Blueprint - 1988
Blueprint - 1988
Blueprint began his career producing for acts like Illogic, Aesop Rock and his group, the Greenhouse Effect. It wasn’t until he grabbed a mic alongside producer/dj Rjd2 on their duo Soul Position’s album The Unlimited EP that he became recognized as a dope mc. Now, with his 2005 debut, 1988, Blueprint handles both production and vocals on his own, resurrecting the elements which made ’88 such a great year for hip hop.
1) Intro
At 27 seconds, this track lasts only long enough to scratch in some ’88 referencing vocal cuts over a funky old school beat. [N/A]
2) Anything is Possible
This is basically a lengthened intro with Blueprint rapping on it. It’s based around his will power and the beat (like many others on 1988) follows an enhanced old school vibe with a hard snare and electric guitar. One thing you’ll notice with this album is Print has for the most part ditched his usual trademark Soul Position flow for a less whiny, low pitched old school delivery. The result is a rawer and more serious (with some exceptions) Blueprint. [8/10]
3) 1988
The title track and for a good reason too. With a title like that, your average underground mc might drop names of historical figures and babble about how great hip hop used to be, but not Blueprint. This track doesn’t really even follow a theme but instead sets the mood of the vintage ’88 in your face braggadocio goodness that we all know and love. The beat flips a piano loop from a Cannibal Ox record over a sick drum break and ‘Print comes at the top of his game with a cocky “your shits wack, I fucked your moms” tip to his lyrics.
“My mind stays stuck on filth
Black cheerleaders and trying to fuck a milf
It's only ‘cause I got your moms on tilt
You found out it wasn't toothpaste on her quilt
Sue me, I told you that you sorry
But Billy Blanks got you thinkin' that you know Karate
You need to know I play matchmaker as a hobby
I can introduce speed knocks…to your body”Classic. [10/10]
4) Inner-City-Native-Son
Blueprint flexes his story telling skills on a song reminiscent of Slick Rick’s ’88 classic “Children’s Story”. There’s a nice drum pattern with a vocal sample and the occasional guitar looped over. While basic, it provides a good, eerie backdrop for Print’s lyrics and picks up instrumentally at the chorus. With this, Blueprint carries the story perfectly. [8.5/10]
5) Tramp
Blueprints mad, and to prove it he’s got a simplistically vulgar guitar and a dope sample to back him. Add two frustrated verses plus another vocal sample to the chorus and the result is the primitive genius found on this track. Blueprint may not always come awesomely metaphoric, but his simply put wording and honesty hold your attention more than the majority of pseudo-intellects in the underground. [9/10]
6) Boombox
I heard pitchfork ripping this album up because he samples Do The Right Thing and doesn’t turn it into some pretentious social commentary. Fuck them. If ‘Print wants to talk about his boombox, than let him. Funny how they can put an average release like the Black Album in top 100 albums of the millennium and call Blueprint hypocritical. Getting to the point here, Boombox = Classic. [10/10]
7) Trouble On My Mind
Two classics in a row. Minimal record sales and the hardships of a starving artist have angered the beast. Armed with furious rhymes and his regularly killer flow, Print delivers two aggressively truthful verses over some hard hitting boom bap production. [10/10]
8) Lo-Fi Funk ft Aesop Rock
The last Aesop/Blueprint collaboration was Alchemy, where Blueprint spat one of the best verses I’ve ever heard while Aesop did his usual well delivered and worded yet hardly understandable rhyming. And once again the opposite attracts…yet only for a chorus. The beat is a constant loop of squeaky trumpets and hard hitting cymbals. Blueprint rhymes with the confidence found on Alchemy while Aesop talks, ad-libs and does a hook. Some songs are best untouched by Rock, but his delivery in the chorus leaves me wondering how he would have sounded dropping a verse
“Your skin is unhappy and your teeth look nappy
The dandruff in your hair got your shirt shook badly
Your facial hair is all mangy and patchy
And your bloodshot eyes look like they got acne” [8.5/10]
9) Big Girls Need Love Too
This joins Murs’ track Freakin’ Them Tales as one of the few comedic love songs funnier than Girls, Girls, Girls by Jay-z. For a goofy song, the fast paced piano, evolving violin and soulful vocal samples make for a masterpiece only a step or two down from the production on Kanye West’s gone. As usual, Blueprint is on point, this time rhyming about his odd ball love affairs with both skinny and fat girls. [8.5/10]
10) Fresh
What screams classic more than a vintage Doug E Fresh beat-boxing sample and a raw emcee schooling impostors and art fags alike. When in battle mode, Blueprint is believable and bears resemblance of LL Cool J in his prime as he delivers lines like “Man, these MC's gotta lotta nerve/ ‘I rhyme and do beats like you Print’ - oh WORD?/ Like I'ma grade you on a curve/ My advice to you, master one of 'em first”. I love how he mixed a fiddle in on the chorus. [10/10]
11) Where’s Your Girlfriend At?
Blueprint switches up his flow for a lengthened multi syllable rhyme scheme, this time on some “I fucked your hoe” braggadocio. The beat is bound to impress, combining a funky standup bass with Dick Tracy-esque horns.
“Add me to any beat you got a banger, add me to any mic and it's a magical blend
I came in this rap game with one goal: be the baddest motherfucker with a pad and a pen”
[8/10]
12) Kill Me First ft CJ the Cynic
The only true guest appearance on this album is by CJ the Cynic, an odd choice considering his verse is only slightly above average, especially after the genius and emotion displayed in Blueprint’s verse. The topic is police brutality and is well suited by the ever evolving piano and boom bap drum loop. [9/10]
13) Liberated
This is basically the emotional masterpiece of the album. The loop of bells in the beat serves well as Print begins with “I thought I saw what Malcolm Little saw inside the game that made him wanna draw an X across his last name, dig inside himself and make a change; the turning point from which things could never be the same.” With this he finishes the album in two long, classic verses. [10/10]
Let’s get one thing clear; I was born in ’91. So in reviewing a record conceptually based three years prior to my arrival, I must come off as quite the poser talking about Chuck D, KRS and boom bap. But if anything this album has helped to further develop my interests in late 80’s rap classics through bringing out the best of that movement, rather than bitching about how great it used to be and moping at the current state of hip hop. Both the lyrics and production are equally on par, resulting in a near classic album.
Overall Score: [9/10]
Bonus Track: Who You Talkin’ To?
While this isn’t technically considered part of the album, it still kinda carries the ’88 sound with a dusty trumpet and hard hitting drums. The lyrics are especially dope, talking about respect and staying out of beef.
“I aim for the stars, with the focus of a marksmen
And found out the hard way success is a moving target
For most artists it's so hard to hit
And so easy to quit, at the first sign of hardship
But hardship only increases how hard I spit
Respect's hard to earn, money's hard to get
I'm at the school of hard knocks with no scholarship
So everything I got I gotta work hard for it
From props and respects down to dollars and cents
I never been a product of put-ons or politics
Or caught up in drama and a bunch of conflicts
Ask me about other people's beef - no comment
I got enough problems of my own to deal with
To diss the next man's music cause I don't feel it? Shit
Open your eyes man it's common sense
If it don't make dollars then it don't make sense/cents”
[9/10]
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Originally Posted by `Jammin' Jobus
