In the August/September 16th Annual Juice Issue of VIBE Magazine, Team VIBE breaks down Shawn Carter’s best album to date, I share this sentiment as well, The Blueprint. In “Built To Last,” John F. Kennedy, Steven Horowitz and Shaheem Reid take apart Jay’s The Blueprint limb from limb and break down some of the more intriguing gems we may have missed the first 1233243 times we’ve played it. One particular component that stuck out like sore thumb was “For The Kill”, Jada’s thoughts on the project, it’s timing and of course the barbaric war of words between Mr. Queensbridge and Mr. Marcy Projects. Check what Kiss had to say about Jay’s 6th solo set.

“In 2001, if you weren’t a warrior, you could’ve been smothered. Everybody was putting out music rapidly. When Hov puts out a project, if you ain’t a heavyweight, you gotta fall back and wait for the Wrath of Khan to go by or be swept like a tsunami. When The Blueprint came out, that was the Tsunami Era of hip-hop. I didn’t really like the “The Takeover” beat. But the words- you know what the words are! It’s like the Declaration of Independence on the battle tip. What he’s saying is crazy. I like “laaaaaayyyymmmee” part. It was heavy. I didn’t really think Jay was dissing The Lox on “Takeover”, but I could find some more songs where he was. But Nas’ “Ether” sits on the mantle when it comes to battle songs. From the production, to the way he formatted it, to what he was saying- he touched everything. It was an A + grade.”

RESPECT: VIBE Magazine