Album Review: Jay-Z "The Blueprint 3"

As well all know at this point, Jay-Z "retired" in 2004. However he's released two albums since than, but after listening to his 11th studio album "The Blueprint 3" it almost feels like those two previous efforts don't count as a true Return or a true Comeback. 2006's "Kingdom Come" came at a point where Hip Hop was so stagnant that he didn't have to put much thought or skill into the album to sound better than the active Rappers at the time. And it came across that he didn't, it was a bit of a lazy come-back effort. 2007's "American Gangster" (which technically is a Soundtrack album)was a step in the right direction, with some great cuts but somehow the bulk of it was a little redundant.

Enter "The Blueprint 3". An album that has virtually everything you want from a Hip Hop album on it. He pulled the Best producers to contribute some excellent tracks, and the album on the whole is very diverse and very different sonically than his last two albums.

The most important thing is that Jay-Z actually comes to the forefront and has obviously evolved, because his delivery and his lyrics are thoughtful, creative and shows that he truly is the Best Rapper Alive (well, one of very few). Thematically, I think this is the best of all "The Blueprint" albums, at least as far as staying true to the Blueprint concept. The first in the series is still his and one of the Best Hip Hop albums ever recorded, it was truly a original sound with really soulful emotional delivery on his part. "The Blueprint 2" was less about anything, great original production, but played more like a Hip Hop Mix Tape instead of sounding like one concept. This album, Jay is really talking to all the up and coming Rappers, and sticking to the concept of laying down the rules to have a successful Rap career. The albums first single "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)" is a good example, where Jay talks about the contradictions in the Hip Hop game as of late "I don't be in the project hallway, talking 'bout how I be in the project all day... If you a gangsta, prove it to me, just get violent". He goes on to talk about how the new rappers shouldn't wait for the downfall of Hip Hop Legends on "Already Home", further saying they definitley shouldn't compare themselves with said Legends or wait for them to open the door for them "the fact is, we not in the same bracket, not in the same league, don't shoot at the same baskets, don't pay the same taxes... So how am I in the way". Timbaland produced tracks "Reminder" and "Off That" also display Jay's irritation toward Rappers who obviously want to follow in his footsteps, but don't want to give credit where it's due.

One of the albums best tracks "A Star is Born", has Jay-Z actually "applauding" alot of Rappers who have had success by forging their own lane. He name drops everybody from Ludacris, T.I., Eminem, Snoop and Nelly among others "Wayne's scorching, I'll applaud him, If he keep going, pass the torch to him". He says "Drake's up next, see what he do with it", but the guest rapper on this track J-Cole actually does an impressively amazing job of keeping up with Jay on this track. Ofcourse leave no doubt "they come, they go, some friends, some hoes, but no, I goes nowhere this Hov".

Jay goes through some pretty typical Hip Hop concepts, but takes them to another level. For instance "Venus vs. Mars" could have been your typical Rap Sex song, but he plays it well lyrically showing the buildup of a relationship and the eventual downfall "we were supposed to Takeover, I caught her bumping Ether, I thought shawty liked Mike, found out she like Prince, thought she was Adrian, it's been Rocky ever since". "Hate" "Empire State of Mind" "Thank You" "As Real As It Gets" and "Run this Town" cover things he's talked about before, but further display his growth over the past few years, making them fresh all over again. Overall, a very very solid album and a true return to form. Save for the last two tracks (which may -- and probably will -- grow on me) every song here is catchy with excellent production with Jay-Z reminding us that he's still got it and is still one of the best we've ever had.

Top 25 All-Time Favourite Artists (16-19)

16. Pharrell Williams/ Kelis/ N.E.R.D./ Neptunes (tie)

So around 2001-2004 I was a complete Neptunes freak. My cubicle at work was practically nothing but Pharrell and Chad pictures, I had countless Neptunes mix cd's I made constantly, and I was almost always talking about them in some way. And the technical first introduction I had to this Awesome production team was via Kelis' first album "Kaleidoscope". At the time, the production on that album overpowered anything she was doing, and ever since than I followed the Neptunes careers. What I think I loved the most about their productions was they came really hard with the beats and bass and what not, but everything they did was undeniably dance worthy. Like you'd catch yourself nodding your head or tapping your feet and not even realize it. Now I can't lie or ignore the fact that around 2004/2005 they officially started to fall off, and I'm not even sure they produce as a duo anymore. Pharrell's solo album was a bit of a disappointment, and NeRD are sometimes a little TOO out there. But the Neptunes gave me a Good 5 Mix cd's that I still play to this day, and I actually think that in 2008 they did a good job of saving their name, by bringing some actual New sounding stuff on Madonna's "Hard Candy" and select tracks from NeRD's "Seeing Sounds".

