By the time the third installment of a trilogy rolls around the franchise has lost most of its steam. After one- maybe two- classic offerings from the first two parts, the last one pretty much sucks. Unfortunately the third time is not always the charm. Classics like The Godfather,The Matrix, and even Spiderman all saw a decline by the final film. Enter Jay-Z and his latest studio album The Blueprint 3. It is the long awaited conclusion to his Blueprint series. And while it will do nothing to tarnish his previous works, this one doesn’t exactly measure up to the rest of the series. The album has been released today (September 10, 2009) and comes one day before the anniversary of The Blueprint and a 9/11 benefit concert headlined by Jay-Z at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

The new album has been met with mixed reviews since it was leaked on August 31st. Most of the reviews have been positive but all agree that the quality necessary to push it over the top seems to be lacking. With this album Jay-Z went back to his comfort mode as far as producers. The brunt of the work was done by his babe bro, Kanye West and his producing mentor,No I.D. Timbaland lends assistance to a few tracks incuding “Reminder” “Off That” and “Venus vs. Mars”. Swizz Beatz and the Neptunes also chip in on a couple of tracks. Anybody expecting the fury of past albums like The Blueprint or The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse will be disappointed. The problem is not that the music isnt good. It just seems that Hov may of gotten a little complacent with the fact that he can only battle with himself at this point. The track garnering the most buzz has been the Alicia Keys vocaled “Empire State of Mind” an homage to the state that birthed him. Lead singles off the album “DOA” and “Run this City” have been getting lots of play on the radio.

Even though it is Jay-Z, the album has a couple of misses. “Off That” featuring Drake doesn’t really bang the way you would expect maybe due to the fact that it was missing a Drake verse and even with the Swizz Beatz track “On to the Next One” it seems like the beat drowns out Jay-Z’s rhymes. But on the same token when he succeeds he succeeds. “A Star is Born” is a banging collaboration with protege J. Cole and Kid Cudi definitely holds his own on “Already Home” The best and possibly deepest song on the album is “Forever Young” a track where he states his intentions to live life to the fullest and always be remebered for who he is. On this song Jay-Z is backed with extremely powerful vocals from British singer, Mr. Hudson.

All in all The Blueprint 3 is far from the classic Reasonable Doubt is or In My Lifetime: Volume 1. Still, Jay-Z still holds down his legacy as one of the greatest artist of our generation. It’s good modern sound.

RBMVibes Rating: 3.5-4 Coupons out of 5

Released Videos

“Death of Autotune”

“Run This Town”

Jams from Blueprint and The Blueprint 2