CNN On Jay-Z Blueprint 9/11 Release

This Sunday, not only marks the 10th anniversary of 9/11, but also the release of Jay-Z’s sixth album, Blueprint. CNN wrote a piece on the project’s impact which coincidentally dropped during the tragic terrorist attacks .

 “Young people not directly affected are always more removed from the onset of national tragedy,” said Tricia Rose, a professor at Brown University and author of “The Hip Hop Wars.While the much older fans of Mariah Carey or Bob Dylan would likely be too busy and worried about terrorist attacks to rush out and purchase a CD the week of 9/11, Jay-Z’s teen and early 20s fans, already hyped up about this release long beforehand, remained focused on their idol,” Rose said. “And many probably never left the comfort of their bedrooms to download the release.

“Hip-hop heads (fans) have a different kind of relationship to music than fans of other genre,” said Sachs, an assistant professor of media technologies and culture at St. Mary’s College of California. “Hip-hop is not just music, it’s a culture, and that mentality permeates many aspects of the lives of hip-hop heads.”

Read the full article here.

Tags:
Rate This:
5
Submit No Ratings
0
  1. troy says:

    One of the greatest albums ever!

  2. DJ says:

    Did you drop J. Cole?

  3. ZoomZoomDad-Otis says:

    One of Jay’s best albums hands down. Classic album shout out to Kanye as well.

  4. Pa'Varis says:

    1 of the Greatest Album of All-Time

  5. dope says:

    I never cried when Pac died, but I probably will when Hov does..

    GOAT

  6. ZoomZoomDad-Otis says:

    @DJ…U been reading too much Mediatakeout son hahahaha.

  7. Black Shady says:

    Blueprint better than Reasonable Doubt? just asking…

  8. atg says:

    What year did this release?

  9. ..... says:

    this album was alright..eminem was a bigger star then and still today..shit dont change…

  10. Tomaba says:

    yeah…this shit was classic…
    ..
    Dell giving free laptops because of a defect on 10,000 computers.. http://goo.gl/3DjHM 4 next 24 hours only..shit i got 2..lol

  11. Kane says:

    Off topic, but does anybody else feel like American Gangster was kinda like Reasonable Doubt Pt. 2? Listen to them back to back… soul sampled beats, mafioso theme, and they’re arguably his 2 best albums lyrically.

  12. jess says:

    these wack rappers of today will never be able to top albums like this

    lil wayne officer william

    shits a joke

  13. King Cold says:

    this album is good but nowhere near what fans and critics tell….its jus 3.5/5…i’m a Jay fan but i’v got to admit he’s too overrated…and all eastcoast artists are overrated except BIG

  14. Cinsere says:

    “And many probably never left the comfort of their bedrooms to download the release.”

    ^WTH is she talkin’bout… people weren’t really downloading like that back then.

  15. RK says:

    So a classic Hov album warrants a shout out to Kanye West? LOL dude they’re not attached at the dick.

    Most epic moment of this album? Shady burying Jay on Renegade.

  16. Jaymalls says:

    Hardnock Life Vol 2 > Blueprint 1> Eminem’s Discography #FACT

  17. Reasy says:

    The Blueprint is in my Top 3 of Jay-Z albums.

  18. ..... says:

    carter series shits on the blueprint series…from sales to radio and everything in between !
    RED killed watch the throne..didnt need weezy to do anything

  19. ZoomZoomDad-Otis says:

    RK U don’t know about good music. Go listen to lil wayne, nick, flock, gucci or sumthin.

  20. ZoomZoomDad-Otis says:

    SMH@”carter series shits on the blueprint series”…Good example why kids shouldn’t do drug right there.

  21. dmfslimm says:

    i still remember the day i first got the album. i bought it on sept 10. i was jammin it the morning of sept 11. had the tv off. something in my mind told me to turn the television on not knowing what i was about to see.

  22. RK says:

    How don’t I know about good music? Eminem made Jay look like an amateur on Renegade. Its a fact, ask Nas 😀

  23. ..... says:

    nas would be king of ny… but jay got saved by kanye
    @zoomzoom rebirth was more creative then this shit album…wasnt jay ethered just before this cameout…

  24. Kamikaze Takes Practice says:

    @RK

    I think he meant that you obviously can’t tell good music because Renegade was one of the worst songs on a brilliant CD, but you skipped all that just to hate on the only shit you could. It’s pretty clear that you’re either a Lil Wayne or Eminem stan to the point that you hate everybody else, so in either case, you clearly don’t know good music.

