In the interview for CLASH magazine, Jay talks about the inspiration for Blueprint 3 and declares that this is the final album of the series.
Clash: So ‘The Blueprint 3′; how long have you been recording it for?
Jay: Forever. My whole life. I must have honestly started the process three or four times. But it actually started out in the UK when I was playing Manchester. Kanye came along to my show and brought me a CD full of beats and they were all sequenced. So he’s like, “This is the album!”, and I was, “Woah – slow down”. Kanye thought it was done and ready. But that was pretty much the foundation for what would become ‘The Blueprint 3′.
Clash: Did you always know it was going to be ‘The Blueprint 3′?
Jay: Yeah. I knew from day one.
Clash: And did you always intend to complete the trilogy?
Jay: I had my last trilogy with the ‘….Lifetime’ volumes one, two and three and I’d skipped over ‘The Blueprint’ for a bunch of albums and I thought now was the time. It would be very appropriate to go back to it, you know? The first ‘Blueprint’ was a return to my roots. It was like the soul samples that I grew up listening to. This album sets the blueprint for the next generation. We are becoming those icons we looked up to – for this new generation, kids look up to us that way. Me, Kanye, Justin. I just wanted to return to making music like that. I’m calling it a new classic. The songs are really lush and I tackled it without any formulas in mind. It just needed to feel like classic music with new subjects of course… I had all these big records and all this success – with ‘The Blueprint’ I had to take a step back to take a step further.
Clash: But is this it? Or could we see a ‘Blueprint’ quadrilogy?
Jay: A quad what? (laughs) There is no more – this is the end of the series. Enjoy it!
You can read the interview in its entirety over at clashmusic.com.
Letterman Interview from last night
Tags: Blueprint 3, David Letterman, Jay-Z
