Details
Track Listing
1. What We Talkin' About - (with Luke Steele, featuring Like Steele)
2. Thank You
3. D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)
4. Run This Town - (with Kanye West/Rihanna)
5. Empire State of Mind - (with Alicia Keys)
6. Real As It Gets - (with Young Jeezy)
7. On to the Next One - (with Swizz Beatz)
8. Off That - (featuring Drake)
9. Star Is Born, A - (featuring J. Cole)
10. Venus Vs. Mars
11. Already Home - (with Kid Cudi)
12. Hate - (with Kanye West)
13. Reminder
14. So Ambitious - (with Pharrell)
15. Young Forever - (featuring Mr. Hudson)
| Details | | Contributing artists: | Alicia Keys, Drake, J. Cole, Kanye West, Kid Cudi, Like Steele, Mr. Hudson, Pharrell, Rihanna, Swizz Beatz, Young Jeezy | | Distributor: | WEA (Distributor) | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Recording information: Westlake Studio, Los Angeles, CA; The Holy Chateau, Perth, Australia; Avex Honolulu Studio, HI; Roc The Mic, New York, NY; Oven Studios, New York, NY; Lava Studios, Cleveland, OH; South Beach Studios, Miami, FL; Kingdom Studios; Midnight Blue Studios, Miami, FL.
On THE BLUEPRINT 3, still unretired Jay-Z announces "the only rapper to rewrite history without a pen." It's a standard Jigga boast, but the Brooklyn icon has earned the bragging by backing it up, particularly on his gold-label, top-shelf BLUEPRINT series. Ever-ready for battle, Jay-Z takes on autotune, crossover radio, and many other hip-hop concerns with the gloriously jagged rap elan for which he's become known.
When Jay-Z first made a series out of his best album, 2001's The Blueprint, it became a game of high expectations. The first volume saw Jay-Z as vital as he'd ever been, storming back to the hardcore after a few years of commercial success. THE BLUEPRINT 2 took a different tack, with guest shots to compliment his sinuous flows. BLUEPRINT 3 is somewhere between the two, closer to the vitality and energy of the original but not without the crossover bids and guest features of the latter. Kanye West is in the producer's chair for seven tracks, and it's clear he was reaching for the same energy level as the original. "What We Talkin' About" begins the album with a wave of surging, oppressive synth, while Jay-Z enumerates (with an intriguing lack of detail) what he's said and what's been said about him, ending with a nod not to the past but the future (and Barack Obama). There's plenty more lyrical violence to come, but most of the targets are much safer than they were eight years earlier (i.e. opening single and smash hit "D.O.A. [Death of Auto Tune]" (railing against the oft-reviled '00s vocal-tweaking phenomenon is not quite as "politically incorrect" as Jay claims through song). Simply put, the production's big-name solid, the rhyming on poing, as Jay-Z becomes more content with his dominance as a rap godfather in 2009.
Industry Reviews
Billboard With witty rhymes, pertinent collaborations and stellar productions from the likes of Timbaland and No I.D., among others the long-awaited BLUEPRINT 3 doesn't disappoint.
BLUEPRINT is hip-hop as big business, and Jay retains his CEO throne. -- Grade: B+
3 stars out of 5 -- Jay-Z remains a virtuoso, and BLUEPRINT 3 has the usual quotient of punch lines and casually inventive flows...
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