The Blueprint

With three decades in the game, Jay-Z has one of the longest standing hip-hop careers of all time. Through the years he’s always remained relevant and impressively so. His discography boasts with timeless works like ‘Reasonable Doubt,’ ‘The Black Album,’ ‘American Gangster’ and most recently ‘4:44,’ to name a few. He’s never made a bad album. Even the best of the best like Eminem and Lil Wayne have had an off album or two but not Jay. It’s this impeccable consistency that’s earned him the title of ‘Best Rapper Alive.’ Some would argue but few could truly contest. He hasn’t been in the game for decades just frolicking through the industry, making meaningless music but he’s indeed spent every album perfecting his sound, imbuing his lyrics in metaphors and wicked wordplay and garnering yet another title of “Billionaire Businessman,” one of the first ever in hip-hop to do so. Hov is a fabled, ageless and legendary musician and he deserves that same acclaim as a businessman with his hands in pots from sports all the way to retail. He’s the epitome of Black Excellence, no doubt, now let’s hop into one of his most revered works, ‘The Blueprint.’

September 11th, 2001, a day we all remember vividly. I remember just starting my freshman year of high school a week or so before that, and people were still talking about the untimely death of singer Aaliyah. I was wearing a navy blue FUBU vest, white jean TWISM shorts, and white Dr. J converse kicks with a blue line in the design that matched my vest. It was in second hour when all of a sudden I was pulled out of class, and the teacher told me that my mom took me out and was waiting for me in the office. I was very confused and nervous - I got to the office and my mom told me that America was under attack, and that the twin towers were hit, and she thought I should be at home just in case people started acting crazy, whatever. On the way home we stopped at Target, and per usual I ended up in the CD isle, and saw the brand new Jay-Z Blueprint album and grabbed it immediately. Little did I know for approximately a year this album would be the soundtrack of my life, it would takeover my ambitions, my sense of “cool”, and in some ways come back around to affect me years later.