Would you say The Bluepring was Jay-Z at his most calculating?

[Piff Perkins]

why do u think jay z lasted at the top longer than any rapper?

no shade but why Nas ain’t been plat or had a hit since 2002?


seriously what make jay z so unique in that regards?

snoop can make a hit but can’t sell records

why is Jay differen?

Jay has done a better job at staying current than virtually any rapper; Drake is probably the only other guy who is in that conversation. Beats, fashion, features, never disappears. And unlike Drake, Jay played the game way longer. The radio game, the DJ game, print media, interviews...wherever there was a place to be sold, he was there selling himself. I think it's obvious Kanye extended his career/reign too. Kanye got him back to that next level of white support, bigger tours and bigger sounding music (BP3). Weak album but clearly accomplished what it set out to do. And everything since then - WTT, the Beyonce tours/collabs, etc - has further worked to grow him

Snoop had Pharrell and when you look back, those albums sold well. As did the No Limit albums. Literally from 1993 to 2006 everything he dropped went plat and had good-to-amazing first week sales. Pretty amazing run, and he had all types of reinventions in there. But didn't continue to put up those numbers post-2006 like Jay did for whatever reason. Too many ehh albums? Didn't have the big singles anymore? Or just too old? Dunno.

 

[Regular_P]

So making his best album was calculated?

 

[Cladyclad]

Jay has done a better job at staying current than virtually any rapper; Drake is probably the only other guy who is in that conversation. Beats, fashion, features, never disappears. And unlike Drake, Jay played the game way longer. The radio game, the DJ game, print media, interviews...wherever there was a place to be sold, he was there selling himself. I think it's obvious Kanye extended his career/reign too. Kanye got him back to that next level of white support, bigger tours and bigger sounding music (BP3). Weak album but clearly accomplished what it set out to do. And everything since then - WTT, the Beyonce tours/collabs, etc - has further worked to grow him

Snoop had Pharrell and when you look back, those albums sold well. As did the No Limit albums. Literally from 1993 to 2006 everything he dropped went plat and had good-to-amazing first week sales. Pretty amazing run, and he had all types of reinventions in there. But didn't continue to put up those numbers post-2006 like Jay did for whatever reason. Too many ehh albums? Didn't have the big singles anymore? Or just too old? Dunno.

I agree with a lot of what u posted except that Kanye blueprint 3 stuff. Idk why that is constantly brought up. Empire State of mind was the one and Kanye wasn’t involved with that record

 

[TheMailMan]

I'm sure he didn't have Trackmaster, timbo, and Eminem on there just to not chase the charts . His singles were super hit chasing. It's the album cuts that made the album as great as it was . Plus Jay was busy on the mixtape scene as well so that helped

 

[Mac Ten]

Jay was getting dissed by everyone around that time(Prodigy, Jadakiss, Fat Joe, etc)


I felt like he made Blueprint with his back against the wall.


Jay also had a jail sentence hanging over his head too with the Un situation if he didn't chill.


So Yea


BP2 was Jay at his worst and Black Album was when he killed himself and then he came back stronger after his retirement.

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[Piff Perkins]

I agree with a lot of what u posted except that Kanye blueprint 3 stuff. Idk why that is constantly brought up. Empire State of mind was the one and Kanye wasn’t involved with that record

To be fair Run This Town was the first single and that first big record for the album. Went triple plat, #2 on the billboard 100 (compared to ESOM going #1), huge features, etc. I think the Kanye connection in general has to be considered. Sure that album would be outtahere even if there was no Kanye influence. But where is Jay without WTT, Kanye's Blueprint records, etc? Kanye enhanced Jay's pop sensibilities and extended his run. Those two albums before BP3 went plat but didn't really have HITS, limited Kanye involvement as well. I don't think it's surprising he went back to Kanye heavy on the next two albums (BP3 and WTT), followed by doubling down on P and Timbo for MCHG.

All of that goes back to his sensibilities and instincts. He has almost always made the smart move. And I say all this as a guy who has never been a big Jay fan (although I certainly recognize his greatness, he's in my top ten etc). Only guy playing this same game is Drake. Notice how Drake quickly got a core of producers, and then ventures out to others for hits or current shyt. It's the Jay dynamic of having top tier in-house beats. Lot of careers could have been extended or look better if rappers recognized that.

 

[Meowth tote da Uzi]

Who gives a fukk. That shyt was 20 years ago

 

[Harry B]

I fukk wit Jay but they crazy on that Stillmatic slander ..Blueprint ain't fukking with Stillmatic at all and both of em classics

Only people that mention stillmatic are Nas stans. The source only gave it 5 mics to not get involved in the beef. Everyone else gave it 3-3.5 mics.

 

[MJ Truth]

He made the album in a month lol

i doubt he was thinking about anything but just making music

This is Jay Z, not Lil Wayne we’re talking about here. Everything dude does is calculated and thought out fully, and that’s no type of slight, it’s a compliment. It’s how he became what he became starting where he started in the first place.

 

[Stick Up Kid]

The album was a masterpiece production wise..

But the content & lyrics was average and typical for a JAY album.. nothing mind blowing

 

[TheMailMan]

Jay was getting dissed by everyone around that time(Prodigy, Jadakiss, Fat Joe, etc)


I felt like he made Blueprint with his back against the wall.


Jay also had a jail sentence hanging over his head too with the Un situation if he didn't chill.


So Yea


BP2 was Jay at his worst and Black Album was when he killed himself and then he came back stronger after his retirement.

Jay Z Shot GIF - Jay Z Shot Shoot - Discover & Share GIFs

Click to view the GIF

tenor.com

Not guilty came out before the blueprint

 

[Stick Up Kid]

why do u think jay z lasted at the top longer than any rapper?

no shade but why Nas ain’t been plat or had a hit since 2002?


seriously what make jay z so unique in that regards?

snoop can make a hit but can’t sell records

why is Jay different?

Because he rides every wave to stay relevant

From Murder Inc, DMX, Dipset, Kanye, Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Rick Ross etc

90% of the time Hov is spoken about is because he’s a boss/billionaire/Beyoncé/roc nation
It’s not the music…. Hov hasn’t had a universally accepted great album since Black Album

 

[-DMP-]

the lies some Nas stans tell lmao. Still living in 2001

Anyway, as for the thread topic, I would say bp2 and black albums are the most calculating because of the pivots he made, musically, as a rebuttal to the critics/ether.

 

[re'up]

I Think Blueprint was probably one of his least "calculated" albums

Dude went in the booth and knocked out 70% of the album in a week and just put it out a few months later.

The producers weren't even hot at the time. The album made them hot.

All albums, especially back then, in hindsight were incredibly "calculated" because they were massive investments of time, energy, money, and legacy of record labels.

It felt raw and organic, and a lot of it was, but those labels had to hit the right note of investment/time/money/visibility, and if they missed, it could be disastrous for an artists career, and therefore the label. Think about first singles, and bootlegs, and album push backs. What a time to remember.

 

[Greenhornet]

biggie and jay messed up the rap game more than puff and 2pac and all them toxic dudes


it didnt take long for people to come in here and pretend nikkas walk in the studio after years of not recording and just imagine tracks
like they didnt get the beats and structure the songs prior to recording

even the wayne shyt
he just spits 4-6-8 bars and stops then punches in
goes back and erases or re-does his shyt
thats basically writing without paper

jay is between albums now but has verses and concepts ready for next roll out... he's not walking in and going "Eureka!"
average rap fan is mad dumb


that being said... he has alot of amazing albums. Black Album to me is obviously the most calculated. From the Doc ... to fake retiring