No. 1 The Blueprint (2001)
Reasonable Doubt is a brilliant album. For many people, it’s Jay’s pinnacle. But his masterful 2001 release stands as the album that is definitive Jay-Z. Strong from start-to-finish, as cohesive as any hip-hop album released in any era, The Blueprint is the album that sums up who the rapper himself is–both sides of his public persona are here: the street hustler that came in through hip-hop’s backdoor and the savvy businessman determined to blaze his own trail to the top. And from a historical standpoint, there isn’t a more important hip-hop album from the early 2000s: it made Kanye West a household name amongst hip-hop producers, it sparked the feud with Nas that re-ignited his career commercially and creatively after several years of stagnation, and it established Jay-Z as the undisputed “alpha dog” of hip-hop in terms of influence and visibility. A remarkable record.
