“Could make 40(K) off a brick but one rhyme could beat that,” he boasted over Bobby Byrd’s “I’m Not To Blame.” Mr. Just’s “U Don’t Know” is an exhilarating back to the future joyride of Hov’s journey from corner boy to corporate hustler. In late 2001, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Just Blaze would do to Swizz’s keyboard beats what the God MC would do eight years later to Auto-Tune: plummet its stock. Not only was Hov gonna use this project to lay claim to his dominance in the rap field but he and his hungry Co-Ds behind the boards were gonna change the sound of hip-hop altogether. One that was ignited by a creative explosion that occurred one weekend in Baseline Studios when the sped-up soul-sampled productions of Kanye West and Just Blaze inspired SC to complete seven songs in two days. He literally runs circles around his foes with stamina. On “Lyrical Exercise,” Jay references his drug dealing past, his gift of memory, and offers evidence as to why he’s the best in the game via a brilliant sports thread.
The bonus songs alone were superior to other MCs entire albums. The battle for the new King of NY was on.īut The Blueprint isn’t a great album because of just one visceral record.
“You guys don’t want it with Hov/Ask Nas he don’t want it with Hov.” It was a shot heard around the world. But the salvo that set off hip-hop’s greatest battle is when Hov later brought up Prodigy’s QB brethren. “You little fuck, I got money stacks bigger than you,” Hov growled while an image of the Mobb Deep member in his adolescent years as a dance school student beamed from the concert’s jumbo screen. It was the summer of 2001 when Jay decided to counter his most vocal opposition, Prodigy by debuting an early version of “Takeover” during a headlining set at Hot 97’s Summer Jam.