50. Jay-Z, "The Blueprint"

 

I am on the record as not especially liking the other Jay-Z albums that have appeared on this list, but you know what?  I liked this album quite a bit.  I think a lot of credit has to go to Kanye, who produced some of the album's best tracks, like "Takeover," "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)," and "Never Change."

"Izzo," in particular, is just a great fucking song.  Built on the skeleton of "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5, Kanye West's sharp as fuck production gives Hova the perfect platform to unspool his languid, boastful rap.  ("Hova," incidentally, is a nod to "Jehova," as in "They call me J-Hova cause the flow is religious,” from "A Million and One Questions".)  The song tells the story of Jay's start as a dealer:

H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A
For shizzle, my nizzle, used to dribble down in VA
Was herbing 'em in the home of the Terrapins
Got it dirt cheap for them
Plus if they was short with cheese, I would work with them
Brought in weed, got rid of that dirt for them
Wasn't born hustlers, I was birthing 'em

"Heart of the City," also produced by Ye, borrows heavily from "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City," the Bobby "Blue" Bland classic, and Jay talks about how he persists when others fail:

And then the Fugees gon' break up, now every day I wake up
Somebody got somethin' to say
What's all the fuckin' fussin' for?
Because I'm grubbin' more?
And I pack heat like I'm the oven door?

I also love the couplet "Get a couple chicks, get 'em to try to do E/Hopefully they'll ménage before I reach my garage," like menage as a verb, of course lol.  

In "Renegade," produced by Eminem, Hova yields the spotlight to his guest, and Eminem delivers what a lot of people have said is his best verse ever:

See, I'm a poet to some, a regular modern-day Shakespeare
Jesus Christ, the king of these Latter-day Saints here
To shatter the picture in which of that as they paint me as
A monger of hate, satanist, scatter-brained atheist
But that ain't the case, see, it's a matter of taste
We as a people decide if Shady's as bad as they say he is
Or is he the latter, a gateway to escape?
Media scapegoat who they can be mad at today

It looks complicated written out, but you have to hear it.  Em is absolutely flying, and it is a tour de force of rapping.  

I won't even get into "Takeover," an elaborately long diss track built on the Doors' "Five to One," and disassembling Nas and Mobb Deep.  In an ironic twist, Nas responded to the track with his own track that put him back on the map.  A rising tide and all.

This album was released on September 11, 2001, when the country was...distracted by other events (the same day as Dylan's Love and Theft, incidentally), but still went on to sell over 2 million copies and be named Pitchfork's Number 5 of the "Best 200 Albums of the 2000s," just behind Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

I think this is the last time we'll see Jay-Z.  I can guarantee you it's not the last time we'll see Nas, so who really won?

Is this album in my personal Top 100? I like it but no.