Jay Z's personal ranking of his own Albums

 

1. Reasonable Doubt (Classic)
2. The Blueprint (Classic)
3. The Black Album (Classic)
4. Vol. 2 (Classic)
5. American Gangster (4 1/2, cohesive)
6. Magna Carta (F***wit, Tom Ford, Oceans, Beach, On the Run, Grail)
7. Vol. 1 (Sunshine kills this album... f***... Streets, Where I'm from, You Must Love Me...)
8. BP3 (Sorry critics, it's good. Empire (Gave Frank a run for his money))
9. Dynasty (Intro alone...)
10. Vol. 3 (Pimp C verse alone... oh, So Ghetto)
11. BP2 (Too many songs. F***ing Guru and Hip Hop, ha)
12. Kingdom Come (First game back, don't shoot me)

 

I know I'm a day late (but never a dollar short) with my 2 cents on this. Sue me.  :) Anywho, for those of you who didn't know or didn't care, Shawn Carter celebrated his 44th birthday yesterday (December 4th).  He took to his blog, Life+Times, to personally rank each of his solo projects.  Being a fellow Hip Hopper and Huge Jay Z fan myself, I found the listing and brief snippets of introspection on each one a nice added touch.  In my opinion I would rank it a little differently.  The Black album to me is like my blueprint.  The track order, the intro, the outro... man it's glorious.  That being said, the first blueprint is right behind it.  Reasonable Doubt would come in at number three (blasphemy, whatever).  I know I will be hated for this BP3 is 4th for me.  I love the production and the conciseness of it.  Magna Carta would be my number 5 and American Gangster is slotted 6th. Everything else is in it's proper place after that haha.  The only way Kingdom Come isn't ranked last is if we include all his projects in which case Best of Both Worlds (yeuch) is dead effing last.  K, I'm done rambling. 

 

PS.. I had the honor of attending the Magna Carter (the tour changed it to "Carter") on November 30th.  Spectacular.  The man puts on such a great show.  Also I had great seats by virtue of a good friend (here's lookin' at you Lindsay).  If you can catch this show, please do.  Until next time, IT'S THE ROC!