2001 was quite the year for Mr. Shawn Carter, a chap known as "Jay-Z" to most people (even if he seemed to prefer "Hova" around this time). The man seemed to have gotten it into his head that any successful rapper born in or around Queensbridge deserved to be entirely removed from all the popularity they had garnered for themselves during their time in the game, and set it upon himself to demolish the careers of both Prodigy of Mobb Deep, and more famously, Nasir Jones. He went about this by embarrassing one (P) on the stage of Summer Jam while simultaneously teasing the other (Nas), only for him to then drop a killshot at Nas on the full version of his "Takeover" track, which appeared on the subject of today's post. One of these guys managed to fight back and win, but the other never managed to return to the greatness he had built himself to in the previous years. See if you can guess which one's which. Jay-Z wasn't only hungry for beef, though - he wasn't impartial to a bit of vegetarianism, and performed an unplugged set around November (c'mon, that's a good metaphor) that went down about as well as, well, a Jay-Z unplugged show possibly could - people liked it. A lot. Jay-Z wasn't quite a household name yet, as he would only meet Beyoncé in the next year, but pretty much everyone who even was remotely into mainstream hip-hop was probably bumping his shit by now.
To capitalise off of the fame he had garnered from hits such as "Big Pimpin'", "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)" and "stabbing someone over leaking an album", Jay-Z unleashed his joker card by releasing his 6th studio album The Blueprint on September 11th 2001, and it was all anyone could talk about- oh, wait. Yeah, I wasn't lying with that release date. This album couldn't have picked a worse day to have been put out (R.I.P. to all the victims of the tragedy, by the way), and yet and still this thing was bumped to high heaven, and it's triumphant, victory lap nature seemed to offer just the right mood to get people out of the shock and utter horror over what had happened in the country. The album charted at number one, and was successful enough in the eyes of its host to warrant two sequels, both of which miserably failed to capture the magic of this album. A shame.
For this new record, Jay was clearly done promoting his Roc-a-Fella label mates (after The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, which had them crawling all over it), and instead invited the only rapper in the world hotter than he was to be the only guest on the entire album - that would be Eminem, the unusually pale face of hip-hop in the early 2000s. For production, he enlisted Timbaland, the newly popularised Just Blaze (anyone else find it weird how he did a track on Prodigy's solo album just the year before?), Bink, and Kanye West, who was still making his way around as a little-known producer back then, which was certainly a better place for him to be than promoting Hitler, of all people, to an enormous audience of his fans. But I digress. The album was also as concise as Jay's earlier work, being 13 tracks, a lot shorter than his previous two records, and of similar length to his classic Reasonable Doubt, and the underrated In My Lifetime, Vol. 1. These facts I just listed made for promising stuff, and... well, you already know what the verdict here's gonna be - I mean, what fan of hip-hop doesn't like this album? Let's get to the review.
1. The Ruler's Back (prod. Bink)
Following a smattering of conga hits, Bink's instrumental on this track starts itself up with a bang, and you already know that you're in for a treat. This triumphant beat, with the pounding bassline, loud horns and nasty drums is one of the best Hov ever gave the green light, and to say he did it justice would be an understatement. The lyrics on here are some of the finest braggadocio ever heard on wax (this will be a theme throughout the record), and Jay's effortless flows mesh so perfectly with the instrumental you would think that Bink and Jay were conjoined twins. "It's nothin' new to me, sue me: fuck you, what's a couple dollars to me?" is a standout line, but really I could pick anything from here blind and I would come out with something incredible. Sure, the title is taken from an '80s Slick Rick cut, but that's not to say Hov doesn't make it entirely his own - because he does, and with ease. The best Jay-Z intro track? Quite possibly.
2. Takeover (prod. Kanye West)
So, as I mentioned in the introductory paragraphs, Jay took it upon himself at the Summer Jam in 2001 to diss the fuck out of Mobb Deep's Prodigy, with two verses performed on the stage over the same beat we see here on the album. The first verse is all subliminal (with a couple of uses of the word "dunny" to forewarn us of the target), but in the second verse, Jay gets to absolutely destroying poor P, with some phenomenal bars that you'll want to memorise almost immediately. At the end of this verse, though, Jay spit the line 'You guys don't want it with Hov, ask Nas, he don't want it with Hov, no!!", a moment that had the hip-hop world biting through it's nails in anticipation of who would strike next. And, on the album version of "Takeover", Jay delivered two more verses, the first of which was a long, long attack on Nas, who was admittedly in a bad place at this time - sure, QB's Finest had some joints, but Nastradamus was poor and "Oochie Wally" was arguably the worst song Nasir had ever come through with. Jay uses all of this to diss the fuck out of Nas, in what was very nearly a career-ending verse - Jones had to come through with the greatest disstrack of all time (yep, I said it. The greatest) a couple of months later to regain a stance in the battle. It's a shame Prodigy couldn't do the same - the Mobb's album Infamy was weak as a runt piglet, and the diss on there wasn't much better. As a whole, "Ether" was the better diss, but the impact I feel when listening to this, knowing that Jay ignited the game with one track, is definitely telling - this is incredible, and Kanye's beat helps it along enormously.
