Why Jay-Z’s “Blueprint 3″ Sucks – Even Though It Doesn’t

Above: My official video review of Jay-Z’s newest album, “Blueprint 3.”

Jay-Z’s newest album, “Blueprint 3,” leaked onto the Internet on August 31, 12 days before it was set to land in stores.

As a person who is a fan of Jay-Z’s, I knew I had to find the album and listen to it.  I’m not one of those people to say that I’ve been a fan of his since his first album, “Reasonable Doubt” (I actually hate that record because my freshman roommate in college played it dang near every night as he went to bed), but I have been riding with him consistently since my brother bought “Vol. 2, Hard Knock Life.”

Luckily, Jay-Z partnered up with Rhapsody and MTV.com to stream the album for FREE starting September 1.  Now that I’ve gotten a chance to listen to the album a couple of times, I can safely say what I had hoped to say about the album:

HE’S STILL GOT IT.

He’s still got the wit, punchlines, flow, wordplay, and story-telling ability that we’ve all grown to love about Hov as an artist.  And, even as he approaches the dreaded 4-0 mark in his life, he’s still better than 99.98% of rappers out there, both new AND old.

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Okay, so you may be asking yourself: “If you like the album so much, why did you title this blog ‘Why Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3 Album Sucks… Even Though It Doesn’t?’”

Prior to me listening to the album, I went to a few hip hop online forums to see what people were saying about the album.  The overall consensus:

“IT SUCKS!”

Diving further into this consensus were reasons given as to why it sucks:

• “He’s old!”
• “It’s straight garbage!”
• “He doesn’t sound like the Jay-Z from 1996-2003!”
• “The production fell short!”
• “He doesn’t have as much substance in his lyrics as he did before!”

All of these complaints could be considered valid, if not for one thing:

THE PEOPLE WHO SAID THESE THINGS ARE STUCK LIVING IN THE PAST.

Artistry is all about re-inventing oneself.  Being innovative.  Trying something new.  Exploring new terrain.  Expressing your various experiences through your chosen medium.

The problem with the hip hop medium as an art is that, once it has a perceived idea of how an artist is, that artist will always be criticized when they start to sound different.

Take, for example, Michael Jackson.  His crowing achievement was 1982’s mega-classic “Thriller” album, which went on to sell somewhere between 70 to 110 MILLION copies worldwide (29 million and counting in the U.S. alone).  While that may sound like a blessing, it also came with a curse: every album MJ made after “Thriller” was always compared to it.  And no matter how many 10s of millions his subsequent albums sold (“Bad,” “Dangerous” and “HIStory” all sold over 20 million worldwide), they all paled in comparison to “Thriller” as far as the media was concerned.

The same thing has happened with Jay-Z.  He has managed to create so many “classic albums” – “Reasonable Doubt,” “Vol. 2,” “Blueprint I,” “The Black Album” and “American Gangster” – that people hold every release up to an extra-high standard.  When an album comes out that, in his fans eyes, doesn’t reach that high mark, it is automatically deemed a sucky album, even if it is 10 times better than other albums coming out in the same genre.

This is quite unfortunate, because the majority of Jay-Z’s albums are actually very, very good. Even on an off-album like “Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse,” there are too many good songs thrown into the mix to have it deemed a bad album. And yes, though I may not like “Reasonable Doubt,” I can’t deny the album’s influence on hip hop culture.

At the same time, there is another thing that makes people hate on Jay-Z’s newer works…

NOSTALGIA.

People forget to take into consideration that nostalgia – our remembering of past events – plays a large part into how we view an artist’s current work as opposed to their older ones.  A lot of nostalgia is connected to our childhood, a time when things were much easier for most of us.  Think about it: you didn’t have a job; you got to play around more with your friends; most of your needs were taken care of; and everything was pretty much care-free.

Therefore, if a person was bumping Jay-Z’s older stuff during that time when it was new, their memory of that album is associated with the good vibes they got during their care-free days as a youngster.

That same person today, some 13 years after “Reasonable Doubt” dropped, isn’t in the same world anymore.  Now, they have a job, they have bills to pay, possibly kids, and other stresses that they weren’t going through when they were 13 years younger.

Therefore, if that same person hears a new Jay-Z album, it doesn’t have the same connotation for them that his older stuff did. Therfore:

“IT SUCKS!”

And of course, most of Jay-Z’s older stuff was him talking about his various struggles. Hustling crack, living without a father, making it out of the ghetto, and other hardship tales were strung together with wordplay wizardry and narrated in a way that made the listener feel connected to him, especially if they, too were going through struggles of their own.

However, the Jay-Z of today is not that guy.  He doesn’t have as many hardships. He’s a multi-millionaire with a hot wife (Beyonce) who has been all around the world, hung with various presidents (from the U.S. and abroad), owns nightclubs and runs a company.

Despite all these things, he’s still able to put words together in ways most rappers can’t.  And he still raps about his experiences.  Unfortunately, most of those experiences aren’t ones people who are still struggling can relate to.  He raps about popping open a bottle of Ace of Spades, while his listener can barely afford to buy a six-pack of beer at the store.  Jay-Z’s spittin’ rhymes about hanging with Obama, while his listener can’t even get into a town hall meeting to ask him a question about health care.

Because his listener can’t always relate now to what Jay-Z is saying, their assessment of his new stuff is automatic:

“IT SUCKS!”

The irony of all this is, were Jay to come out and try to rap about the same subjects he used to touch on, his hip-hop audience would deem him a fraud.  They’d be like, “Yeah, he lived that way once, but he ain’t livin’ it now – he’s just fakin’ that talk so he can try and fool us. IT SUCKS!”

I’ve never been one of those people to get too nostalgic, or believe that an artist’s best work is always his early stuff.  To do that would be to discredit a wide number of artist who have come out with later works that were just as good, if not better, than previous efforts.  Yes, Nelly’s debut album was classic, but “Nellyville” was better.  Yes, Nas’ “Illmatic” was okay (though I didn’t really like it), but his “Ether” song – which came out 7 years after his debut – had more of an impact on hip-hop.  Yes, Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic” revolutionized the game, but his 1999 follow-up, “2001,” not only had even MORE classic songs on it, but also set the stage for Eminem to fully display his talents, leading him to make even MORE history in the game.

In short: Just because Jay-Z is older, and has experienced more things in his lifetime (so far) than most people will ever relate to, doesn’t mean his newer stuff can’t be considered good.  People have various definitions of what makes a “classic” album, but just because an artist’s record doesn’t reach that status doesn’t mean it “sucks.”  Jay-Z has 10 (hopefully 11) number 1 albums in his catalog.  At this point, he’s not even doing it for the money; he’s just doing it because he enjoys doing it.  On this record, you can actually HEAR how much he enjoys making music  in the songs – what’s not to like about that?

-Aaron P. Taylor

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