No. 464: The Blueprint

Band: Jay-Z
Album: The Blueprint
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: After a string of three decidedly pop-oriented albums, New York rapper Jay-Z took to a new producer to record part of his next album. The result was the album's first single ("Izzo (H.O.V.A.)"), the album's best battle song ("Takeover") and Jay's most evocative song to date ("Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)").
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: This is a timing situation, in my mind. I prefer Jay's subsequent album, "The Black Album."
Best song: "Takeover" is the most aggressive on the album and "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" has probably my favorite rap lyric ever.
Worst song: "Renegade." Eminem is not a good producer.
Is it awesome?: It's pretty great.

In an interview with MTV before "The Blueprint" was released, in typical fashion, Jay-Z told the interviewer he had perfected the ability to make a hit song. He cited "Change Clothes" as an example and was predicting "The Blueprint" to be less commercial and more soulful.

It was. Released September 11, 2001, the album was the soundtrack for a depressing fall. Coming off a misdemeanor plea to stabbing Lance Rivera (and another gun charge), the album was set to establish Jay -- in classic hip hop fashion, even when the rapper is the king -- as the front runner. The giant chip on Jay's shoulder may have been manufactured, his producers brought more soul samples to his work, foregoing the Neptunes-style pop to which he'd based so many of his recent hits.

Similarly, Jay found a new protege to help him back to the top. Kanye West produced the album's three best tracks with an ear for sound. Let's be clear, "Takeover" isn't really a production job, but rather a full-on lift, as West takes the Doors' "Five to One" nearly note for note. Still, West's choice of the song is remarkable and fitting and one that accents Jay's full-on venom toward Mebb Deep and Nas.

West's lift of Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Ain't No Love In the Heart of the City" is similarly great and Jay's soulful rap is great. The melancholy of the record is striking and it provided a nice soundtrack. Of course, "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" is one of the best songs Jay ever recorded, including my favorite line Jay ever uttered: "He who does not feel me is not real to me/Therefore he doesn't exist/So poof, vamoose son of a bitch."

The album is not solely West's. "Girls, Girls, Girls" is a more subdued commercial track while "Song Cry" is similarly tender. "Jigga that Nigga" was a single of consequence, though it's mostly just a really repetitive record.

The album has some of Jay's most interesting songs and was the soundtrack for a moment in time for hip hop. It partially bridges the gap between soulful rap of the backpack set and the pop rap of the late 1990s.

No. 248: Reasonable Doubt

Band: Jay-Z
Album: Reasonable Doubt
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: And... Here we have the best MC in rap music today. Jay-Z ruled most of this decade and the latter half of the previous decade. “Reasonable Doubt” was Jay's first record, the album that laid the foundation for his street rhymes rivaled only by Notorious B.I.G. in terms of East Coast rap. Commercially, it's not where his other records are, but it's artistically amazing.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: This is the type of record that should be higher, obviously, if only to reflect the modern record-buyer.
Best song: “Brooklyn's Finest” combines B.I.G. and Jay-Z and is a monstrously great song.”Ain't No Nigga” and “Dead Presidents II” are also fantastic.
Worst song: “Cashmere Thoughts” isn't great.
Is it awesome?: Yes.

In his primer on the AV Club, Nathan Rabin writes that Jay-Z is, first and foremost, a businessman. His records are the wonderful intersection of art and entertainment, but entertainment rules over the art most of the time.

Jay-Z learned from his debut. The stuff that sold wasn't necessarily the stuff on the album; But, his ability to ear our the best producers and write the best hooks were what mattered. “Reasonable Doubt” retells his ability to come out of the ghetto by hustling and working the streets.

Here's where the record is different from his subsequent records and different from the so-called gangster rap that has ruled the airwaves: “Reasonable Doubt” casts no shining light on this lifestyle. Like B.I.G. Before him, Jay-Z doesn't promote the drug-dealing and hustling lifestyle; It's simply a survival method for him.

“Ain't No Nigga” is the closest, but it's clearly a simple hook (and, not surprisingly, one of the more popular songs on the record). “Dead Presidents II,” of course, is a survival song; A record that gives the street life its due without glorifying it. It is, of course, also the source of the Nas/Jay-Z feud, as Jay-Z sampled Nas' voice on the record.

Again, that we're at the midway point of the list and we only have a handful of rap records is a shame. The list woefully underestimates rap music largely – I imagine – because the RS editors think rap is scary, profane or both. That's too bad. In the same way that blues and folk music told the plight of the working person, rap has done the same.