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Kanye West · S2 E3
The Blueprint
Jay-Z needs a new sound. Kanye delivers soul samples that change rap forever
It is the summer of 2001 at Baseline Studios in Manhattan, and a 24-year-old producer from Chicago drops a needle on a Bobby "Blue" Bland record. He chops it into a two-bar loop, presses play for Jay-Z, and Jay nods once and walks straight into the booth.
Jay-Z ft. Beyonce Knowles, '03 Bonnie & Clyde (2002). The Blueprint made Kanye Jay-Z's go-to producer. This is the proof: a Tupac sample, a young Beyonce on the hook, and Kanye's soul-flipping style crossing over into mainstream pop.
A New Sound
By 2001, mainstream rap production runs on two engines: the Neptunes' space-funk and Timbaland's mechanical bounce. Jay-Z has ridden both across five albums, but for his sixth he needs something nobody else is doing. Kanye shows up at Baseline with a crate of dusty soul records from the '60s and '70s, a beat machine, and four tracks that will help reshape hip-hop.
“We were in the same building, working on the same album. I could hear his beats through the walls, he could hear mine. It pushed both of us to go way harder than we would have alone.”
— Just Blaze (Blueprint co-producer), Red Bull Music Academy lecture, 2014
Baseline Studios
The Manhattan recording studio where Jay-Z cut The Blueprint in roughly two weeks, with Kanye and Just Blaze competing from adjacent rooms.
TAP TO REVEAL: What sparked the soul-sampling sound of The Blueprint?
'03 Bonnie & Clyde, Jay-Z ft. Beyonce Knowles (2002)
Kanye samples Tupac's "Me and My Girlfriend" and rebuilds it into something warmer and more romantic, a love letter disguised as a ride-or-die anthem. The production is smoother than anything on The Blueprint, with a looping piano melody and Beyonce's vocals floating over the beat instead of competing with it. The song hit number four on the Hot 100, Kanye's highest chart position as a producer at that point.
Where was The Blueprint recorded?
Heart of the City (Ain't No Love), Jay-Z
The Blueprint track that started it all for Kanye. Bobby "Blue" Bland's 1974 ballad, barely chopped, with hard drums layered underneath. This is the sound of soul sampling before the whole industry caught on.
Kanye has four production credits on the biggest rap album of the year, and his name is starting to echo beyond studio walls. But one of those beats is about to become completely inescapable.
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