The Blueprint — 2001

Background

The Blueprint was released in 2001, recorded and released remarkably quickly given the strength of the final product, and is widely credited with helping launch the production careers of Kanye West and Just Blaze, both of whom contributed heavily to the album's soul-sample-driven sound at a formative stage in their own careers.

Sound

'Izzo (H.O.V.A.)' builds around a Jackson 5 sample chopped into an instantly memorable, celebratory hook, one of several tracks on the album that established the soulful, sped-up sample aesthetic that would come to define a significant strand of early-2000s hip-hop production. 'Girls, Girls, Girls' and 'Song Cry' both showcase Jay-Z's increasingly confident, conversational lyrical style over warm, soul-sampled backdrops.

Timing and rivalry

The album was released the same day as the September 11th attacks, an unusual and sobering context for its release, and also features 'Takeover', a pointed diss track aimed at rival rapper Nas that became one of the most notable moments in hip-hop's long history of lyrical rivalries — a feud Nas would respond to directly on his own subsequent release.

Legacy

The Blueprint is widely regarded as one of Jay-Z's finest albums and a genuinely significant moment in hip-hop production history, its soul-sample-heavy sound directly shaping the sonic direction of the genre through the early 2000s and launching Kanye West's transition from producer to one of the decade's most significant recording artists in his own right. It remains a high point of Jay-Z's extensive catalogue and a key document of hip-hop's early-2000s sound.