Jay-Z : The Blueprint

The ruler's back. You don't have to take Jay-Z's word for it (although
listening to 'The Blueprint' makes that tough). Check this week's American
chart for confirmation of the unique hat-trick he nets courtesy of 'The
Blueprint'. Three albums in three years: three
Number Ones. There isn't an
artist in the world - rap or otherwise - who can match Shawn Carter's
profitable prolificacy.

Nor is there a rapper who can stand toe-to-toe with him in the actual
rapping department, either. Jay-Z thinks Notorious B.I.G had a better flow,
and Tupac was definitely cuter, but nobody has better lines. Not Woody
Allen, not Chris Rock, not even Eminem who cuts 'The Blueprint''s only guest
spot on the bleak 'Renegade' (a track Marshall Mathers also produces -
Timbaland and Kayne West handle most of 'Blueprint's' other productions).
Jay-Z is the don of the one-liner, the couplet, the verse and the chorus
too.

"These are just my thoughts, ladies and gentlemen", explains the Jigga on
opener 'The Ruler's Back' (of course), as he's wafted into the rap arena
after a mere ten-month absence on the crest of a horn-parping, soul-a-delic
wave. It's no big deal for him, he1s saying, but it is for all his
competitors. "Your reign was shorter than leprechauns", he snorts in their
direction.

In fact, he gets all his disses out of the way nice and early on track two,
'Takeover' ..Rapping over The Doors ' 'Five To One' he steamrollers fellow New
Yorkers Mobb Deep ("Mobb Deep, you little creeps/I got money stacked bigger
than you") and one-time protege Nas. The message is clear: You will learn
to respect the king.

Once that lesson's absorbed, we get down to the meat of the affair. Like all
his albums there's a concept revealed in the title and here, on album number
six, it's the blueprint for the Jigga's life and career. That's sex - the
brilliantly vaudeville 'Girls, Girls, Girls' makes that clear - drugs ("so
much coke on me you could run a slalom," he admits on 'U Don't Know'),
hustling, and....yes, pain.

Because Jay 's tough enough to cry sometimes. On the soft-focus funk of 'Song
Cry' he's so cut-up over his true, teenage love that he even makes the song
weep. On 'Blueprint (Momma Loves Me)' he takes us on a backseat ride through
his traumatic teens in the projects of Brooklyn, introducing us to his
life's cast over a stolen Al Green riff. And on the album's strident
soul-stew centre piece, 'Heart Of The City (Ain't No Love)', he hilariously
mourns the fate of his many foes.

By its close, 'The Blueprint' has eloquently mapped out life's foundations:
laughter, tears, joy and pain, and has marked the Jigga as the complete
rapper. Jay , of course, knows it: "I'm the Sinatra of my day, compadre," he
chuckles on 'Hola Hovita'. Nobody could disagree .

Ted Kessler