Kelis, that's just a cool bitch. She also has a lot of songs that I can personally relate to (which is oddly difficult to find). And she's just Different, a very unique artist. I've Never been disappointed by any of her albums, even though she's distanced herself completely from the Neptunes her music has actually gotten better which proves that she did bring a lot to the table and didn't just show up to sing over the Neptunes beats all those years. I really wish she was more popular... but what are you gonna do?

myTop 3 Favourite Kelis albums: 1. Kelis was Here (2006), 2. Kaleidoscope (2000), 3. Tasty (2004)

myTop 3 Favourite Pharrell/Neptunes/NeRD albums: 1. In Search Of... (2002), 2. Neptunes Present Clones (2003), 3. Seeing Sounds (2008)

17. Jay-Z

I'm gonna admit something here. I wasn't a big fan of Jigga when he first came out. I did like the "Aint No nigga" with Foxy. I didn't hate dude or anything like that, but I really wasn't paying much attention to him during the "Reasonable Doubt" era. I did notice that dude wasn't going away and that he had a huge hit that even I couldn't deny every Year (hell every six months). Than around the time of "In My Lifetime Part 2" and "Can I Get A..." when you just literally couldn't get away from him... I did start to respect him and see him from a different perspective. He's had a few missteps, but overall he's been a very consistent albums artist. And his singles are crazy. Plus he has some of the best, funniest and thought provoking bars of any rapper Alive. I was a little mad at his "faux" retirement, and "Kingdom Come" was a real let-down. "American Gangster" was a step in the right direction, and I'm actually Really excited for "Blueprint III" coming out in September.

myTop 3 Favourite Jay-z albums: 1. The Blueprint (2001), 2. Reasonable Doubt (1996), 3. The Black Album (2004)

18. Devo

Being a 80's baby, it almost goes without saying that I was familiar and a fan of Devo's biggest hit "Whip It" and it's music video. It wasn't until a few years ago when I heard their wonderfully twisted cover of the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" that I wanted to hear more from them. Just within this past year I've started to listen to their catalogue, and for some weird reason I seem to love everything they do. Most of their music is really unconventional (for me), like they lack melody or harmony. Still they are addictive and the band themselves are amazing together. Towards the mid-80's they did start to stagnate with their sound, but they had a really great run of very creative, and ultimatley innovative music.

myTop 3 Favourite Devo albums: 1. Q.Are We Not Men? A. We Are Devo! (1978), 2. Freedom of Choice (1980), 3. New Traditionalists (1981)

19. Usher/Timberlake (tie)

These two are definitely the Kings of the Industry when it comes to artists from my generation. The feeling that we grew up together probably is the reason they are so high on my list. Especially Usher, who has been recording solo since he was 13. They both have had their share of peaks, massive hit singles and awards, and breaking records. Usher with his "Confessions" album which in 2004 became one of the few instant Classic albums of this decade. Timberlake's solo debut (coming from probably the most successful 90's Boy Band 'N Sync) "Justified", with the help of Neptunes and Timbaland, crossed over and was also pretty highly regarded. And ofcourse they both have their signature, un-escapable Monster single, Usher with "Yeah!" and Timberlake with "Sexyback".
However. Usher's last album was a bit of a dud, he's working on a 6th album which will hopefully redeem him from not only a disapointing album, but very underwhelming live performances. Timberlake hasn't even got to his 3rd solo album, and currently he's more of a television star than a recording artist. They are both escaping the "Teen Dream" phase, so their next releases are going to have to take them to a new level. If not they might totally fall off this list. (Like they care!)

myTop 3 Favourite Usher/Timberlake albums: 1. Confessions (2004), 2. Justified (2002), 3. 8701 (2001)

Okay that's it for now. I'm actually going to come back really quick with the Tie for #15. I think they both deserve their own profile, and a longer explanation of why they are tied. And you can see #20-25 here.

Award Show Review: BET Awards 09

I'm like, really behind as you can tell. The BET Awards were on Sunday and it's now Tuesday morning. Not only haven't I blogged about the awards yet, but I have some work to do because I need to post a Classic Album Review for Michael Jackson, there are a few new albums I need to review and I have to give you the new set of 6 Artists on my Top 25 All Time Artists list. And I want to have it all done by Thursday night (when I leave for Atlanta for the weekend).

So here we go.

