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Blueprint - Adventures In Counter Culture

Rating

RIYL

Atmoshpere
Little Brother
Eydea
80’s synth-hop

Release Date

04/05/2011

Label

Rhymesayers

Tracklist

Track listing

1-"Five Years Ago" – 1:23
2-"Go Hard or Go Home (Printnificence)" – 3:50
3-"Automatic" – 3:15
4-"Keep Bouncing" – 3:49
5-"Wanna Be Like You" – 4:32
6-"My Culture" – 4:10
7-"Mind, Body & Soul" Featuring Angelica Lee – 5:04
8-"So Alive" – 3:51
9-"Radio-Inactive" – 4:17
10-"Welcome Home" – 4:24
11-"Fly Away" – 3:47
12-"The Clouds" – 3:22
13-"Rise & Fall" – 3:53
14-"The Other Side" – 4:23
15-"Soul Music" – 5:48
16-"Who Do You Love" Featuring Slug and Illogic – 3:22

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Recent Ratings
snoopydogg	Rick Gebhardt
Bill Lohr

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Blueprint, familiarize yourself. This dude has been in the hip-hop game for over a decade as a solo artist as well as with a few groups. His latest installment for the Rhymesayers discography is Adventures In Counter-Culture. Blueprint is usually known for his ability to transcend traditional hip-hop, however, it seems that this time around he’s embracing the mainstream a bit more than trying to work around it. Don’t get it twisted though, Blueprint stills holds it down with his thought provoking lyrics and decade bouncing beats, but those traits aren't really mixing that well with the new direction he’s taking on this effort.

After the intro track, Adventures… comes out swingin’ and really grabs your attention. “Go Hard or Go Home” is laced with lyrical brilliance and a familiar beat from Blueprint to nod your head hard to. This particular track seems to fit its title perfect, seeing as how he comes at the masses with clenched fists and a mouthful of words to spew ever so viciously. Skip two tracks ahead to “Keep Bouncing” and you will find yourself nodding your head to an odd beat with steady lyricism. The following track is the first track to throw you off a bit. “Wanna Be Like You” is a catchy tune at times, but it also falls a bit short with too much experimentation. It’s possibly a bit out of the realm of comfort for Blueprint as it’s not his normal sound. The same goes for “So Alive.” This particular track doesn’t really seem to have a formula to it; it’s just a loop with an echo on ‘Print’s vocals.

This sort of seems to be the method of operation on this album. Upon the first spin, long-time fans may be thrown off a bit (or potentially a lot), leaving them slightly disappointed. However, fans of the genre looking for something new will find comfort with this album. Tacks like “Mind, Body and Soul” and “Radio Inactive” contain some of the odd beats and samples underpinning his new approach, and they also contain the classic ‘Print lyricism. “Radio Inactive” is definitely one of the strongest tacks to be found here and is sure to give any listener goose bumps. Skip ahead a few tracks and you will find “Fly Away,” a track that is completely from 1988 and I don’t mean Blueprint’s first album, I’m talkin’ about the year. Full of drum loops, synth pops and samples galore, “Fly Away” oozes sweatbands and oversized white tube-socks.

Honestly, this effort fell a bit short for me. Blueprint is usually a force to be reckoned with in the hip-hop industry but I’m not quite sure true fans are ready for this type of release from the Rhymesayer native. I will hand it to the guy, though, the experimentation is risky and done effectively so this release shouldn't lead you to a total loss of faith in ‘Print, it’s just a slight step backwards. With that being said, it’s fair to say that a mediocre record from Blueprint will, nine times out of ten, be better than 90% of the garbage that you hear on the radio nowadays.

--Bill Lohr