  25. Q-Flip says:

    this album sucks!!!

    reasonable doubt + american gangster >>>>>>>>>

  26. Q-Flip says:

    oh i forgot *+ the black album >>>>>>>>>

  27. Smokescreen says:

    That cd was a masterpiece marred by the arabs from cover to content…listen to that shit and listen to blueprint or wtt…jay kinda lost it a bit but he’s still hands down one of the dopest ever….he was slayed on that renegade track though.

  28. RK says:

    Worst song on a brilliant album? What the fuck are you going on about? Renegade was easily the best track on the whole LP. Em’s verses lyrically better than anything else on Blueprint. I’m hardly hating on the album, but I couldn’t be fucked to write a track for track review. And clearly as you’re calling me a Stan of the 2 most successful rappers in decent years, you must be another Jay dick rider. Jay fell off… Kanye’s the only guy keeping him relevant.

  29. Jason says:

    Wow who care about this overrated shit! Recovery shit on all 12 of Gayz whack album #Fact

  30. Sc_R says:

    @RK what line did Em have on renegade that topped “do you listen to music or do you just skim through it” his flow was just tighter but bar for bar em ain’t kill shit.. And the Kanye west shout out is because he produced half the album and that’s what put him on dummy

  31. Big Boi says:

    Wtt was a piece of shit and so is jayz but Kanye almost saved it,but he couldnt

  32. Smokescreen says:

    Wtf is yall arguing about…that em didnt kill jay on renegade???? Fuck outta here hating ass jay stans…yall came out strong to hate on wayne yesterday and now yall is tryna give xcuses on why the man that invented swag got murked on a track…bitch pls

  33. Musikal says:

    Damn I was 7 when that came out. It still is a good album classic.

  34. NICKEY NEGRITO says:

    Renegade is a song that had no studio chemistry. Meaning Jay and Em should of collaborated instead of sending music via email. Jay truly bought the track from Em to gain sales.

    They don’t even have chemistry when they perform it together. Jay is a laid-back rapper/ hustler who spits venom without emotion. His wordplay is heavy. Em has wordplay and emotion.

    But since you guys comparing, then compare Ems verse on syllables(I think that’s the song)to Jays verse and clearly Jay took it. As much as I hate Em, I give him his props. You guys don’t give Jay shit but jokes and hate.

  35. KillaCam says:

    @Smokescreen, “marred by the arabs”??? 9/11 was an INSIDE JOB you dumbass!

  36. Marshall Mathers says:

    Look at @nickey making excuses for Gayz! Fuck that he got rip on songs he washup! And Nigga in Paris is gay techno fuck that shit!

  37. SmokeYou says:

    LMAO @ the kid who said The Carter albums are better than The Blueprint trilogy. Thanks for the laughs.

  38. sck says:

    @Kane yeah man. it’s like the modern day Reasonable Doubt. American Gangster is definitely one of my favorites from Jay

  39. sway-z says:

    Real story, I cut school that day, jumped in the whip and copped this album. and literally, drove around 2-3 hours bumping it, without even knowing what was happening.

    And once I did see it when I got home, I had Ain’t no Love playing in the background. Everytime I hear that song, to this day, it reminds me of the towers falling. That’s like the soundtrack to that shit.

  40. Brahsef says:

    Of course EM killed Jay on Renegade. It was an Eminem song, it was produced by him for gods sake. Em lives to rap on beats like that, he tried to recreate that same beat 20x over. Put Eminem on soul samples like the rest of the album and he’d fall flat.

    Best album of the 2000s easily. Everyone wanted the Blueprint sound after it dropped. It made Just Blaze and Kanye West superproducers and put Jay as the number one rapper in the game with 2 all time classics in Reasonable Doubt and the Blueprint.

