Music Review: Blueprint (@printmatic) – Respect The Architect

Blueprint is an underground veteran in the rap game. Representing Weightless Records, he has recorded projects since the 90’s. He has even collaborated with other producers (Soul Position). However, he still maintained a life (and even a career) outside of hip hop. Plus, he never really stopped making music (he did release some albums on Rhymesaysers as well). With a full self-produced album available, Blueprint felt right at home when he made Respect The Architect.

The album starts off with that classic, sparse sound that elevated underground hip hop in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. After the subdued instrumental for “Good Vibe” start off the album, “Oh Word?” gets the party started with its use of vocal samples and break beats. The “good vibe” continues into “True Vision”, which incorporates a familiar sample that was laced by Beyonce’. From there, we have “Overdosing” using its sparse production to lead into the feature laden “Once Again”. It seems as if Blueprint wanted to get his listeners’ ears primed for the other half of the album.

I said the previous statement because the second half of the album becomes stronger in content and production. “Respect The Architect” highlights strong lyrics and even more beefed production. The Illogic featured “Bulletproof Resume” sounds like a 2014 version of the ATCQ “Scenario” with less rappers. After that, Blueprint gets into some of the best songs made this year (yeah, I said it) with “Perspective”, “Silver Lining”, and “The Climb”.

Oddly enough, the majority of the album is self-produced with no signs of boredom or redundancy. Actually, the production progressed and “improved” as the album progressed. In the beginning, the production involved more boom bap with instrumental accents. By the time the album reached “Respect The Architect”, the vocal samples and instrumentals were in full display. Even “Perspective”, which was produced by IMAKEMADBEATS, fits into the scheme of progression.

Surprisingly, Blueprint came with one of the most unlikely impressive albums of this year. There is an awareness of how great of an emcee/producer he is. However, it was not expected for him to make one of the better/best albums this year. Yet, this is exactly what Blueprint: made an impressive album by making dope beats and meaningful lyrics.

Whoever said hip hop is dead needs to listen to this album.

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