3. Izzo (H.O.V.A.) (prod. Kanye West)
4. Girls, Girls, Girls (prod. Just Blaze)
5. Jigga That Nigga (prod. Poke & Tone (aka The Trackmasters))
6. U Don't Know (prod. Just Blaze)
I've got a confession to make, readers, and prepare yourself, because this is going to be quite a disturbing revelation for most - "U Don't Know" used to be my least favourite song on this album. Of course, now I look upon this track with marvel, and I think it's incredible, but for some reason the sample on this one really irked me when I first heard this album, and I just couldn't get past that. However, I have to give it up now, as Jay's verses are some of the best he's ever done (and considering I first listened to this album when I was about 13, in the foundation stages of my hip-hop passion, I probably cared more about the beat than the rhymes anyway). "I am a hustler, baby, I'll sell water to a whale" is one of the iconic hip-hop lines, and Jay's shout of "fucker" towards the end just gets me goin' crazy, man. This is a great track.
7. Hola' Hovito (prod. Timbaland)
Surprisingly the only Timbaland beat on the entire album, made more surprising by the fact that this wasn't a hit single. Stupid title and goofy breakdown towards the end aside, this track is just dope. Hov drops many funny and clever bars over this groovy instrumental, and the hook on here is all kinds of catchy. This isn't as iconic as the majority of the songs here, but it's a damned great album cut nonetheless.
8. Heart Of the City (Ain't No Love) (prod. Kanye West)
I first heard this track on an episode of Rap Critic (legendary YouTube channel, by the way), where he criticised the opening lyrics: "first the Fat Boys break up, now everyday I wake up, somebody got a problem with Hov". This short snippet, despite those lyrics admittedly not making much sense, compelled me to check out this whole song based on the brilliant sounding production and Jay's flow, making this the first Jay-Z song I ever actually payed attention to. Piece of history right here. Anyway, this song itself might well be my favourite on this entire album. Hova's lyricism on here is purely astonishing, with some hilarious lines thrown in there such as "sensitive thugs, y'all all need hugs" and "I pack heat like I'm the oven door", meanwhile Kanye's celebratory yet poignant production gives the song almost a live feel, only without all the shouting and poor mixing that comes along with actual live recordings. This song is phenomenal, one of Jay's absolute best.
9. Never Change (prod. Kanye West)
This track is most remembered for being (I think) Kanye West's first vocal appearance on a mainstream record (I wouldn't take my word for it though), as he pops up to provide a fun and catchy hook to break up Jay's reflective verses. Vocals, however, aren't the man's party piece (most of the time), as that would be production, and with that in mind the beat here is utterly phenomenal, and easily one of the best Kanye ever created. Jay's lyrics on here are nice too, as he reflects on his life in the street, and as much as it's difficult to believe that he's living the same life now (well, in 2001) that he was in the early '90s, he convinces us of it here just fine. This is a classic.
10. Song Cry (prod. Just Blaze)
11. All I Need (prod. Bink)
Jay follows up arguably the most heartfelt song of his entire career with this fairly simplistic brag rap tune, and yet it still works, what with this being Jay's playing field and all. After some more tom-tom tappings that remind me of the intro, Jay gets to rapping about how he now has access to all the stuff he needs, and over some fun production from Bink that is unlike what the man usually does. Jay also bites the hook of 2pac's "Me and My Girlfriend" during one of the verses here, and not for the first time either (y'all know what I'm referring to). Anyway, I enjoy this a lot, even if it would have fit better earlier on in the tracklist.
