blueprint two

the spizzazzz annual album review!

a dream
first track the beat is kind of like the "dream on" track from the eminem show, rock descending bassline, probably some kind of famous sample. i don't know! faith evans sounds good but this is kind of lame as myth-making epic opening track. the main thing is it has the whole first verse of "juicy" actually performed by biggie at the end, what the fuck!? of course it's a brilliant idea, thanks faith, for representing biggie's estate to further your guest appearances! also a very explicit way of introducing the record as jay's version of life after death.

hovi baby
this is one of those bombastic tracks that go absolutely nowhere like specifically "the ruler's back", plus a lot of other b-list roc-a-fella product - time to change that up surely? i have no problem with mediocre filler but it would be cool if they changed the mediocre filler style from album to album! i find all these cymbals and hard kicks incredibly annoying! the problem i'm finding is the copy i downloaded is muddy and ridiculously bass-heavy so i can hardly hear what jay is saying, virtually invalidating this whole review! but nevermind! i can understand the choruses. (this chorus is shit but it's growing on me.)

the watcher 2
you know, a sequel to "the watcher" off chronic 2001! was it just crying out for one?? i dunno, but at least dre is actually on the boards with an even more minimal version of the original beat and a very brief verse. truth hurts causes a stink on the chorus. i don't think i actually like her voice at all! motherfucker it's rakim! sounding very deliberate and like he's trying too hard to project his voice (which is pretty much how he's sounded since the 97 comeback), never fear a burst of spontaniety around ra! this isn't as good or as interesting as the ra track off the 8 mile soundtrack, which suddenly comes into perfect focus two minutes in! i want to put that on right now.

03 bonnie and clyde
beyonce! kind of low key for the first single really? it starts off promising with the "cruisin down a west side high - way!" part, but honestly i haven't been arsed about playing this since first hearing it like a month ago. jay is supposed to come up with song formats that fat joe will try to cop, not the other way round! aspiring to be the new bobby and whitney is utterly heart warming! i'm not sure of the idea behind the allusions to relatively recent rap hits which seem to be all over the album yet, unless it just means jay owns us all.

excuse me miss
the kind of song that makes me just want to go for a coffee and forget this whole thing. sub-"big poppa" seduction beat, rubbish chorus, jay as ll/biggie hybrid - where are the witty, bitchy lines and the dismissive chuckle! this is some "no, i really actually love you" shit, but not in entertaining "hey papi" way.

what they gonna do?
ghetto real rap! crazy synths that aren't really very ear-catching anymore but still do their job nicely! some nice battle rhymes from jay from what i can actually hear! omg it has a fairly insane dancehall coda! this is pushing all my buttons! it claims to feature sean paul but all he does is answer jay on the chorus and mumble in the dancehall part. it reminds me though that i want to hear the sean paul album, and thus it's purpose is served. so far jay's voice is sounding too much like jay from blueprint one when it would be nice to hear him stretch. instead of life after death it might turn out blueprint + vol 2 = blueprint 2 but not as fresh as either obviously.

around the world
soul (we got it!). nothing to do with east 17 or, um, other people who have used this title. anyway this is the first sign of blueprint one's defining idea - 'timeless' soul samples with very little embellishment for jay to insist we respect him over! this format seems to be jay's most universally loved, but they sometimes give off an irritating 'this is bigger than hiphop' vibe, a leap towards a non-rap form of greatness which i don't really give a fuck about. no one is bigger than hiphop! fleeting rap greatness is eight million times more fun! still, this is a catchy tune.

poppin' tags
bounce! jay rhyming 75/150bpm double-time is perhaps the one unimpeachable, always-gold formula in all of music. i mean "big pimpin", "nigga what", "is that your bitch" = gold! i can't decide whether this is up to that standard after one listen, cuz although jay's verse sounds eye-watering, the track is trying to bring together raised-eyebrow outkast chorus style with the sighing soul blueprint thing! and bounce! it's rare when bounce productions can bring in any kind of true organic element and make it work; even beautiful string samples sound lame with stutter kicks (cf. any brit-hop attempt at bounce, the new trina single) - i think outkast have probably done it well at some point but i can't remember. oh shit, all that is irrelevent because twista just started spitting! i love twista!

fuck all night
"till we both start yawning"! nothing to do with mocky but quite sleazy all the same. bizzare lift from the beginning of "you don't have to call" by usher so jay can riff on it for the pre-chorus. this leery horny-parody beat works very well! it appears to be beanie sigel on the chorus in pervoid sing-rap style - why not just actually get usher? is he too much of a prude to come out and say he wants to fuck all night? "just keep your mouth shut/we can do this again/bring a friend" oh!

the bounce
zzzzz neptunes zzzzz blah blah fuck them. (important fact: this is not bounce.)

i did it my way
'omg he said "vamoose"'/'mob ties like sinatra' bullshit extended to a whole song - unnecessary yes? but also strangely touching, even if this is the most fucked sound-quality-wise so far, the bass is killing my speakers! this is the end of cd one, which scares me as to how the end of cd two can be even more final than this!

cd two coming tonight or tomorrow morning!