Jay Z - The Blueprint 3

If you live under a rock on a moon in a distant star system, this news may come as a shock to you: Jay Z is a rich and powerful man. For everybody else this is a widely known fact, particularly for Jay Z himself, who's 11th studio album The Blueprint 3 stands as a testament to his wealth, influence and, above all, ego. Unfortunately, these things don't necessarily combine to make a good hip hop album.

That is not to say that Jay Z has lost any of his talent: his rhymes are still well constructed and smooth. It's that he has reached the economic point where he is boasting about his political power rather than his reputation on the streets, and that starts to get annoying after the first mention of the White House. Missing is the insightful social commentary of previous triumphs like '99 Problems', or even the romance of '03 Bonnie & Clyde'. The closest he gets is 'D.O.A. (Death Of Autotune)', where he essentially complains over a beat about hip hop's recent reliance on pitch shifting vocals.

His guest roster (which includes Young Jeezy, Kanye West, Rihanna, Drake, Kid Cudi and Pharrell) all turn in adequate performances that neither offend due to lack of quality or amaze due to lyrical dexterity. Perhaps the most exciting collaboration is with Luke Steele from Empire of the Sun, however he is disappointingly limited to the chorus.

While Jay Z would like to think that this album is a blueprint for the future of rap, in reality he is just building on other peoples' experimentation. Kanye is actually reined back while producing, considering the shock caused his most recent release; his most avant-garde production on Blueprint 3, 'Hate', comes close to capturing that insanity, but it's also the shortest song on the album at two and a half minutes. Swizz Beats lifts the aesthetic of Lil Wayne's career making 'A Milli' for his track 'Off To The Next One'. And nothing in this world could forgive the atrocity that is 'Forever Young' (and yes, it samples Alphaville).

The Blueprint 3 is not a bad album, just a bland one. Necessity is the mother of invention, and therein lies the rub: Jay Z is crazy rich and doesn't need to do a thing anymore. Maybe it's time for Jigga to retire again...

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