Relapse vs The Blueprint 3

One word..."Renegade". As soon as Hip-Hop fans hear that word only one thing comes to mind: Eminem's two verses in that song. Up until that point, Hip-Hop heads didn't take Eminem seriously, and in turn, Eminem took everyone by suprise, including Jay-Z. Nas (in)famously said that Eminem "murdered" Jay-Z on his own shit, and it is on that basis, that I base my argument.

Granted, Jay-Z is not your average rapper, in fact, he's one of the best of all time, but I don't think he's better than Eminem...amid the wolf-cries that you're most probably uttering right now, I'll say this: Eminem is the best rapper of all time. Although, some people may argue that if Eminem were black, he wouldn't have garnered much hype or attention, but I beg to differ. If Eminem were black, he'd be better. Plain and simple. If Eminem were black, he wouldn't have to write about serial killers or popstars, he'd write about the same stuff that other (black) rappers write about. You know, bling, hoes, bitches and selling coke at dark street alleys.

Now, before I get too side-tracked, let me move on to my main point of discussion: Is Relapse better than The Blueprint 3? Honestly, I think it is. But it must be said that both artists and their marketing teams were aiming for differerent things. While Jay-Z focused on making hits, Eminem focused on making good tracks that hold down an album. There's only a few records that I think Jay applied himself in, and there's also a few forgettable tracks on Em's set as well. Take Jay's singles for instance, Kanye completely outshined him in "Run This Town" and in "Empire State Of Mind", he comes across as an viciously arrogant.

I have a few qualms with Eminem's choice of singles. If it were up to me, he should've released Beautiful right after "Crack A Bottle". He should've shot a video for "Deja Vu" and released it as a single next, then "We Made You". "3 am" is a great track, but they should've waited a while before releasing a video for it. Look, I'm a big Jigga fan but the last few albums he released were intended for an entirely different market that what I'm used to. What I hate about Jay is his unrelenting arrogance - which he's entitled to considering what he's accomplished as a rapper and a businessman; the keyword being "business". I think Jay isn't that much different from Fiddy or Diddy, the only major noticeable difference is, Jay-Z is a better rapper than the former or the latter. Eminem, on the other hand, is still maintaining his core principles - make good music that he's comfortable with, and make some money while he's at it.

Another thing that bothers me is the number of guests on Jay-Z's album. In The Blueprint, Eminem was the only credited featured artist, Jay did the rest of the album by himself. While, in complete contrast, in The Blueprint 3, there's a host of featured artists. Artists such as Kanye West, Rihanna, J.Cole, Pharrell, Drake, etc. all make appearances on this album. Eminem's Relapse only has two credited featured artists; yes, only 2. Dr. Dre features on Old Time's Sake and the Grammy-Nominated Crack A Bottle while 50 Cent  also makes a brief appearance on the latter. I have nothing against guests on albums, I just have a problem with a guest on every second track.

All in all, The Blueprint 3 is better than a lot of albums that have been released in the past year, but what made it stand out, was the hype of its release (created by the brilliant "Death Of Auto-Tune") because a lot of people were expecting something reminiscent of the first Blueprint, but they had to settle something along the lines of The Blueprint 2.

I had waited for Relapse with bated breath ever since I heard that Eminem had overcome his writer's block and was back in studio with Dre. All those rumours about "King Mathers" certainly kept the hopes alive until they were debunked by an Interscope representative. When the album finally came out, it was great, but I was a little disappointed with Eminem due to the voice changes and the accents he did on most of the tracks. Honestly speaking, I think Relapse would've have been a better album had Shady used his normal voice on ALL the songs. Those who have listened to "Underground" (The best song on the album, in my opinion) will know what I'm talking about.

Final Word: Relapse > The Blueprint 3 and Relapse 2 promises to eclipse the success of its predecessor.

By Zane Urbane