12. Renagade (feat. Eminem) (prod. Eminem)
Whether the title is intentionally misspelt on the back cover of this CD or not is anyone's guess, but what's not is the fact that this song is astonishing - it just simply is. Let's talk background first - this song was originally a track recorded by Eminem as a collaboration with his fellow Detroit rapper Royce Da 5'9", but Jay hooked up with Em and decided that he wanted the track for himself. Eminem might have been sceptical giving his track to a man who namedropped him two years prior over his close friend Royce, but Jay got to waving a bag of money (or more likely, since this is Eminem we're talking about, a bag of shroomz) in front of him, and from then on it was no competition. Much to Royce's dismay, Em deleted all of his verses, and allowed Jay to rap over them, turning the song into the classic we know today. To start with, Eminem provides a beat to stand alongside the best of Kanye and Just Blaze quality wise on here, with a phenomenally haunting instrumental. While, yes, Eminem's verses are astonishing, Jay's are pretty incredible too, and he would probably have stood out more if prime Eminem wasn't his competition. Eminem still manages to embarrass himself here, though, by sounding almost exactly like Fred Durst during his singing parts of the hook - trust me: listen again, and you won't be able to un-hear it. Nonetheless, this is a generational track, and deserves all the respect it has garnered. A legendary team up.
13. Blueprint (Momma Loves Me) (prod. Just Blaze)
The closing song on The Blueprint takes on a somber and reflective tone, or at least after Jay finishes his loud ad-libbing, which he seems to think was necessary to introduce such a song. Over a smooth and calming beat, Jay does his thing, rapping slowly about his past, and finding the time to shout out two producers who made his early work so great - Ski and DJ Premier. Anywhere else, this might have seemed underwhelming, but serving as the closing credits this works absolutely fine, and slots in perfectly as a calming closer. Great ending.
The end... or is it? Following "Blueprint (Momma Loves Me)", we hear pure silence, followed by... more silence, and then a song starts, or rather two, that are hidden tracks. Yay! And unlike on Vol. 3, they were actually unreleased tracks, rather than random soundtrack/compilation cuts. The two appear in the following order.
- Breathe Easy (Lyrical Exercise) (prod. Just Blaze)
For this metaphor-filled track, Jay spits over what seems to be a precursor to what we would eventually here on his next album, The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse - anyone else think that about Just Blaze's dark piano keys? Anyway, this track is certainly a whole lot better than most of what we heard on that album, with Hov's bars being intriguing and incredibly clever, as well as this beat being very memorable. Also, did anyone recognise that "I am focused, man" line to be similar to a verse from a certain Curtis Jackson club hit released two years later? No? Well, fuck y'all, I did.
- Girls, Girls, Girls Part 2 (prod. Kanye West)
Jay continues the musings he begun on (you guessed it) "Girls, Girls, Girls" from this very same album, and while I think the production is on a similar level of greatness to the original, I never really found Jay's lyrical content on here to be that interesting, especially as we already heard a similar but more well executed idea on this song's "part 1". Also, the hook doesn't sound anywhere near as good on this one as the original. This ain't bad, but it's also not a worthy closer to such a brilliant record.
The Blueprint was actually the first Jay-Z album I heard, as I bought it when I was just getting into hip-hop via Eminem, and wanted to branch out to other artists, but preferably if they had an Em collab to settle me in. "Renegade" I already knew was a banger, and as I mentioned above I loved "Heart Of The City" too, and so in HMV I picked this one up on CD. This album (along with Nas' Illmatic and 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin', but mostly this one) effectively was the starting point to my branching out from full-on Eminem Stan to full-on hip-hop head and collector (I ain't listened to an Em project in a while, but I still think he's one of the best of all time), and for that I am forever grateful. For a while I underrated this, placing it below a few albums in Jay's catalogue, and while I still don't think it's his best, relistening to this thing today and reviewing it has enlightened me once again to just how damned good this album is. Yes, it's not perfect, and there are a couple of merely solid songs, but for the most part this album is impeccably produced, wonderfully sequenced and, most importantly, a display of some of the greatest rapping I or you have ever heard and will ever hear. Give all the props you want to Kanye, Just Blaze, Bink and Timbaland, and they do kinda deserve it, but the real star of the show here is Jay, and the fact that the phenomenal production work doesn't overshadow him here is testament to how brilliant of an MC he is. To all the motherfuckers hating on Jay-Z (and trust me, I've met a few): stop it right now. He is one of the best ever, perhaps THE best ever, and there's nothing anybody can do about it. Definitely listen to this album - while September 11th 2001 will continue to go down as one of the worst days in the history of everything, just remember that every cloud has a silver lining (or whatever that saying is), and this, ladies and gentlemen, is that very shiny silver lining.
Best Tracks: The Ruler's Back, Takeover, Izzo (H.O.V.A.), U Don't Know, Heart Of the City (Ain't No Love), Never Change, Song Cry, Renagade, Blueprint (Momma Loves Me)
Worst Tracks: Girls, Girls, Girls Part 2
Whether you're a fellow Jay-Z defender, or a hater that needs a little more convincing, here's all my other Hov posts that you can check out.
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