Blueprint Date Release For Free

West produced four of the thirteen tracks on the album, including the songs "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" and the controversial "Takeover", which included diss lyrics aimed at rappers Nas and Prodigy, while Just Blaze produced three tracks, "Girls, Girls, Girls", "Song Cry", and "U Don't Know", also including the hidden bonus

20. Jay Z, 'The Blueprint' Released on September 11th, 2001, the striking artwork for 'The Blueprint' shows a picture of Jay Z taken from above smoking a guitar. There are a number of items on a table next to the rapper on the cover of his seminal album, including a microphone.

For others, you'll need to have a through-the-viewfinder perspective of the scene (e.g. wireless live view). Zander Olsen's wrapped trees and Golpeavisa's food face are two such projects that come to mind. Update: Reader Marco points out that the photographer behind the image was Dan Tobin Smith.

Yes, that's right - Jay wrote his seminal album in two days.

At the time of the release, Jay-Z was 32 years old, which in Hip-hop is the twilight. The genre had always been a young man's game, serving as the outlet for teenage rebellion.

In a mixed review, Slant Magazine's William McBee found The Blueprint 3 "predictable", "complacent", and "a hip-hop feast, for sure, filled to the brim with elite production and elite rapping, but it lacks the hungriness, the spirit, and the craziness that marks a classic album".

Background. The Blueprint was reportedly cut in two weeks, with Jay-Z recording nine songs in two days. At the time, he was awaiting two criminal trials for gun possession and assault. He was also engaged in feuds with various rappers such as Jadakiss, Fat Joe and in particular Nas and Mobb Deep member Prodigy.