The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse

'03 Bonnie & Clyde features Jay-Z's then-girlfriend Beyoncé.

The recording sessions took place after Jay-Z's critically acclaimed and commercially successful sixth album The Blueprint (2001). The production on the album was handled primarily by Just Blaze and Kanye West – both of whom had recently established themselves as two of hip-hop's most celebrated producers due to the success of The Blueprint – while other producers include The Neptunes, Timbaland, No I.D., Darrell "Digga" Branch, Charlemagne, Big Chuck, Dr. Dre, Jimmy Kendrick, Heavy D, and Neff-U. Unlike The Blueprint which was almost void of guest appearances, The Blueprint² features many featured guests, even out-of-genre artists that include Lenny Kravitz and Sean Paul. Other features include West Coast rapper and producer Dr. Dre, Rakim, Beyoncé, Faith Evans, Beanie Sigel and Scarface. The album also includes an uncredited verse from Kanye West on the Timbaland-produced track "The Bounce". Pharrell also provides vocals and hooks of many of his produced tracks, for example "Excuse Me Miss" and "Nigga Please". Though the album has no strict concept, the album contains two discs. The first disc titled "The Gift" features mainstream, pop-oriented music. The second disc titled "The Curse" contains dark, emotional, and bravado street songs such as the dark-toned retelling of "Meet the Parents", the emotional substance of escaping the dangerous ghetto in "Some How Some Way", the dissing of Nas and Jaz-O in "Blueprint²", and the bravado "Nigga Please".

West's verse on the track "The Bounce" marked his first appearance as a rapper on a Roc-A-Fella release (although he contributed an uncredited hook to the Blueprint's "Never Change" the previous year), which was on the sequel to The Blueprint (2001), an album he helped produce.[2][3]

Vocals from Audio Two's 1987 single "Top Billin'" are sampled throughout the song.[4] As well as this, it samples vocals from Alka Yagnik and Ila Arun's 1993 song "Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai" throughout.[4] Pitchfork described "The Bounce" as Jay-Z showing 'extreme assonance'.[5] In 2003, the track peaked at number 12 on the US Billboard Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart and remained on it for a total of seven weeks.[6]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	64/100[7]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[8]
Blender	[9]
Christgau's Consumer Guide	[10]
Entertainment Weekly	C[11]
NME	[12]
Pitchfork	7.5/10[13]
Q	[14]
Rolling Stone	[15]
Spin	9/10[16]
Uncut	[17]

The Blueprint 2 received lukewarm reviews from critics.[18] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 64, based on 19 reviews.[7] According to Nathan Rabin, the record "led many to claim that [Jay-Z] lost his vise-like grip on rap music". In his review for The A.V. Club, Rabin deemed it "overreaching but surprisingly solid", featuring a first disc of clever pop-rap jams and a second that was "darker and more erratic".[19] Rolling Stone critic Christian Hoard said The Blueprint 2 was another "strong record from hip-hop's most dependable voice" but felt Jay-Z's flow was more impressive than the production, finding it "long on both bouncy funk and forgettable R&B samples".[15] AllMusic's John Bush believed Jay-Z showcased some exceptional songs but could not carry the 110-minute double album as consistently as its predecessor.[8] Soren Baker was more critical in the Chicago Tribune. He felt Jay-Z's reworking of other rappers' music ("A Dream", "'03 Bonnie & Clyde", and "The Watcher 2") was unimaginative while the rest of the album lacked his usual enthusiasm.[20] "It reminds me of nearly every other double CD", David Browne wrote in Entertainment Weekly. "It could have been a good single disc."[11] Robert Christgau named "U Don't Know (Remix)" and "Poppin' Tags" as highlights while writing in his Village Voice consumer guide that he was disappointed Jay-Z sampled Paul Anka for "I Did It My Way" when he could not get permission to use Frank Sinatra's recording of "My Way".[21]

Rollie Pemberton was more enthusiastic in his review for Pitchfork, writing that Jay-Z "weaves his way through every imaginable style and flavor with unyielding expertise".[13] Billboard hailed it as "the most ambitious and most fully realized album of his career",[22] while Q felt it surpassed his previous album.[14] In the opinion of Spin critic Chris Ryan, The Blueprint 2 found Jay-Z "tightening the screws of his delivery" and discovering a "bruising poetry in a flow that once seemed clumsily conversational".[16]

Blueprint 2.1
Studio album (reissue) by Jay-Z
Released	April 8, 2003
Genre	Hip hop East Coast hip hop
Label	Roc-A-Fella Def Jam
Producer	Kanye West No I.D. Dr. Dre The Neptunes Just Blaze Timbaland Heavy D Darrell 'Digga' Branch
Jay-Z chronology
The Blueprint2: The Gift & the Curse (2002) Blueprint 2.1 (2003) The Black Album (2003)
Singles from Blueprint 2.1
"La-La-La" Released: 2003

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[23]
RapReviews.com	(8.5/10)[24]
Rolling Stone	[25]

Blueprint 2.1 is a reissue by rapper Jay-Z, created from a re-cut version of The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse.[26] It was certified gold by the RIAA. One single was released from the album, "La-La-La".

• "U Don't Know (Remix)" was featured in Madden NFL 2005
• "The Bounce" was featured in NBA 2K13

• List of number-one albums of 2002 (U.S.)
• List of number-one R&B albums of 2002 (U.S.)

• The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse at Discogs (list of releases)