The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse

The Blueprint2: The Gift & The Curse
Studio album by Jay Z
Released	November 12, 2002
Recorded	2001–2002
Genre	Hip hop, pop-rap
Length	112:02
Label	Roc-A-Fella Def Jam
Producer	Darrell "Digga" Branch Just Blaze Kanye West Timbaland The Neptunes No I.D. Charlemagne Big Chuck Ron Feemster Heavy D Jimi Kendrix Dr. Dre
Jay Z chronology
The Best of Both Worlds (2002) The Blueprint2 (2002) The Black Album (2003)
Singles from The Blueprint2: The Gift & The Curse
"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" Released: October 10, 2002 "Hovi Baby" Released: November 12, 2002 "Excuse Me Miss" Released: February 4, 2003

The Blueprint²: The Gift & The Curse is the seventh studio album by American rapper Jay Z. It was released on November 12, 2002, by Roc-A-Fella Records and Def Jam Recordings. The album serves as a sequel to his sixth album The Blueprint (2001). Parts of the album were later reissued for his compilation album, titled Blueprint 2.1 (2003). Unlike this project than his other four previous albums, it debuted at number one, shipping with first-week sales of 545,000 units. As of February 2012, the album has sold 2,117,000 units in the United States.^[1]

Background

The three-month recording sessions took place after Jay-Z's critically acclaimed and commercially successful sixth album The Blueprint (2001), at the age of 32. The production on the album was handled primarily by Just Blaze and Kanye West - both of whom had recently established themselves as both of one of hip-hop's most celebrated producers due to the success of The Blueprint - Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo (also known as The Neptunes), and Timbaland, while other producers includes No I.D., Darrell "Digga" Branch, Charlemagne, Big Chuck, Dr. Dre, Jimmy Kendrick, Heavy D, and Ron Fennster. Unlike The Blueprint which was almost void of guest appearances, The Blueprint² features many featured guests, even out-of-genre artists that include Lenny Kravitz and Sean Paul. Other features include West Coast rapper and producer Dr. Dre, Rakim, Beyoncé, Faith Evans, Beanie Sigel and Scarface. The album also includes an uncredited verse from Kanye West on the Timbaland-produced track "The Bounce". Pharrell also provides vocals and hooks of many of his produced tracks, for example "Excuse Me Miss" and "Nigga Please". Though the album has no strict concept, the album contains two discs. The first disc entitled "The Gift" features mainstream, pop-oriented music. The second disc entitled "The Curse" contains dark, emotional, and bravado street songs such as the dark-toned retelling of "Meet the Parents", the emotional substance of escaping the dangerous ghetto in "Some How Some Way", the Nas-diss "Blueprint²", and the bravado "Nigga Please".

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Blender	[3]
Christgau's Consumer Guide	[4]
Entertainment Weekly	C[5]
NME	8/10[6]
Pitchfork	7.5/10[7]
Q	[8]
Rolling Stone	[9]
Spin	9/10[10]
Uncut	[11]

The Blueprint 2 received lukewarm reviews from critics.^[12] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 64, based on 19 reviews.^[13] According to Nathan Rabin, the record "led many to claim that [Jay-Z] lost his vise-like grip on rap music". In his review for The A.V. Club, Rabin deemed it "overreaching but surprisingly solid", featuring a first disc of clever pop-rap jams and a second that was "darker and more erratic".^[14] Rolling Stone critic Christian Hoard said The Blueprint 2 was another "strong record from hip-hop's most dependable voice" but felt Jay-Z's flow was more impressive than the production, finding it "long on both bouncy funk and forgettable R&B samples".^[9] AllMusic's John Bush believed Jay-Z showcased some exceptional songs but could not carry the 110-minute double album as consistently as its predecessor.^[2] Soren Baker was more critical in the Chicago Tribune. He felt Jay-Z's reworking of other rappers' music ("It Was All a Dream", "'03 Bonnie & Clyde", and "The Watcher 2") was unimaginative while the rest of the album lacked his usual enthusiasm.^[15] "It reminds me of nearly every other double CD", David Browne wrote in Entertainment Weekly. "It could have been a good single disc."^[5] Robert Christgau named "U Don't Know (Remix)" and "Poppin' Tags" as highlights while writing in his Village Voice consumer guide that he was disappointed Jay-Z sampled Paul Anka for "I Did It My Way" when he could not get permission to use Frank Sinatra's recording of "My Way".^[16]

Rollie Pemberton was more enthusiastic in his review for Pitchfork, writing that Jay-Z "weaves his way through every imaginable style and flavor with unyielding expertise".^[7] Billboard hailed it as "the most ambitious and most fully realized album of his career",^[17] while Q felt it surpassed his previous album.^[8] In the opinion of Spin critic Chris Ryan, The Blueprint 2 found Jay-Z "tightening the screws of his delivery" and discovering a "bruising poetry in a flow that once seemed clumsily conversational".^[10]

Track listing

Charts

Certifications

See also

• List of number-one albums of 2002 (U.S.)
• List of number-one R&B albums of 2002 (U.S.)

References

External links

• The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse at Discogs (list of releases)