The BET Awards 09 was the first televised award ceremony since the unexpected death of Michael Jackson. And although I feel like it's more than appropriate for BET to celebrate him, being that a good 90% of the artists in the building owe so much to Jackson and the fact that BET have been long time supporters of all the Jacksons even when the other video networks betrayed him. And I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, they had less than three days to re-arrange the format of the show to make it a fitting and respectful tribute to the Legend.

For the most part, they did a great job. Jamie Foxx was the host and he did a pretty excellent job, his opening monologue included a hilariously funny attempt at Moonwalking and throughout the show he celebrated his love for Jackson and reminded the audience why he was so important.

There were a few performances of Jackson's hits by current artists. Ciara performed "Heal the World", Jamie Foxx and Ne-Yo dueted at the end on "I'll Be There", but Ne-Yo provided the best performance (imo) with "Lady in my Life". Ne-Yo connected with the song on an emotional level, and his vocals were the best I ever heard them. Aside from those handful of performances, and testimonies from stars in the audience on how Michael influenced them, there wasn't much else as far as a tribute to MJ. Michael's sister Janet Jackson came out to a standing ovation toward the end to speak for the family and thank the fans for their support.

The rest of the show was pretty typical Award show stuff.

I'm pretty sure Beyoncé won the most with two awards, Ne-Yo won, Weezy won, T.I. and Rihanna won, Lebron James won, Taraji P. Henson won. But this was not an awards show where awards were actually important. In fact, because of the last minute changes the awards alot of the categories were combined and the nominations weren't announced. Just the winners.

Performance wise, it was pretty boring to tell you the truth.

Jamie Foxx did a terribly auto-tuned live rendition of his monster hit "Blame It". It's sad when T-Pain outsings you live, and you have no sense of stage presence or choreography. His performance was a bit of a mess, but still fun enough to appropriatley get the crowd on their feet.

Keri Hilson performed an uptempo medley of her two hits "Turnin Me On" and "Knock You Down" (without Ne-Yo or Kanye). She tried. She really tried. However seems like she missed a few rehearsals, or she was just super nervous. She looked awkward trying to sing live and do the little bit of choreography she was expected to do, though she still wasn't terrible. She pulled it together enough for me not to laugh at her.

Soulja Boy Tell Em (like is that his full name? I thought it was just Soulja Boy) got the crowd all singing along to his hit(?) "Turn my Swag On", which I hadn't heard before and is actually a pretty catchy tune. He, like most rappers, didn't do much performance wise. Just kind of walked back and forth on the stage. It was the crowd that made his performance a winner with Taraji, Keri and Lebron dancing and singing along.

Jay-Z introduced his new single "D.O.A. Death of Auto-Tune" to a live audience and pretty much slayed it. You could tell our boy Jigga was more than happy to be back on stage. Meanwhile his wife slowed it down (and put a bunch to sleep, I have to be honest) with her beautiful rendition of "Ave Maria" where she incorporated Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" and went opera on us with the original Spanish version of "Maria". She sounded amazing, but I think everybody was expecting Sasha Fierce to come out.

Speaking of sounding Excellent, Keyshia Cole sang her duet with Monica "Trust". They both looked great, and Keyshia made a vast improvement over her mess of a performance last year. However Monica stole ALL Ms. Cole's shine. She sounded excellent, and like Jigga, was so excited to be back on stage. She'd be smart to release an album real soon.

Maxwell came out and performed his new single "Pretty Wings", a beautiful song sung beautifully but just like Beyoncé Keyshia and Monica, great vocals don't always make for the most memorable performances.

Drake and Lil Wayne's performance was memorable for the wrong reasons. First of all Drake was sitting down the whole time. It wasn't until the after show that I realized he was injured and couldn't move around. So he gets a pass, although I didn't understand why he didn't Sing the sung parts of his hit "Best I Ever Had", but whatever. The most bothersome thing about the perfomance is when Lil Wayne came out with his crew to perform "We Like Her". With all the terribly disgusting and vile comments they made within the song about Women and Sex I was really bothered with the fact they brought out about 5 or 6 under age girls (like 10-12) to stand around and dance to the song. What was he thinking?

Ofcourse there was the annual tribute, this time to The O'Jays. I can't for the life of me figure out why they'd pull Tevin Campbell out to perform for them, but they did. Than Trey Songz, Tyrese and Johnny Gill came and sang a trio of the O'Jays hits as "The Young O'Jays". They sounded good, but I have to say Trey Songz impressed me the most. He has great vocal talent. With the right material he'd be bigger than Chris Brown without a doubt.

I can't think of anything else to say about the show. Masterfully MC'd by Jamie Foxx, and pretty solid performances. I think overall I may just be getting bored of Award shows. However this was a good effort overall for the network. And I think they succeeded in giving Michael a great tribute.