The beat tape changed hands, with West playing Jay Z joint after joint to thizz face reactions. Not only was he there to play Beanie some beats, but it happened to be March 6: He was there to wish him a happy birthday.Īlready landing “Nothing Like It” as The Reason‘s opener, Beans left to celebrate turning 27 as the doors at Baseline Studio opened up with Kanye’s manager, Gee Roberson, arriving next to a Gucci bucket hat-clad Jay-Z. The Beat TapeĪs the story goes, Kanye West moved to Newark, New Jersey with nothing but an eviction and a bed from Ikea to his name.Ĭatching public transit from his new apartment, the Chicago transplant packed a tape full of tracks built off soul samples, hoping to catch Beanie Sigel’s ear as the Philly rapper worked on his upcoming album, The Reason. “But there were times where he locked in for an album.”įor his sixth studio album, The Blueprint, it was time for the always-in-the-conversation MC to claim his city, his market, and his throne.īut to do so, the 31-year-old phenom needed a new sound. “Jay is an artist who was consistently working on music,” Roc Nation A&R Lenny Santiago, a.k.a. In the spring of 2001, Jay-Z was at war with rappers, lawyers, and the summer.Ĭatching strays from Queensbridge and cases at the Kit Kat Club, Brooklyn’s finest was feeling the heat from all angles as the season he held down for six years straight quickly approached. And yet, in what could easily have been the twilight of his recording days, he's still standing, still striving, still shining.As Jay Z’s timeless album turns 20, we look back at the album’s unprecedented inception, larger-than-life rollout, and unforgettable drop date. Jay-Z has outlived - literally and figuratively - so many of his peers. That's why The Blueprint 3's broad appeal is a powerful statement in its own right. Kelly), Jay-Z has attained the rap equivalent of Bruce Springsteen or U2 status each new album aspires to be "an event," but it becomes harder to reinvent yourself when you're this deep into a career. To be fair, when you're on your 11th release (not including collaborations with Linkin Park and R. There's also the matter of basing a song around Alphaville's 1984 hit, "Forever Young," a move that says anything but "forever" or "young." It lacks the singular cohesion of the original Blueprint album, and Jay-Z's once-unrivaled flow sounds more pedestrian at times. Though The Blueprint 3 is Jay-Z's strongest release since coming back from retirement in 2006, overall, it'd only rank somewhere in the middle of his catalog. All kinds of minimalist beeps, burps and claps bump alongside huffing synthesizer vamps and blaring banks of horns. But nowhere are the album's populist ambitions more clear than in its dance-friendly, electronic-infused rhythms. Jay-Z also invites on a few current 15-minute famers such as Drake and Kid Cudi. It helps that the songs are generally brighter, less violent and less drug-oriented than past efforts. The Blueprint 3 is easily one of his most commercially savvy albums to date, aiming for relevance in Walmart kiosks, Hollywood clubs and Brooklyn bodegas alike. If anything, now that he's signing multimillion-dollar deals with music promoters such as Live Nation, he's more of a global entertainer than ever - and he knows it. (Death of Auto-Tune)," critiques the ubiquity of the voice-altering software in today's pop music.ĭespite his disdain for Auto-Tune, Jay isn't anti-pop. The Blueprint 3 is keenly conversant with contemporary pop trends, though not always in a friendly manner. If Jay-Z can't decide whether to focus on the past or the future, he's clear on where he stands in the present. But elsewhere, Jay-Z flips things around, urging listeners to stop dwelling on his past. In the background plays his recent hit with singer Rihanna: "Run This Town." The commercial is all about reminding people where Jay-Z has been there's even a song called "Reminder" on the album. In a minute-long ad made to promote The Blueprint 3 and the music service Rhapsody, Jay-Z glides through a photo shoot, restaging every iconic pose from his previous 10 album covers. Jay-Z onstage in Anaheim, Calif., in August.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |