The Blueprint 3

JAY-Z - The Blueprint 3
Critic Score
Based on 28 reviews
2009 Ratings: #555 / 923
Year End Rank: #34
User Score
Based on 917 ratings
2009 Rank: #282
Liked by 36 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

90
Billboard

The long-awaited Blueprint 3 doesn't disappoint. In fact, the album may just be the blueprint for hip-hop music to come.

83
Entertainment Weekly

Blueprint is hip-hop as big business, and Jay retains his CEO throne.

83
A.V. Club

It’s Jay-Z’s world, but on The Blueprint 3 he’s considerate enough to let listeners perambulate about for a most enjoyable visit.

80
HipHopDX

Blueprint 3 may not stack up to the storied first entry in the series, but it’s certainly a worthwhile contributor.

80
Evening Standard
The piano and Alicia Keys chorus of Empire State of Mind sounds like another huge hit, and if it’s not his best work, there’s enough quality here to keep that crown from slipping.
80
The Telegraph
Such qualities may be taken as a sign of weakness among young bucks vying for his place, but this hugely entertaining, mainstream rap album suggests Jay-Z still has the skills and gravitas to see off the pretenders.
80
The Independent
His main subject may still be himself, but Jay-Z tackles it here with a renewed vigour and freshness.
80
Clash
Working with the hottest talents in Hip Hop and beyond all held in place by the hub that is Jay-Z’s latent vocal talent for wordplay, phrasing and cadence. As he boasts himself in ‘Death Of Autotune (D.O.A.)’ “This is Sinatra at the opera”. Fair point.
80
NME

Despite bringing in all these names to make it an event album, ‘The Blueprint 3’ delivers because of hefty beats and quality rapsmanship, nothing else.

80
AllMusic

The Blueprint 3 isn't a one-man tour de force like the first. Jay is upstaged once or twice by his guests, and while the productions are stellar throughout -- Timbaland appears three times, and No I.D. gets multiple credits also -- it's clear there's less on Jay's mind this time.

80
musicOMH

While not as groundbreaking as the first Blueprint was, this is nonetheless a strong record, its A-list guests and production tempered nicely by the inclusion of in-the-now collaborators of the order of Young Jeezy and Empire Of The Sun front man Luke Steele.

71
Beats Per Minute

Jay doesn’t have that drive anymore because he is on top — and it might take him hitting rock bottom again before we ever hear something as bold and beautiful as the first Blueprint. In the meantime, we’ve got a relatively above-average work from an artist who’s proven himself capable of so much more.

70
Coke Machine Glow

The Blueprint that was sketched out as a vaunted resuscitation of sample-based boom-bap rap production is replaced here by big corny synth wipes, a sometimes-fascinating corollary to Jay’s corporate sense of purpose.

70
FACT Magazine

Even with the missteps, you can’t help being behind Jay throughout Blueprint 3, and that’s why he’s been one of the best for so long.

70
Prefix

The Blueprint 3 starts well enough. Its first half is good to great ... But around the time we get to the Timbaland-produced, Limbaugh-dissing, Drake-featuring “Off That,” a song about how far ahead of the curve Jay is, the album's quality falls off considerably.

70
Slant Magazine
The album is a hip-hop feast, for sure, filled to the brim with elite production and elite rapping, but it lacks the hungriness, the spirit, and the craziness that mark a classic album.
68
Pretty Much Amazing
While most artists struggle to get discovered, to prolong their 15 minutes of fame as long as humanly possible (see: Flo-Rida, T-Pain), Jay-Z does the discovering. Instead of searching for a single hit, Jay-Z has built a kingdom on album after enjoyable album of dynamic and relevant material.
60
Consequence of Sound
Jay-Z still loves rap and we love him. His new album may not be his best, but it is another window into the fascinating life of rap’s greatest of all time.
60
Rolling Stone
By all indications, he'll continue to make good but not great music, replicating the form of his finest records minus the electric charge.
60
The Guardian

As you listen, you get the sense Jay-Z has had a bold idea that he hasn't quite thought through properly – and that's The Blueprint 3's problem in a nutshell.

51
Paste
Jay overreaches, leaning too heavily on by-the-numbers production from Kanye West and Timbaland, and muffling his own voice in favor of a guest-heavy tracklist.
50
Drowned in Sound

American Gangster was the last time we saw the real Jay-Z – soulful, lyrically adept, his narrative streak reborn with a newfound alter ego – but here he is back to treading water.

50
God Is in the TV

Whilst Blueprint 3 arguably has some far stronger singles than the second Blueprint record Jay-Z is off form on his third outing and could even be criticised of somehow looking for more commercial success inviting a plethora of his A-list friends along for the ride.

50
PopMatters
Without its filler, this album could have been at least good, if not great. But, for better or for worse, this is what Jay wanted us to hear right now. It’s just a shame that it’s not entirely worth hearing.
45
Pitchfork

From its roster of producers and guest spots to its elaborate marketing, Blueprint 3 is the kind of stuck-on-stupid, event-driven money pit that proves while Jay-Z's at a point where he's got no one to answer to but himself, he's still capable of an entire hour of failing to take his own advice.

40
NOW Magazine

The pitch-correction software is alive and well even on this record ... This glaring inconsistency is the least of BP3’s missteps.

40
Tiny Mix Tapes

On The Blueprint 3, Jay-Z, for arguably the first time in his career, sounds tired and old,

40
No Ripcord

The real inexcusable thing about The Blueprint 3 is how boring and sterile it all sounds.

BradTasteMusic
82

This album aged horribly. That being said I like it a lot. No explanation needed.

surlace
40

Take these songs and run as far away from everything else as possible:

What We Talkin' About
Run this Town
Empire State of Mind
Real As It Gets
Already Home
So Ambitious

AllAboutMusic
69

The title "Blueprint 3" was clearly used to garner hype and make him plenty of money. In terms of execution, sound, or aesthetic, it hardly resembles the previous installments in the series, so the only logical reason would be to gather attention and amass scads of M's in his bank account. While this album succeeded at doing so, the project received backlash from Hov fans upon release. It still gets shat on to this day. Truthfully, I don't see what's so bad about this. I know ... read more

95

Underrated.

Pixelking251
65

Certainly some songs on here I really really love, but overall this record feels outdated but in a early 2010s way instead of a late 90s way, the kind of outdated that ages poorly.

brandumb
75

this album has aged pretty bad but i was a kid when this came out and nostalgia is real so i make the rules

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