Jay-Z has been at the forefront of Hip-Hop for over a decade, which is a genre that has seen its stars gun down or overdosed. Jay-Z has reached past the Hip Hop community and stuck his hand in Nets ownership, raised money to fight clean water shortages in Africa and recently started his own production company, Roc Nation. 

Throughout the many side projects, and Brett Favre like retirement he has always been putting out chart toping music, and his latest album The Blueprint 3 doesn’t disappoint. The Blueprint 3 is the last of the Blueprint trilogy and manages to put Auto-tune to rest, pays homage to Jay’s hometown New York, shuts down the haters, and reminds us of what it’s like to be young again. The album also features Kanye West, Drake, Alicia Keys, Kid Cudi, Rihanna and Young Jeezy.

  The album starts off with “What We Talkin’ About” which has Jay-Z’s classic flow with a hook that has a indie rock feel sung by Luke Steel of Empire of the Sun. The album then moves on to the hits, “D.O.A.” and “Run This Town”, and immediately following those is arguably the best song on the album, “Empire State of Mind”. This song sounds similar to Jay-Z’s roots and could be off one of his older albums in the early 2000s. The song’s chorus features Alicia Keys with her soulful voice boasting, “Now you’re in New York, these streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you.” 

  The album then moves on to a future club hit, “On to the Next One” which is produced by Swizz Beats. The beat has a repetitive feel like Lil Wayne’s “A Milli” and sounds more of what is current, and following that is a song all about the future called “Off That”. The song represents the way Hip-Hop is moving as it features Hip-Hop’s best newcomer Drake. Jay also takes shots at conservative political figures Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh . 

  The Blueprint 3 closes with “Young Forever” which features Kanye West’s prodigy Mr. Hudson who sounds a lot like a young Sting and samples Alphaville’s highly popular hit “Forever Young”. The song takes you to a fantasy world where life is the perfect music video, and nothing can go wrong.  

Jay-Z’s latest album has a bit of everything on it as it paves the way for the future of Hip Hop. This album will keep the hits coming right on into the Grammys, as it should be one to look out for.