The Blueprint 3 is the upcoming eleventh studio album by American rapper Jay-Z, set to be released on September 11, 2009. It will be the final installment in The Blueprint trilogy, preceded by the critically acclaimed The Blueprint (2001) and its follow-up The Blueprint²: The Gift & The Curse (2002). On May 20, 2009 Jay-Z confirmed that he bought out the remainder of his contract from Def Jam Records in order to start his contract with Live Nation, and therefore The Blueprint 3 will be released under Roc Nation and distributed by Atlantic Records. It is Jay-Z’s first studio album not to feature him on the cover.
The initial hype over The Blueprint 3 came when DJ Clue released a mixtape song called “Ain’t I”, produced by Timbaland in January 2008. In the intro, Clue said, “Off that Blueprint 3 baby!” However, a spokesperson for Jay-Z said that the song was an older, unreleased Jay-Z song and that the recording of The Blueprint 3 had not yet started. In July, producer Timbaland, a frequent contributor of previous Jay-Z albums, told MTV News that he was producing the whole album. But in an interview with the Rolling Stone, Jay-Z called the statement “premature”. Later that month Jay-Z appeared onstage with to perform the Kanye West–produced song “Jockin’ JAY-Z” during the former’s Glow in the Dark Tour. The next morning, Jay-Z confirmed The Blueprint 3 as the album’s name during a interview with radio station Shade 45. By November, he had finished the album but with lengthy negotiations with Def Jam, he went back to rework The Blueprint 3. In January, Jay-Z confirmed continued production on and admitted the leak of several songs.
Most of the album’s recording took place in Hawaii. Kanye West protege Mr Hudson explained to the The Times that he “won’t get bothered there” compared in a major city such as New York City or Los Angeles. Jay-Z told the Rolling Stone his method of selecting producers, “If Timbaland makes ten great tracks then he produces the album, if Kanye West makes ten great tracks then he produces the album; if he makes three, I’ll take three. I let the music dictate the direction”. However, judging by the final track listing, it appears that West is producing the majority of the album, with Timbaland producing only one track. West has confirmed two songs, “Everyday A Star Is Born” and “Forever Young”, during an appearance on the The Wake Up Show in February 2009. Mr Hudson, who is the featured artist on the latter, described it as a flip on the Bob Dylan record of the same name. During a joint interview with Hudson, West confirmed that the pop artist would be on three tracks. In a Billboard interview, Jay-Z confirmed “What We Talking About”, the album’s intro, “Thank You,” and “Already Home” as song names and collaborations with the rock band MGMT, rappers Drake and Kid Cudi and singer Rihanna. Jay-Z also mentioned in an interview with DJ Semtex that his favorite song on the album is a song titled “Empire State of Mind”.
Tracklisting:
