I'm sorry but Blueprint 2 fukkING SUCKED

[ShaDynasty]

He got cocky, well cockier after The Blueprint was acclaimed and thought a double album was easy.

Theres a few good tracks but most of it I never liked. It feels rushed. He had some of the greatest producers on here and they gave him duds, and he had nothing new to say at this point, especially over 20 plus tracks.

 

[Taadow]

The only people who will not allow themselves to enjoy this album are the ones who think Jiggermayne
is the unequivocal GOAT rapper/hustler/chess player/businessman/business, man

But if you just wanna hear some good rapping, you gotta love it.
It is definitely Jay’s funniest album; it’s worth listening to just from a comedic standpoint.
Even the songs that aren’t supposed to be funny (“Meet The Parents”, “Ballad Of The Fallen Soldier”)

I think BP2 is the Jay-Z album that Shawn Carter wants you to love the most. It is he at his rawest.

That is his LL Cool J album. He took artistic chances on that album.
He let you in, maaaan. He was vulnerable.
He told you his dreams. He laughed. He took you with him to the club. He tried to teach you stuff.

And this is how you repay him. Tsk tsk. He retired because y’all didn’t like this album - née, Him.

 

[Pop123]

I hated that album, lol.

A lot of Jay-z's albums are ehh...and I'm a fan. Try to listen to them today, lol...besides the 3-4 undeniable ones, a lot of that sh!t aged like cottage cheese

 

[Mister Terrific]

The weird guitar plucking trend used in beats from that era really aged horribly.

 

[JustCKing]

The only people who will not allow themselves to enjoy this album are the ones who think Jiggermayne
is the unequivocal GOAT rapper/hustler/chess player/businessman/business, man

But if you just wanna hear some good rapping, you gotta love it.
It is definitely Jay’s funniest album; it’s worth listening to just from a comedic standpoint.
Even the songs that aren’t supposed to be funny (“Meet The Parents”, “Ballad Of The Fallen Soldier”)

I think BP2 is the Jay-Z album that Shawn Carter wants you to love the most. It is he at his rawest.

That is his LL Cool J album. He took artistic chances on that album.
He let you in, maaaan. He was vulnerable.
He told you his dreams. He laughed. He took you with him to the club. He tried to teach you stuff.

And this is how you repay him. Tsk tsk. He retired because y’all didn’t like this album - née, Him.

The rapping wasn't the problem. This was an album where Jay Z tried to force us to believe he was the GOAT instead of letting the music make his case. He accomplished that with Blueprint. With Blueprint 2, the pressure was on because he was defeated by an opponent he wrote off as a has been in Nas. Nas ethered him and made a huge comeback commercially and critically. Jay Z tried to one up himself and Nas by dropping a double album.

And he was no LL in terms of making women friendly songs. I mean, we got to see the difference in real time. Compare "Luv U Better" and "Excuse Me Miss". LL Cool J sounds right at home meanwhile Jay is out here talking about "nobody moving units but Em, Pimp Juice and us amid shout outs to the Roc" on a song where he is supposed to be wooing a woman.

There were no real artistic risks on that album.

 

[DrexlersFade]

I hated that album, lol.

A lot of Jay-z's albums are ehh...and I'm a fan. Try to listen to them today, lol...besides the 3-4 undeniable ones, a lot of that sh!t aged like cottage cheese

There needs to be a dialogue about this his shyt has aged horribly.

 

[Pop123]

There needs to be a dialogue about this his shyt has aged horribly.

Bro...for real for real.

 

[Taadow]

The rapping wasn't the problem. This was an album where Jay Z tried to force us to believe he was the GOAT instead of letting the music make his case. He accomplished that with Blueprint. With Blueprint 2, the pressure was on because he was defeated by an opponent he wrote off as a has been in Nas. Nas ethered him and made a huge comeback commercially and critically. Jay Z tried to one up himself and Nas by dropping a double album.

And he was no LL in terms of making women friendly songs. I mean, we got to see the difference in real time. Compare "Luv U Better" and "Excuse Me Miss". LL Cool J sounds right at home meanwhile Jay is out here talking about "nobody moving units but Em, Pimp Juice and us amid shout outs to the Roc" on a song where he is supposed to be wooing a woman.

There were no real artistic risks on that album.

I disagree.

With BP2 all the pressure was off. He got his 5-Mics with The Blueprint. Now he got to make the album he
wanted to make instead of trying to make a “classic”. And this is the kinda thing I mean: people are talking about
this album in context of when it came out. That was damn near 20 years ago - let if fuccing go!
If you just listen the gottdamn songs with no strings attached, it can still be enjoyed.


