About twelve years ago, Jay-Z began his Blueprint series with Just Blaze and Young Guru among the trusted few by his side. Recently, Just and Gu sat down to talk about their work while making the disc with Blaze admitting that some of the beats Jay selected weren’t necessarily made with Jigga in mind.
“The only joint that preexisted was ‘Girls, Girls, Girls,’ which I had been holding for Ghostface [Killah]. The protools session was called ‘Ghostface.’ And I remember, when I first started the first version of “U Don’t Know,” Busta [Rhymes] happened to come by and was like, ‘I need this!’ I was like, ‘Let me get back. I’m not sure what I want to do.’ I knew it had the potential to be something explosive.”
The pair also discussed the making of “Song Cry,” and how much the beat changed from when Jay-Z laid his vocals to when the finished track was revealed.
“You finished the first way and I was like, ‘This dude is a genius,'” Young Guru said to Blaze. “I think Jay walked in, he heard the beat and he laid the rhyme that night just immediately. That’s how fast we was doing the Blueprint joints. He laid the rhyme that night. And you worked on the record that night. I have never seen…How many chops was on that?” he asked.
“96,” Blaze responded.
“It was in one form, a basic form for the emcee to say the rhyme,” Young Guru continued. “Then, the long intro and all the different changes came so by the time Jay came back the next day, it completely sounded different. What’s on the album is completely different from what he laid the rhyme to.”
According to Just Blaze, Jay-Z took that moment to call several unnamed producers who he was “cool with” to tell them, “You’re good but Just Blaze is a genius.” Blaze says other producers were mad at him at the time for that. Young Guru added that Blaze’s other beats for Blueprint were made that weekend.
More from the pair can be seen below, courtesy of HardknockTV.
The original Blueprint was released September 11, 2001. The album was followed by a double-disc, 2002’s The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse and later 2009’s The Blueprint 3.
RELATED: Jay-Z – The Blueprint
im a young upcoming producer check me out i go by the name of Young Krs-OnE
LOL!
thinking about switching it to Young Biggie
If your name has YOUNG in it, you already lost.
it balances out if you put young in front of a legendary rappers name, just ask young guru
The Blue print is a classic, I till have it on play in the truck. Heck out thegrandreport, they got some good stuff on there too
the blueprint the only jay album i bump
too bad well neve rhear production like this again. Todays production is incredibly weak. A lot of people underestimate this aspect of the downfall of rap, but it is just as steep as the decline of lyrical rappers if not steeper
The Blueprint is NOT a classic. It had some good songs on it, but too much garbage to be considered a classic. (Hola Hovito, Jigga That Nigga, Izzo, Girls Girls Girls) I always thought it was interesting how Nas could put one pop song on his album and people hate it and say it’s not a classic but Jay-Z can make half his album garbage pop songs and people call it classic. I’m just not impressed by Jay-Z, I’m sorry.
If you got nothing to say ,don’t say anything. Yes , The Blueprint is a classic and is one of the best albums of all time
of alltime? u went a little too far on that one man. its a good album but it wasnt even close to Enter the Wu, Ready to Die, The Chronic, Illmatic, or Low End Theory. do ur homework kid
anon, you’re stuck in ’93-’94
If you are listening to blueprint 12 years on…
Its a certified classic!
i think it is a bit overrated tbh. its a great album, but i was a bit underwhelmed
and i agree w/ first anon, its not on par w/ those albums.
Black people are stupid!!!! Monkeys for real, English is not your language stop fucking it up coons!!!!!!
I could listen to these guys talk music all day. True producing legends.
Wish a site would have a 20 minute sit down with Just, Guru, Dre and Premier
96 chops on Song Cry? GTFOH.
Its possible, pending on what he’s chopping… but 96 is kinda fucking extensive!!!
^ okay lads….
here where you explain what songs you’ve produced??
Just Blaze is a beast with the beats.
blueprint is the best album of all time
just blaze is just blaze biggest fan.
how many bangers he drop since jay-z cut him off?
0
this nigga loves himself, he spent the last chunk of his career bigging himself up, organizing his music collection, bullshitting on twitter.
hed probably respond with something like “im making money”.. cool but you’re not making good music so you gotta keep reminding ppl you used to make good music. those beats on eminems album were trash and this clown has been accused of stealing beats from wack kids online for YEARS.
jay elect
saigon
all the saigon beats were made years ago and any new saigon just blaze song has sucked. jay electronica made 2 overrated songs with just blaze and disappeared. just blaze been washed up for a long time. his last hit is “live your life” with rihanna and t.i. and that track stunk.
eminem, jay electronica, drake, kendrick lamar for the last 3 years
all dope songs
Check out the latest track from Drake’s hometown prodigy…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz_aKJ9GGF8
The beats sucked. Jay stole all the concepts from other artist and his ghost writers have ghost writers