Ahhh, September

Looking forward to the arrival of the ninth month is an odd feeling.  As a kid you learned to dread September.  Sure, there was some consolation in a new pair of sneakers and the return of football, but what September really marked was the end of summer, and the commencement of school and months of cold weather.  In many ways September still means such things to me.  I'll be returning to college and facing the five oppressive months of Oregon winter.  However, as a fan of hip-hop, September is exciting; really it's something of an early Christmas.  With new albums from the likes of Killer Mike, M.O.P., Lil Boosie, Raekwon, Rakim, and Q-Tip I expect to be pretty well occupied.

One of the more interesting stories is Jay-Z's Blueprint 3.  The Tracklist to the long-awaited album was recently revealed.  Given the list of guest features, it seems as if the rest of the album is a stammering apology to anyone who may have been offended by "Death of Autotune." To make things worse, three Timbaland produced tracks were recently leaked, all sounding mediocre at best.  One of the worst is "Off That," featuring Candian soap opera star, Drake.  The beat, the hook, Jay, all sound uninspired and lack energy, which is worse given that this is clearly the album's club track.  A club track needs to cater to women, and frankly women just don't care that Hov is "off" caring about rims and Timberland boots.  Not only does the clunker of a track clutter up the album, but it'll flop in the clubs.  Jay makes his intent apparent with "Ghetto Techno."  He's trying to create the "future sound" by blending the two genres, which he should know has been done before and always ended poorly.  Not only that, but he's doing it with beats that sound like leftovers from 2006.  But I can't buy that he's getting too old for this.  I enjoyed both "D.O.A." and "Run This Town," and it's clear that Jay has the ability to make good music.  Instead, I think Hov is so intent not to seem old that he created an album attempting to fit in with the freshmen club, and in doing so ended up looking like he's suffering a mid-life crisis (the song title "Young Forever" more than hints at some insecurity).  Jay shows he doesn't understand what the new kids like Cudi and Drake are doing...and he shouldn't, because what they're on is a passing fad, not the next defining sound.

Anticipating the release of Blueprint 3?  We off that.