The Blueprint 3 [Clean Lyrics]

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Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide - John Bush
When Jay-Z first made a series out of his best album, 2001's The Blueprint, it became a game of high expectations. The Blueprint of the first volume was Jay-Z as vital as he'd ever been, storming back to the hardcore after a few years of commercial success. The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse was a complete turn, a set of half-cocked crossovers, bloated to bursting with guest features that obscured his talents. The Blueprint 3 is somewhere between the two, closer to the vitality and energy of the original but not without the crossover bids and guest features of the latter (albeit much better this time). Kanye West is in the producer's chair for seven tracks, and it's ...
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Editorial Reviews

All Music Guide - John Bush
When Jay-Z first made a series out of his best album, 2001's The Blueprint, it became a game of high expectations. The Blueprint of the first volume was Jay-Z as vital as he'd ever been, storming back to the hardcore after a few years of commercial success. The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse was a complete turn, a set of half-cocked crossovers, bloated to bursting with guest features that obscured his talents. The Blueprint 3 is somewhere between the two, closer to the vitality and energy of the original but not without the crossover bids and guest features of the latter (albeit much better this time). Kanye West is in the producer's chair for seven tracks, and it's clear he was reaching for the same energy level as the original Blueprint (which he produced). "What We Talkin' About" begins the album with a wave of surging, oppressive synth, while Jay-Z enumerates (with an intriguing lack of detail) what he's said and what's been said about him, ending with a nod not to the past but the future (and Barack Obama). West also produced the second, "Thank You," and while it starts with typical Jay-Hova brio, the last verse piles on the unrelenting criticism of unnamed rappers doomed to weak sales. There's plenty more lyrical violence to come, but most of the targets are much safer than they were eight years earlier. (Jay doesn't sound very convincing when he claims in "D.O.A. [Death of Auto-Tune]" that it's not "politically correct" to rail against one of the most reviled trends in pop music during the 2000s.) From there, he branches out with a calculating type of finesse, drawing in certain demographics via a roster of guests, from Young Jeezy (hardcore) to Drake (teens) to Kid Cudi (the backpacker crowd). The king of the crossovers here is "Empire State of Mind," a New York flag-waver with plenty of landmark name-dropping that turns into a great anthem with help on the chorus from Alicia Keys. The Blueprint 3 isn't a one-man tour de force like the first. Jay is upstaged once or twice by his guests, and while the productions are stellar throughout -- Timbaland appears three times, and No I.D. gets multiple credits also -- it's clear there's less on Jay's mind this time. Not tuned out like on Kingdom Come, but more content with his dominance as a rap godfather in 2009. [The Blueprint 3 was also released in a clean version.]
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 9/8/2009
  • Label: Roc Nation
  • UPC: 075678957734
  • Catalog Number: 521431
  • Sales rank: 42,746

Tracks

Disc 1
  1. 1 What We Talkin' About - Like Steele (4:03)
  2. 2 Thank You (4:10)
  3. 3 D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune) (4:15)
  4. 4 Run This Town - Rihanna (4:27)
  5. 5 Empire State of Mind - Alicia Keys (4:36)
  6. 6 Real as It Gets - Young Jeezy (4:12)
  7. 7 On to the Next One - Swizz Beatz (4:17)
  8. 8 Off That - Drake (4:06)
  9. 9 A Star Is Born - J. Cole (3:48)
  10. 10 Venus vs. Mars (3:10)
  11. 11 Already Home - Kid Cudi (4:29)
  12. 12 Hate - Kanye West (2:31)
  13. 13 Reminder (4:18)
  14. 14 So Ambitious (4:12)
  15. 15 Young Forever (4:13)
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Album Credits

Performance Credits
Jay-Z Primary Artist
Kevin Randolph Keyboards
Luke Steele Vocals
Jeff Bhasker Keyboards
K. Briscoe Vocals
Technical Credits
Bert Keyes Composer
Sylvia Robinson Composer
Marcos Valle Composer
P. Williams Composer
Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon Producer
Tony Dawsey Mastering
Timbaland Producer
Andrew Dawson Engineer
Karl Heilbron Engineer
Chris Godbey Engineer
Shawn Carter Composer, Executive Producer
Andrew Coleman Arranger, Engineer
Ann Mincieli Vocal Recording, Keyboard Engineer
The Neptunes Producer
Kanye West Composer, Producer, Executive Producer
Swizz Beatz Producer
Alicia Keys Composer
Luke Steele Vocal Recording
Angela Hunte Composer, Producer
Hart Gunther Assistant Arranger
Miki Tsutsumi Engineer
Gimel "Young Guru" Katon Engineer
Jeff Bhasker Composer, Producer
Marcos Tovar Engineer
Jason Wilkie Assistant Arranger
Johnny Mollings Composer
A. Graham Composer
Scott Mescudi Composer
N. Briscoe Composer
L. Elliott Composer
L. Mollings Composer
The Inkredibles Producer
M. Valle Composer
J. Harmon Composer
M. Carpenter Composer
A. Goodman Composer
M. Jordan Composer
E. Wilson Composer
F. Mertens Composer
J. Jenkins Composer
T. Mosley Composer
Al Shuckburgh Composer
Janeït Sewell-Ulepic Composer
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    Posted September 7, 2009

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