Jay-Z is undoubtedly one of the most successful and greatest rappers of all time. The 25-time Grammy Award winner is known ...

“Blueprint (Momma Loves Me)” probably isn’t the first song you think of when someone mentions The Blueprint. Sure, it’s the title track, but it’s also the track separating you from two very dope bonus ...

XXL celebrates 50 years of hip-hop with this moment: Sept. 8, 2009: The Blueprint 3 was the last album in Jay-Z's Blueprint trilogy, which started with the classic The Blueprint in 2001, and then ...

It may be hard for some fans to recognize or recall, but the rise of Shawn Carter aka Jay Z to rap alpha dog status wasn't immediate or a foregone conclusion. Those who are dismissive of Jay's ...

The album released in the '00s that you're most likely to find near the top of a list of "the greatest hip hop albums of all time," however, is "The Blueprint." Whether it is better than Jay-Z's debut ...

One of the culture’s best curators is leaving the mixtape game with a bang. MICK has partnered with Chi Duly on a project that merges Jay-Z’s The Blueprint beats to Beyoncé’s vocals. “Recently, I was ...

“You have to get in a space where you can’t even all-the-way listen to your friends, because they love you so much that they have places they want you to be.” So says Jay-Z, on the subject of “Empire ...

Hip Hop icon Jay-Z made history this week when debuted at the top of the Billboard Top 200 charts this week. It was the rapper's 11th top album, pushing him past Elvis Presley as the solo act with the ...

When Jay-Z made American Gangster it was more than evident that he can do coke rap, he can rap about his past lifestyles without an issue. At the end of the day, however, Jay-Z is no longer that guy ...

Let’s take it piece by piece. The hook features New Yorker Alicia Keys in stomach-flexing belt-out mode (the better to toast the town), and, at first, annoyed me. I’ve long suspected Keys confuses ...

At a free show at a small New York City venue last night, Jay Z showed that, to paraphrase his most famous song, he may have problems but the band ain’t one. The Brooklyn-born rapper performed music ...

2001: It's no secret that Sept. 11, 2001 is one of the darkest days in American history. With the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City, there were far more important events going on in the ...