Jay-Z's 'The Blueprint 3' debuts at #1 — his record-breaking 11th #1 album

Why it matters

September 19, 2009. Billboard confirmed The Blueprint 3 had debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, making it Jay-Z's eleventh #1 album. Elvis Presley had held the previous record of ten with the chart he had defined for decades; Jay passed him in 2009. The Beatles, who would later take the all-time record for most #1 albums by an act, were still ahead in the group category but Jay was now the #1 solo act in chart history. The record-setting alone is the kind of business achievement that, in any other genre, would have been front-page music news for weeks. It got attention but not the disproportionate amount you might have expected. Partly that is because Jay had been at the top of the commercial conversation for so long that another #1 felt expected. Partly it is because Kanye had interrupted Taylor Swift six days earlier and the rap-related cultural conversation was elsewhere. The record stood as Jay's anyway. He has, since 2009, added more #1 albums to the tally. The 2009 ceiling-break is the one that put him past the King's name in the books.