Roc-a-Fella
Produced by Kanye West, Just Blaze, Bink, Timbaland, Eminem, Poke and Tone
Released: September 2001

TRACKLISTING

01 The Ruler’s Back

02 Takeover

03 Izzo (H.O.V.A.)

04 Girls, Girls, Girls

05 Jigga That Nigga

06 U Don’t Know

07 Hola’ Hovito

08 Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love)

09 Never Change

10 Song Cry

11 All I Need

12 Renegade

13 Blueprint (Momma Loves Me)

Prior to releasing The Blueprint – on 11 September 2001 no less – Jay-Z was considered one of hip-hop’s leading MCs. The man himself thought he was close to the summit set by his late friend, The Notorious B.I.G., rapping on ‘Hola’ Hovito’, ‘If I ain’t better than Big, I’m the closest one’. But once these 13 tracks had sunk in, revealing their lyrical dexterity and soulful arrangements, the debate was effectively over. The Blueprint took the rapper born Shawn Corey Carter to a new level: it was Jay-Z’s world and everyone else was just living in it.

Jay-Z had cut an album a year since his dramatic 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt, but increasingly there was a belief that he would never match its street tales and pulp memoir. At the same time he was awaiting trial on two separate criminal charges (gun possession and assault). But it all proved to be inspiration as opposed to an impediment. The extensive lyrics were reportedly written in all of two days, and the MC met criticism head on before transcending it. On ‘Takeover’ he turns on Mobb Deep’s Prodigy and, in particular, Nas, dropping a bunker-busting diss track on the two rappers that still stings.

But even as Jay breaks down Nas’ musical output as ‘one hot album every ten year average’, producer Kanye West is manipulating The Doors’ ‘Five to One’ so that the bass is confrontational and the melody hallucinatory.

The Blueprint was crucial in returning the art of sampling to the forefront of hip-hop, with young producers such as West – who, a decade later, would be Jay-Z’s partner in the spotlight – and Just Blaze returning soul classics from the 1960s and 1970s (the music Shawn Carter grew up listening to in Brooklyn), to the radio. The record sounds inclusive, sturdy, free of quick fixes.

That’s Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland’s ‘Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City’ that’s repurposed by Kanye West for ‘Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love)’, and on the song the mood is defiant but self-aware. The Blueprint is a turning point in Jay-Z’s evolution, moving from the exultant autobiographical swagger of his early hits towards a more nuanced outlook. The boasting of ‘Never Change’, set to a sweet melody that could score a slow dance at the end of the night, matches a sad wariness to the hustler’s lifestyle. ‘You are now looking at a 40 million boy,’ Jay declares on ‘U Don’t Know’, and it’s clear that’s just the start.

When he’s faced with the age-old topic of appreciating women, the rapper turns it into a tour-de-force on ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’, traversing NYC as he accumulates a United Nation’s worth of companionship. ‘I got this model chick that don’t cook or clean/But she dress her ass off and her walk is mean,’ observes Jay, before later noting, ‘Got a chick from Peru, that sniff Peru/She got a cousin at customs that get shit through’. The song is funny, but also telling – the insights are sharp – and line by line it’s a perfect example of the rapper’s magisterial flow, working on and off the beat so that the story has punctuation for every move.

The only guest brought in is Eminem, and the result is ‘Renegade’, where a deftly expressive bass part and spectral flourishes turn into a song where the two stars break down their own histories. It’s caustic about the media, but like so much of The Blueprint it also looks past the initial target and finds that it all leads back home. This is an album where it’s easy to sing along, but the meaning runs deep and true.