Ranking All 15 Tracks from Jay-Z's Landmark Album 'The Blueprint' on Its 25th Anniversary

I was never able to relate to people who say that they went to the store to cop The Blueprint on the day the Twin Towers fell 25 years ago. That was because I had already bought the album a day early on Monday, Sept. 10 at Eclipse Records in downtown Paterson, NJ. It’s not around anymore unfortunately, but they were known for selling highly-anticipated albums a day early if you went in and asked if they already had the particular project you wanted in stock.

I remember immediately getting into my car and throwing it in the CD player, and not putting it in drive until after “U Don’t Know” melted my brain. I would spend the rest of that day hanging out with friends and listening to it a bunch of times, especially because it would be the first time we heard the rest of “Takeover” after he had teased it at Summer Jam earlier that year — moving on to another song after namedropping Nas . His decision to declare war on the Queens MC triggered “Ether,” but before we were able to get to that, the world stopped the very next day for other reasons.

When I woke up on Tuesday, Sept. 11, I thought I was going to head to class at our local community college during my first week of freshman year. I walked into my kitchen and saw my grandmother, who lived on the second floor, nervously washing dishes while she had the news on the TV in the living room. When she saw me, she said somebody had bombed the Twin Towers. I kinda dismissed her and told her that was old news, because terrorists had bombed the Towers a few years earlier. But then I walked into the living room and saw the smoke coming out of the first building that was hit first, and as I stood there watching the live coverage, I saw the second plane hit.

The rest of the day was spent talking with family and friends about what we had witnessed and listening to this album. I sometimes forget how this particular project is so intertwined with this day. It’s a testament to how things like music can help you escape the harsh realities of the world.

The Blueprint is Jay-Z ‘s magnum opus. If it dropped in 2026, every song would chart in the Top 40. It’s the closet project of Jay’s to Michael Jackson’s Thriller , because every track on this album could’ve been a single. The Brooklyn rapper had fully crossed over into the mainstream at this point and was thirsty to be anointed the King of New York, which back then meant the King of Rap. With this project, he not only solidified his standing, he took the throne — even after ultimately losing his battle with Nas. Regardless how you about the Jigga Man, you have to concede that this is not only one of the most pivotal albums in his career, it’s also one of the pivotal albums in rap history. It set off his beef with Nas and it essentially gave us Ye (formerly known as Kanye West ), who produced some of the set’s most seismic tracks.

For its 25th anniversary, we ranked every track on The Blueprint . Check out our picks below.

_Originally reported by [Billboard](https://www.billboard.com/lists/jay-z-the-blueprint-tracks-ranked/)._