Young! Successful! Etc.!

I’m sure there are discussions going on elsewhere, but I thought I’d throw my two cents in on the new Jay-Z while it’s been out for half-a-day. Zeitgeist ahoy! It’s better than the Blueprint 2.0, but I don’t think it touches the original Blueprint or even my classic- Hard Knock Vol 3.0.

Here is the rundown on producers via www.sashafrerejones.com

1. D3c3mber 4th, Just Blaz3
2. What Mor3 Can I Say? The Buchan4ns
3. 3ncore, Kany3 West
4. Chang3 Clothes, N3ptunes
5. Dirt Off Your Should3rs, Timb4land
6. Thr3at, 9th Wond3r
7. Mom3nt of Clarity, 3min3m
8. 99 Probl3ms, Rick Rub1n
9. Public Service3 Announc3ment, Just Blaz3
10. Just1fy My Thug, DJ Qu1k
11. Lucif3r, Kany3 W3st
12. Allur3, N3ptunes
13. My F1rst Song, Aqua

You can tell on each track without knowing the producer exactly who it is: Eminem with his orchestral builds (one trick pony called out by Todd Burns weeks ago in the Rubber Room!), Just Blaze with his sped up soul samples, Rick Rubin with his updated Run DMC/Beastie Boys dead-end (it actually sounds good here) and Aqua with…well…it’s a great track- not necessarily my album closer, but whatever.

In other news, however, Sasha’s blog has been blowing up lately with all the underground newz on all of the super-producer’s. The Jay-Z album leak news, the new NERD album (Chad Hugo comes on time for interviews, who woulda thunk?) and Timbaland (big Bonnie Raitt, Joan Jett and banana fan apparently). It’s these sorts of asides- and the exquisite photography, that keep me coming back there quite often lately.