FREDDY WILL's BLOG: JAY Z

FREDDY WILL's BLOG

FREDDY WILL's BLOG: JAY Z - BLUEPRINT 3

JAY Z - BLUEPRINT 3

It’s beyond reasonable doubt that Jigga man is one of the IT rappers today if not the most IT. Many youngsters in the rap game may not understand the hype behind Jay Z but older heads who were addicted to rap in the mid 90’s all have a common narration that involves rap legends like the Fugees, Nas, Mob Deep, The Notorious BIG and Thug Life with Tupac Shakur. Back when Snoop Dogg was Snoop Doggy Dogg and the West Side Connection, Chino XL, Tha Luniz and Wu Tang Clan were chart toppers international (not to say they are not right now), Jay Z aka J’Hova arrived with a crisp, business-like and stylish but deeply upmarketable swagger and he stripped the crown away with his Rocafella imprint. But like every successful rap musician, he would be prone to judgments. How to remain real while selling tens of millions of records without selling out on his roots? How to establish a triumphant legacy internationally regardless of the mêlée in street wars, while hip hop critics tainted his brand of music as glorifying to drug dealing, wasteful flamboyance, brutal violence and Misogamy? Rap music is supposed to be a musical art form which artists embark on to recount on the menace in their often victimized and economically deprived world as well as a ticket for such artists to evade a life of psychological inferiority due to poverty and death in the streets and to en wealth themselves to become ghetto bred philanthropists.

Jay Z successfully outsold his counterparts, topped every chart worldwide and won the hearts of every hip hop fan including the love of Destiny’s Child lead singer Beyonce’ Knowles. He went to war with some of the greatest opponents one could ever have in the hip hop circuit and squashed beefs that were meant to ensnare his career while making a steady climb for prominence.


                              Click on the picture above to watch the video for 'Run This Town' - feat. Rihanna and Kanye West

From Ma$e to DMX to Nore of CNN, from Ludacris to Nelly, Eminem to 50 Cent, Lil Wayne to Kanye West and Master P to Young Jeesy, Jay Z hung in with the old and new and finally it became undisputable that Z had clinched the throne. Some even go as far as saying he is hip hop it self, charging that after his farewell BLACK ALBUM he returned from his retirement in order to save a dying genre from being burried alive. From CO CEO of Rocafella Records to president of Def Jam. Jay Z went on to amass the most wealth than any rapper in history and tied with the Beatles in the amount of number one (1) albums to debut on the billboards chart. Now anyone who does not think I’m a Jay Z fan would be foolish. My blog about Jay Z's Death Of Auto tone have come to be misunderstood by some of my readers but I was merely defending auto-tone as a studio equipment and not just a gimmick that could be faded away because of a song. As it turned out, I was right because auto-tone is still very much in play as top selling artists like Keri Hilson, Lil Wayne, Drake, Will I am, Mariah Carey and even the Queen of R&B, Mary J Blidge herself are among a sea of artists who have boldly continued to use the equipment to create new chart topping songs after Jay Z dropped the death of auto-tone track.

He debuted on the scene with Reasonable Doubt which many did not quite understand at the time. It became clear by the time In My Life Time volume 1 hit music shelves that critics were not goint to be giving ‘Jigga’ a free pass. In My Life Time volume 2 came next and did amazing numbers. So did volume 3. His legacy was already stamped in the music industry before his follow up classic, The Dynasty.


                                         Click the artwork above to watch Jay Z 'D.O.A. (DEATH OF AUTO-TONE) video

But on one knew what September 11^{th 2001 would bring. The Blueprint was released that same day when terrorists attacked New York (which is his home city) and I don’t know about anyone else but that album was consoling to me during that time. I think the Blueprint gave the streets something to hold on to during that difficult time. Every artists worst nightmare is: working hard to create a program only for it to be jacked. For that reason alone I totally disagree with leaking an album before it comes out officially. I’ve always went out and bought the original album after hearing the leaked version. Just because, if for some reason the leak was a sabotage to hip hop, I don’t want to be a part of it. But again, Jay Z always handled the situation with class. He resently sat with OPRA (who has openly express lack of support for hip hop) and did a lengthy interview with her for the O magazine in which he talked about the streets as he knew it and how he came out of it. He talked about what made him come back to his old neighbourbood even as many who made it out of the neighbourhood left and never came back. The BLUEPRINT 3 is yet another classic that ushers hip hoppers into another new era. The lyrics are mature, the production is cutting edge and the buzz is crazy!! Can’t wait to peal off the CD wrapper and read the inlay while I listen to the joint. BLUEPRINT 3 already has a slot in my CD Changer. It’s a commercial joint that I feel goes well with Fab’s Loso’s Way as well as Freddy Will’s While I’m Still Young – The Talking Drums 1.2v. (Smile).

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