When I say BP2 is Jay’s LL album, I don’t mean making “girl songs”.
I mean LL does WTF he wants on albums and gives AF about what the critics think later.
IMO that’s one of the things that makes LL GOAT (which he is).
On every LL album he has 2-3 songs where you be like “L was on some other chit on this one”…sometimes it
works, sometimes it goes left. BP2 was Jay trying different stuff instead of making another Jay album.

”Meet The Parents” was a risk. Jay wasn’t the type to make story raps about raising your kids right.
And the story was ham-fisted. You coulda guessed the ending.

”Ballad For The Fallen Soldier” was a risk. That chit dropped when dudes was fighting an actual war
and he tried to tie those ideas together. It was laughable.

”What They Gonna Do” was a risk. Jigga doing dancehall records? That wasn’t a risk?

The title track wasn’t a risk? He was rhyming over classical music!

Anytime anyone has a Twista feature, they’re taking a risk. You know what I mean.

He had the nerve to rhyme over re-used beats on some mixtape chit (“Watcher 2”, “U Don’t Know 2”)

There’s no way I woulda made “A Dream” with Faith Evans in the studio with me. She shoulda socked
him in his big-ass lips (word to Jayo Felony).

Even then, Jay wasn’t making records to “woo women” before “Excuse Me Miss”. That wasn’t his lane.

 

[JustCKing]

I disagree.

With BP2 all the pressure was off. He got his 5-Mics with The Blueprint. Now he got to make the album he
wanted to make instead of trying to make a “classic”. And this is the kinda thing I mean: people are talking about
this album in context of when it came out. That was damn near 20 years ago - let if fuccing go!
If you just listen the gottdamn songs with no strings attached, it can still be enjoyed.


When I say BP2 is Jay’s LL album, I don’t mean making “girl songs”.
I mean LL does WTF he wants on albums and gives AF about what the critics think later.
IMO that’s one of the things that makes LL GOAT (which he is).
On every LL album he has 2-3 songs where you be like “L was on some other chit on this one”…sometimes it
works, sometimes it goes left. BP2 was Jay trying different stuff instead of making another Jay album.

”Meet The Parents” was a risk. Jay wasn’t the type to make story raps about raising your kids right.
And the story was ham-fisted. You coulda guessed the ending.

”Ballad For The Fallen Soldier” was a risk. That chit dropped when dudes was fighting an actual war
and he tried to tie those ideas together. It was laughable.

”What They Gonna Do” was a risk. Jigga doing dancehall records? That wasn’t a risk?

The title track wasn’t a risk? He was rhyming over classical music!

Anytime anyone has a Twista feature, they’re taking a risk. You know what I mean.

He had the nerve to rhyme over re-used beats on some mixtape chit (“Watcher 2”, “U Don’t Know 2”)

There’s no way I woulda made “A Dream” with Faith Evans in the studio with me. She shoulda socked
him in his big-ass lips (word to Jayo Felony).

Even then, Jay wasn’t making records to “woo women” before “Excuse Me Miss”. That wasn’t his lane.

I'm not looking atvthis in the context of 20 years ago. The same songs I liked on BP2 then, I still like. The songs that I didn't like, I still don't like.

No, I don't see them songs as risks especially when he has songs like "Lyrical Exercise" or even most of Blueprint where he's showing his more vulnerable, introspective side.

A dancehall song featuring Sean Paul is not risk especially not produced by Timbaland. Jay Z is at home over Timbaland beats. "What You Gonna Do" was a miss in regard to the Jay/Timbaland tandem.

"Meet The Parents" and "Ballad" may be risks. Jay featuring Twista, however isn't a risk. Jay already had a song with Twista and fast paced, double time rapping isn't outside of Jay's wheel house.

 

[Menna]

J is overrated as an artist but he’s a great snake so he very good at business

 

[Karank0]

This was a great watch, Sha Stimuli is on it and gave a lot of background information about how some of the songs came out.
The roasting of "A Dream" was

 

[⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐]

the blueprint 2.1 re release where they cut it down to 1 disc was pretty good

an artist should have to of had a substance abuse issue to justify having a release so bad that they make an alternative tracklist that’s a trimmed down version featuring 50 percent of the original project

 

[patscorpio]

Absolutely was not a focused double album..the filler was crazy...for some reason fukk all nite used to be on repeat for me..shyt had a groove to it for a track that most considered filler lol

 

[KingsOfKings]

youre notbwrong

 

[987654321]

The weird guitar plucking trend used in beats from that era really aged horribly.

That, the early 2000’s Spanish guitar bullshyt, the early 2000’s arcade/video games sounds, and the 1998-1999 John woo/ Hong Kong action cinema beats piss me off so bad now lol.