The Blueprint 3 is released

Why it matters

The Blueprint 3 came out September 8, 2009, on Roc Nation/Atlantic. It is Jay-Z's eleventh studio album. The release also closed out his original Roc-A-Fella business arrangement: Roc Nation, which Jay had founded earlier that year, was now his label, with Atlantic handling distribution. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, which made it Jay's eleventh solo #1 album and broke Elvis Presley's record for most #1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart by a solo artist (which had been ten). The lead single "Empire State of Mind" with Alicia Keys was a #1 Hot 100 hit and one of the most-played radio singles of fall 2009. Other tracks: "Run This Town" with Rihanna and Kanye, "On to the Next One" with Swizz Beatz, "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)," "Young Forever." The album is not Jay's best, but it does the thing it set out to do, which was to install Jay's new label as a major commercial force and to break a record that had stood since the 1960s. You can argue an album made primarily to break a chart record is a strange creative choice. You can also note that he broke the chart record.