Jay-Z, one of the biggest names in hip-hop, returns with his 11th studio album, and the 3rd since his retirement. The Blueprint 3 also continues the series of Jay-Z’s commercially-orientated Blueprint series, and I have been looking forward to this album ever since it was announced by Jay-Z at Kanye West’s (executive producer) Madison Square Garden concert in 2008. I also was expecting big things from this album as Jay-Z is coming back after an artistically-directed album, American Gangster, so even without all the media hype I would still have high expectations for this album.

The problem is, the album shows a shocking lack of self-awareness from one of the most intelligent voices in rap. In May, Jay-Z released the song D.O.A. (Death of Autotune), hailed by in the community many as one of the greatest statements in hip-hop since Nas’ “Hip-Hop is Dead”. However, this was completely undermined by Jay-Z’s choice of guests and producers; Timbaland, Kanye West, Rihanna and Young Jeezy are some of the choices and they are noted by many as being the biggest abusers of the production tool. What disappointed even further was that this was coming after American Gangster, a great storytelling album, and for Jay-Z to taint a great statement just left me sighing.

Outside of the artistic integrity of the record, the album does a lot, the scope has grimey hip-hop (On to the Next One), futuristic production (What We Talkin’ About), classical jazz sampling (Thank You), and original backing tracks (Real as it Gets). Jay-Z also maintains his beautiful swagger and his flow is certainly smooth and defined. The lyricism is also a great hark-back over Jay-Z’s back catalogue; he constantly references some of his great songs and better moments. The production is also amazingly crisp and certainly a refreshing return to the turn of the century production of Kanye and Timbaland, which has become somewhat stale in recent years, especially since they started thinking they were good rappers.

However, for all of the good there is in the album, it’s watered down by far too many guests. There are three songs on the album that don’t have guests on them, and Jay-Z is certainly a strong enough rapper to stand on his own. Some of the guest appearances are also completely wanton, Young Jeezy is a perfect example - his rapping on the album could have easily been done by Jay-Z and would have definitely been a better job too. So once again Jay-Z’s lack of self-awareness on this album becomes quite apparent.

The layout of the album shows a lack of dedication from Jay-Z and it wouldn’t surprise me if Kanye West probably dictated the song order on this album; after all, this is the man whose ego-centric, oblivious personality came out in force at the VMA Awards. For example directly after D.O.A. (Death of Autotune) there is a song with both Rihanna and Kanye on it, and I was thinking to myself “WHAT THE HELL?! Certainly a good way to completely demean the message of the central song of the album.” Also, the album is 5 songs too long; the first 10 songs are all good, the last 5 songs make the album taper off and they all feel rushed.

This is definitely not a bad album all in all, but it's one of Jay-Z’s weakest records, which actually speaks volumes about Jay-Z’s great discography.

- Peter Downey

CHECK OUT THE VIDEO TO JAY-Z's ANTHEMIC D.O.A. (DEATH OF AUTOTUNE):