Hip-hop heads have been buzzing about two major releases scheduled for the end of 2008-Kanye West’s “808’s & Heartbreak” (is it really a hip-hop album if Kanye doesn’t rap?) and Jay-Z’s Def Jam finale “Blueprint 3”, which is rumored to have been produced almost in it’s entirety by West.
An alleged tracklisting for BP3 has surfaced on the net, and although its’ validity is being questioned, there might be something to be hopeful about if this track listing *is* in fact real. Namely the fact that the awful first single, “Jockin’ Jay-Z” and the T.I./Kanye/Lil’ Wayne collabo “Swagga Like Us” are NOT on the album (again, allegedly). Could Jay be throwing a red herring at us before hitting us with an album that captures the soulful, mature vibe of the first “Blueprint” album? While I don’t think “BP1” was a super-legendary classic (actually, I don’t even think it’s Jay’s best or even second best album), it would be nice to hear him making music reminiscent of that era. Because “American Gangster”, despite being jocked by everyone else, didn’t exactly move me.
Anyhoo, here’s the (alleged) track listing. Man, I’m using that word so much you’d think I was writing an article about R. Kelly!!
01. Wake Up New York (Intro)
02. Most Kings
03. Hades (Lucifer Pt. II)
04. Eternal Jewels (ft. Jay Electronica) [prod. by Jay Electronica]
05. Blueprint 3
06. Lucy (ft. Chris Martin)
07. The Audacity of Dope
08. Swagger Like Us Pt. 2 (ft. Nas, Andre 3000, and Young Jeezy)
09. Election Night (We believe in Obama)
10. Just Memories
11. Apostate (ft. Eminem) [prod. by Eminem]
12. Oasis
13. My Brothers Keeper (ft. Scarface)
14. Brooklyn Lost
15. Weeds & Concrete
16. Without Rain
Huh, I don’t really know how to start this one. So everybody here knows who Coldplay is, right? Fairly big alt-pop band with arena-sized choruses, love, Fair Trade, falsettos…got Brian Eno to come in and produce their latest? Cool. So I can get right into it and say that Viva La Vida is the most accomplished album of their career. I mean that in pretty much every way: every song has its own color, the runtime is perfect, and the band has never sounded tighter or more inspired. It’s also the closest they’ve come to making a complete statement, rather than just stringing a bunch of romantic, isolated and vaguely political songs together and calling it an album. What is that statement you ask? Well, look at the title. Martin christened the first song of the band’s debut with the chorus “We live in a beautiful world.” Viva La Vida is his way of opening up that world and exposing its beauty. Yeah there’s death, yeah there’s heartache, yeah there’re…despots and lynch mobs…but all of this pales in comparison to the vibrancy of life itself. Is that a bunch of flowery bullshit? Well, that’s for you to decide. I’m willing to suspend disbelief for forty-five minutes.