Behold. With the release of “The Blueprint 3,” Sean Carter has bestowed another gift upon the world.
Call him what you will — the limitless giver, the real Santa Claus, champagne super-Hova — Jay-Z’s talent is timeless, his ability without threshold. A business maven, media target and multi-industry king, his influence and reach extend far beyond the walls of any studio or the range of your friend’s stereo; as he explains on the album’s opening track, “What We’re Talkin’ About,” “I don’t run rap no more, I run the map.”) But in making this disc, with nothing left to prove and little more to gain, he did what he does best: made good music.
“The Blueprint 3” is the rapturous culmination that “Kingdom Come” once masqueraded as, despite no talk of retirement. The album acts as a celebration — carefree and confident in its words, upbeat and audacious in its production — featuring many friends, much flare and a living legend caught in the act of having his cake and eating it too.
On the majority of tracks, the rapper, who prefers to “rewrite history without a pen,” exhibits a simpler, pop-oriented style of lyricism reminiscent of hits like “Izzo” and “Hard Knock Life.” Songs “Real As It Gets” and “Already Home” contain lines respectable in their effortlessness, like “We’re not in the same bracket / we’re not in the same league / don’t shoot at the same baskets / don’t pay the same taxes.” However, his flow does become lazy at times; on “Reminder,” he spends four bars counting from ’96 to ’09.
The hits are there in force. Summer jams “D.O.A.” and “Run this Town” only scratched the surface of hit potential of the album’s track list. A star-studded group of guests, including Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Drake, Young Jeezy, Kid Cudi, Mr. Hudson and more, provide the vast majority of choruses on the disc, helping Jay create a slew of four-minute masterpieces. “Empire State of Mind,” “A Star is Born,” and “Young Forever” contain indomitable hooks worthy of repeated radio play. The latter, a re-imagination of Alphaville’s ‘80s masterpiece “Forever Young” and play on Jay-Z’s oft-used moniker “Young Hov,” leads the album out into an abyss of optimism, hope and inevitable replays.
So, with his third “Blueprint,” Carter has added another ingredient to the formula that his peers have long consulted when crafting their own albums. He has added another work to the catalog his fans have long enjoyed.
