Jay-Z Blueprint Review

The venerable hip-hop artist Jay-Z delivered his eleventh number one album debut, with his third installment of “The Blueprint.” The album sold over 476,000 copies in its first week, over 100,000 copies more than the projected sales figures.  The total sales of the album are now at the million mark.

Jay-Z has a different sound for his latest release. He is not rapping about the same things he was rapping about on earlier albums that made him famous, which he addresses in a couple of the tracks on the album. Most notably on the album “On to the Next One,”which has a great beat thanks to the Swizz Beatz lending his production skills. On the song Jay-Z warns that he’s on new things and if listeners want the old Jay-Z that they should buy his old albums.

The album features collaborations with a diverse cast of both big time artist and up and coming stars, from Drake and Kanye West to Mr. Hudson and J. Cole. One of the songs from the album is “Empire State of Mind” which features R&B songstress Alicia Keys, whose voice on the chorus increases appeal of the song immensely.  Jay-Z also teams up with Kanye West on the album to address the “haters” in the track “Hate.” The two artists take turns flexing their lyrical muscle alternating in delivering great verses.

One of the more surprisingly good tracks on the album was “A Star is Born” on this track Jay-Z gives notice to those artist who have made hip-hop what it is today. Up and coming artist J. Cole, who is signed to Jay-Z’s record label steals the show with his lyrical abilities on his verse of the track.

“The Blueprint 3” may not have had as much sales success as the first two installments, but every song on the album is worth a listen.