  41. dundilly says:

    Jay z classics in order reasonable doubt>black album>blueprint..black album is dam near neck2neck with reasonable doubt it was that good

  42. Ricky Retardo says:

    (“While the much older fans of Mariah Carey or Bob Dylan would likely be too busy and worried about terrorist attacks to rush out and purchase a CD the week of 9/11, Jay-Z’s teen and early 20s fans, already hyped up about this release long beforehand, remained focused on their idol,” Rose said. “And many probably never left the comfort of their bedrooms to download the release.” ) <—-thats BULLSHIT!!

    ("The Blueprint" was heavily downloaded upon its release. Indeed, digital downloads took off in 2001 with the advent of iTunes earlier in the year.) <—- More BULLSHIT!!!

    this is why i can never believe these "experts" when they start spitting out random statistics. Doing my research and the fact i was one of those Teens who actually found a music store opened on that dreadful day & bought the hard disc copy of Blueprint; it comes to mind that during this period in 2001 Napster was on top of the mp3 file sharing game and the iTunes "STORE" wasn't in existence until 2003. Mp3 player wasn't even popular to the public until Oct 2001 when ipods hit the market. so how they hell did the teens purchase an Mp3 copy of the blueprint in 2001? they didn't they went to the stores that week and bought the CD! yea CD AKA Compact Disc, remember those? Most had it on Pre-Order through CD catalogs like Amazon and CDnow. I commend CNN for even mentioning this moment in Music History during a already historic tragedy but don't down play it like We "hip hop heads" never left the house to purchase an LP we all wanted and thats why it was so successful. NO! Us Fans of Jay-Z at the time had only 2 options. Bootleg it or Buy it from a Store. at that time The WIZ was still around; Tower records, Sam Goody, and a bunch of local retailers was the only way Jay sold 400k the week of the attack. We supported an Artist we loved because we wanted to and because we didn't have the accessibility we have now with Itunes, Amazon digital and Rhapsody. I hate being misled especially when i was there when the event took place. get the facts right CNN!

    and this will be sent to them, just wanted to share this on my Fav Blog. RR #1

  43. See(sic) says:

    @… Youre stupid. The blueprint series was ridiculous, every album was the best shit out when it was out… With the exception of maybe blueprint 3 (but still that shit was cray), no way carter series was better than blueprint.

  44. See(sic) says:

    Sidebar: I cannot believe all the hate for wtt. That Shit CRAY! that album has every kind of song on it. From the flash of nigg*s in paris, to the mellow of new day, to the over all power of murder to excellence… It’s top to bottom dope

  45. Insipid says:

    Straight up, I’m not a fan of really any of them more than the others (referring to Kanye, Jay and Lil Wayne), but I do prefer Watch the Throne to Carter 4. After I heard C4, (and then re-listened, to see if I had missed something), I went back and listened to WTT again, and after I got over my initial disappointment, it turns out that it’s actually a pretty good album. Everybody I know has been talking about C4 and it kinda got annoying, so I took a few of them on a cruise and played WTT. Now everybody’s talking about that shit.

  46. ThePennyL says:

    In response to the actual article… Tricia Rose is an over-educated bigot who should not be allowed her opinion on hip-hop. First off, iTunes was only 7 months old at the time. Second off, it took a little while for word to disseminate throughout everyone in the country. Perfect example is what “sway-z” said. She acts like Jay-Z could stop the sales of his album because 9/11 happened. R.I.P. btw.

    Secondly, in response to this argument in the thread:
    Jay-Z BluePrint > Carter IV hands down
    Watch The Throne > Carter IV hands down
    Jay-Z in his prime sober Wayne

    The Carter IV was garbage. He sold 44k copies in the Northeast… aka real rap fans don’t fuck with bad albums like that. And everyone knows the Northeast is the tell-all region.

  47. SkidaRoc says:

    Man it was my first year, first semester in college. Got out of my math class early on that Tuesday and went right directly to the mall to cop The Blueprint and Fabolous’ Ghetto Fabolous. FYE didn’t have Fab but had Jay and I even distinctly remember two dudes that worked for the city saying “you got that new Jay don’t you” while I was exiting the mall. I sat in the mall parking lot and listened to the jawnt in the whip for about 30 mins not even knowing what was going on in NYC. Got home and found out the news, man I’ll never forget that day.

  48. NotoriousRambo. says:

    CLASSIC SHOULD HAVE WENT TRIPLE

Leave a Reply