XXL: The Making of Jay-Z's "The Blueprint"

Besides a few bangers like "The Joy" and "Primetime", "Watch The Throne" left a sour taste in my mouth. It's hard to imagine that the unimaginative music found on that disc was created by the same duo that ten years previous created much of Jay's "Blueprint". No matter how much weak music Jigga would decide to pour out from this point on don't really matter though, like LL I will always look upon him as a legend for all the classics he already delivered in his career. One of those classics happen to be 2001's "The Blueprint", an album sometimes catching critic for receiving an "unfair" 5 mics rating in The Source which still had some credability at that point. Personally I don't think there's anything unfair about the rating it received, there's a gang of LPs I would put above it but ultimately it was one of the sickest, most tone setting bodies of work to define the last decade in rap music. Unlike many previous Jay-Z projects, this really felt like a real coherrent album with a musical theme that was pretty much evident throughout without becoming forced. 

It was also thee album that put Just Blaze and KanYe West on the map as super producers with their renaissance of sampled soul records and high-pitched vocal samples with tracks like "The Takeover" (still one of the illest diss records ever made if you ask me), "Girls, Girls, Girls", "U Don't Know" and "Heart Of The City". One of the things that set it apart from some earlier Jigga LPs was that even the singles followed the formula of the rest of the songs and were actually good music that also had some hit potential. The only thing I don't really get about "The Blueprint" is why producer Bink didn't get the recognition for his work as 'Ye and Just? For me it was the combined tracks of this trio that created the sound of it with their 3-4 beats each. Oh well, throw on your discs, press play and read this ill XXL article on the making of the album with interviews with the artist, producers, engineers, executives, etc. If you slept on my previous uploads of these classic XXL articles, check them out because this is the last one I got at the time being. Enjoy!

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XXL's Making of Reasonable Doubt (Scans)

As promised, I have uploaded all the scans of the classic XXL Article on The Making Of Reasonable Doubt, which was given it's own issue back in late 2006 to celebrate the LPs 10 year anniversary. Since it's just now been 15 years since the world first heard Sean Carters debut, these scans will be perfect to go through while revisiting this fantastic album. This post is of course an accompaniement to my previous "Reasonable Doubt" article/16 track early Jay-Z collaborations compilation.

To not make the blog take an eternity to load for those of y'all with slower connections, I uploaded them in a .rar file @ MediaFire. If you haven't read this before it's absolutely amazing reading and even if you read it before, the 12 page spread is fine to revisit several times so enjoy!

XXL: The Making Of Jay-Z's "Reasonable Doubt"

The Making of Big Pun's "Capital Punishment"

Another great XXL Mag article was the 9-page spread given to the track-by-track breakdown of The Making of "Capital Punishment" in their March 2004 issue. As the other articles in the Making of... series, it includes interesting quotes from the people behind the project, describing their involvement in the respective songs. Fat Joe is of course a part of it, as is JuJu/The Beatnuts, RZA, Armageddon, Infinite Arkatectz (remember them?), Young Lord, Inspectah Deck, Prodigy, Sean C and more. 

If you're a fan of Big Punisher's debut album, and I can't really see how you couldn't be, this is essential reading that will undoubtly make you hit play on "Beware" and let it run. To me, "Capital Punishment" is a rap classic that stood the test of time although I do make a few adjustments to the tracklist when uploading it to the iPod. While I love the original Minnesota take on "I'm Not A Player", I just can't stand the mess that is its sequel and pushed the incredible Showbiz laced, Kool G-Rap/B-Real/Fat Joe featuring "Wishful Thinking" off the LP. Besides that switch I only get rid of most of the skits except for the one with Dead Prez and the musical intermissions but otherwise this album warrants front-to-back play and repeated listens.

To not take up too much space on the blog's front page I decided to upload all the scans in a .rar file for y'all to download instead of putting each separate page here. These scans is something I've been having on my computer for the longest and are not my scans, if anyone feel they deserve the credit for this let me know and I'll give you a mention. Download below:

XXL'S "THE MAKING OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT"

The making of "Illmatic" (XXL)

XXL Magazine sometimes runs this amazing features on the making of certain certified hip-hop classics, by interviewing the producers, artists, guests, engineers, A&Rs, etc. To me the two best hip-hop LPs of all time are Raekwon's "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..." and Nas's "Illmatic" so it was a true blessing to read both extensive pieces on the creation of both those gems back when XXL published them. I can't remember who scanned the Nas article that make up this post, but I think I got them on some forum, most likely Wu Corp, so if that person sees this and wants his rightfull props then just let me know. XXL published this about a year or two ago but I want to upload them for anyone that might've missed out on them since any true hip-hop head will find these very interesting and informative. Of course you can just click on each picture below to see them in full size or you can download the .rar file at the bottom of this post.

DOWNLOAD "THE MAKING OF ILLMATIC" Scans