The Blueprint

Before he was \"a businessman\" or \"a business, man,\" JAY Z was one of rap’s best rhymers. Soul samples courtesy of Just Blaze and Kanye West gave 2001’s *The Blueprint* the glossiest sounds money could buy. The exuberance of the single “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” is balanced by the poignancy of “Song Cry.” Even if JAY Z weren\'t sitting on the pop and rap throne, his cold diss track (“Takeover”) directed at Nas would still show he wasn’t a man you\'d want to cross.

"Damn right I love this life I live/ 'Cause I went from negative to positive/ And it's all... good ...

You don’t have to take Jay-Z‘s word for it (although listening to ‘The Blueprint’ makes that tough).

There’s something about being persecuted, or at least believing oneself to be persecuted, that makes people embrace and reaffirm their own identity — witness Jay-Z’s sixth album, The Blueprint.

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The album adds ’70s soul to the rapper’s predictable mix of self-declaration and catty peer-dissing.