip hop. Not only that, but lyrics like this of his new album are overly mediocre, proving that Jay-Z is well past his prime. The beats here are amazing, but lyrically it leaves no lasting impression or commentarial impact. The hooks are top-notch, but the verses don’t match. Every song seems to be the same. The only songs where Jay-Z seems to actually talk a little about something, yet still going on non-sequitur rants about what a famous person he is, are the tracks “Empire State Of Mind,” “D.O.A.” and “A Star Is Born.” The track that stands out lyrically is “D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)” because it’s ABOUT FUCKING TIME THAT A RAPPER TALKED ABOUT HOW STUPID AUTO TUNE IS IN HIP HOP. He comically singles “hey, hey, hey, goodbye” hoping that with this track rappers will take the hint that auto-tune is on the verge of completely ruining the genre. But even with that, the song could be and should be much better than it is.
The track “Venus vs. Mars” is just creepy. Jay-Z rhymes about sex and skeeting on a shawty, which, though I would normally find funny, sounds like a sex predator masturbating outside a child’s window. The song “Hate” features Kanye West and is one of the few times I have found Kanye to be an absolute disappointment. The song quickly becomes redundant and you begin to resent Outkast for making famous the pronunciation of the word “air” as “ayir.” This song really takes that pronunciation to a completely different level, and the reason I “hate” the song “Hate” is not because I’m a hater that’s jealous of your fame, it’s because it sounds fucking stupid. The single “Run This Town” I have already reviewed (which you can read here), and I found it to be frustrating because I could never figure out what the fucking concept was. The song has no point, other than to prove that Kanye is outwardly more creative.
I’m trying hard to enjoy the album, but the only thing I’m able to enjoy is the amount of amazing beats and hooks. And though the music industry as a whole would completely disagree with me, a good beat and hook does not make a good hip-hop song. It’s good business, but its not good art. And thus describes the entire album. It’s a good business decision, a sex-symbol for radio, but to people who are particular about their hip-hop and appreciate good lyrics, I feel they will find this album to be completely uninspiring. Jay-Z has become the U2 of rap. Meaning, he can continue to make mediocre music until he dies, and he will always go platinum, simply because his name is so gigantic that it now well precedes his actual talent. I’m giving this mediocre album a very mediocre score of 3 out of 5.
If this album is mediocre, then all rap is mediocre. “Empire State of Mind” is an incredible song, and “Reminder” is outstanding … there isn’t being much else released in the hip hop world that trumps these two songs.