Well, it's back to college tomorrow, and as I said in that announcement I posted a couple of weeks ago, I am going to be doing much less in the way of reviews, and more reaction series for different discographies that I have yet to explore. Just thought I'd better remind everyone of that, and also offer up one final piece before I go back, since the write-ups aren't going to be as frequent from now on.
Readers of the blog might well know that in my last post I did a review for Jay-Z's 7th studio album, The Blueprint²: The Gift & The Curse, a double album that had more than a few flashes of brilliance, but was bogged down in some filler that appeared to have had less effort put into it than the bread and butter that Jay snacked on between recordings. But it wasn't just me who thought that - the critics all came down harshly on Hov's new body of work, claiming that it had no right to be a double album, and wasn't a worthy follow up to the classic that it borrowed its name from. Some even said that the album signified Jay losing his reign over the genre of rap music, and Jay's ego inevitably was not going to stand for such criticism.
Since he was the head of the label and could do whatever the fuck he wanted, Jay decided that in order to get back at critics who named the album too long and too rushed, he would chop the album up, take out the nice pieces, and leave behind the offal that was songs like "As One" and "What They Gonna Do". How long he spent doing this, or if he was involved with the sequencing of this new tracklist at all, is anyone's guess, but the point is that this re-release entitled Blueprint 2.1 earned it's place on store shelves on April 8th of 2003, five months after the original album had been put out. And immediately there was a problem.
Whoever sequenced this thing did a fucking awful job.
So, for those who don't know, here's the tracklist, excluding the bonus tracks (which I'll get to later).
So, let's start with some of the positives here. They did retain all of the first five songs from the first disc, which is a good thing, as I honestly think those are easily some of the most entertaining and well-written songs on the project. It's actually cool that he could admit that he started with some of his best material to draw you into the original double discer, and I'm very pleased that these songs made it into this re-release. Unfortunately, after this it becomes a complete mess. I don't know who read my last review, but if you did you'd remember that I readily dismissed "All Around The World", and best believe three days later I still do - that song really is just the most generic bullshit imaginable. Thankfully, they do keep "The Bounce", and actually credit Kanye this time round, so that's great. I don't know why they put that one in amongst all of the second disc picks, though, as all the other ones from the first disc are towards the start. In fact, "The Bounce" is the only song here that breaks the order that otherwise remains the same as the way these tracks appeared on the original album.
Looking at the picks for the second disc, I'm inclined to believe that it was a bit of a rush job. They've picked all of tracks 2 to 5 from that album, as well as the final bonus track, which just comes across as lazy to me. I understand Hov wanting to keep the Lenny Kravitz collab, even if the song didn't actually work, but why include the remix which should never have been on a new studio album in the first place? Are you trying to penalise yourself here, Hova? And while "Meet the Parents" was easily one of the strongest cuts from the original album, "Some How Some Way" was another that felt a bit like filler, and as a callback to a more celebrated early Jay cut. And where the fuck is "A Ballad For the Fallen Soldier"? And speaking of songs that didn't make it, what about "Poppin' Tags"? That track is great!!
It seems, then, that whoever sequenced this might not have had the same opinions as me (read: he was wrong), but as a last resort to help this project, buyers in Europe received not one, not two but five bonus tracks, three of which weren't even on the original The Blueprint²: The Gift & The Curse disc! The bonus songs were:
Excitingly, this shows that they did include the excellent diss track that was another one conspicuous by its absence on the standard Blueprint 2.1 album. Unfortunately, they also included the misogynistic rant that is "Bitches and Sisters", so we're not out of the swamp yet. But what about those other three tracks? Well, let's have a look at them, and give them the reviews I would give in a normal review post
Excuse Me Miss Again (prod. The Neptunes)
Stop (prod. Swizz Beatz)
Hov takes a hot mess of a Swizz Beatz instrumental and attempts to make something out of it with some nice flows and rhymes, but unfortunately his efforts are in vein - that hook doesn't help either. This song isn't great, and honestly I'd rather listen to almost anything on the original The Blueprint²: The Gift & The Curse album.
Beware...(Jay-Z Remix) (feat. Panjabi MC) (prod. Panjabi MC)
The only one out of five bonus tracks to actually get credits listed out inside the booklet - that's useful. I don't know what the fuck I just listened to, but I'm fairly sure I've heard it before in some memes as that stereotypical Indian music, which admittedly I did find funny at first. Unfortunately, this shit grew wearisome quickly, and this song remains as a funny novelty piece more than anything else.
Well, that was weird. Anyway, it seems that, while Hova (or more likely Hova's sequencing team) tried his best, Blueprint 2.1 didn't turn out as well as it very well could have. So, ladies and gentlemen, I propose to you my very own Blueprint 2 remake - Blueprint 2.2.
And there we have it - a classic album from Jay-Z if you ask me, sequenced to perfection with no skips, and fantastic hits and deep cuts all intertwined to create an ever so slightly commercial masterpiece. Man, that shit is good. It's just a damned shame that the shit was never released.
Thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment