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- J.E.

The BluePrint 3

The BluePrint 3

I would like to first of all say, what took you so long Jay? I was able to find a leaked copy, which Jay-Z directly addressed to MTV saying that he wants people to just hear his music, downloading it legally, or not. He said to MTV News in an interview on monday, "I'm excited for people to hear the album. I'm very proud of the work I've done, so enjoy it." I figured I wouldn't get in trouble for posting this, CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE BLUEPRINT 3 ALBUM. His approach is a smart one, first of all, for all of you marketing majors out there, he spreads his image, sound, and likeness to a large international audience. The die hard fans are going to buy his album, the people who like his music, but don't want to spend $16.99 on the BluePrint 3, will do doubt download it illegally. By expanding his audience, things like commercial spots, print ads, billboards, merchandise, etc will become more lucrative over time. In terms of sound, the production quality is incredible. On American Gangster, he used a lot of hi-treble and loud percussion instruments in his beat compilations, The BluePrint 3 is closer to the Black Album or even Vol. 1.

Jay-Z kills it on "Hate", where he raps, "Why I never see em' at the Clear-port? Why I always hear they at the airport? While I fly daily like I'm in the Air Force." The vocal talent of Alicia Keys is apparent on "Empire State of Mind". Can't hate on Keys. The song has classic Jay-Z flavor. On the opening track, "What We Talkin' About", he says, "I don't run rap no more, I run the map." Although The BluePrint 3 wasn't at the same level that a lot of bloggers and music critics expected it to be, It is a success and will have a few songs on the sop 40 list most definitely. People are critical of Jay's decision to stay in the Rap game. On the Swiss Beats track titled "On To the Next One" he raps, "Used to rock a throwback, ballin' on the corner. Now I rock a tether suite lookin' like an owner. No I'm not a Jonas, Brother I'm a grown up." For an artist that is 40 years old and just finished his 11th album, staying this up to date with the latest music trends is an incredible achievement. The Album will be released in stores on September 11th. On the same day he will be performing a live performance at Madison Square Garden. Tickets will be $50, a small price to watch Jay-Z Live. Not to mention 100% of the ticket sales will go to the widows of firefighters that were killed in the 9/11 tragedies. I guess I've answered my own question which was, what took Jay so long for this album? The answer is, it didn't, it was released right on time. At the end of the day, the 5oo million dollar rapper has a nice cushion to fall back on if his record deal with Live Nation ever goes sour. Since I couldn't interview him, I thought Bill Maher would do a pretty good job for me...

Stay musically diverse Gents.

J.E. Albert

Bernie Madoff

Madoff's Manhattan Apartment.

the lipstick building where Madoff's 17th floor operation was run.

his view. what a G

.

his jet. now this is a private aircraft.

moments after admitting to the courts, the scale of his scheme.

So I find myself researching more information about Madoff. For those of you who don't know who Bernard Madoff is, he is the man responsible for the worlds largest Ponzi Scheme ever. He personally orchestrated a 50 billion dollar scheme that resulted in his demise this past november. He now faces 150 years in prison, but his sentence will be given in June. First of all if you havn't seen the senator Ackerman clip on CNN or C-SPAN, it will change your life (shown Below). 

But I do side with Ackerman on this deal; what the hell is the SEC's function if large unmasked amounts of money were able to be deposited directly into Bernard Madoff's Chase Manhattan Checking account without needing to be accounted for? The jury is still out on that one, but It heightens the intrigue a little bit, when you really study Madoff. He lived the most ridiculous life anyone could possibly imagine. He had to have known that he was going down but he didn't give a rat's ass. He had houses all over the world, Yachts, planes, the best of everything. But every dog has his day. And the dog in this case is certainly Bernard Madoff. I do have to tip my hat to the old bastard for pulling off the most famous scheme of all time. Like Lou Mannheim, from the classic film "Wall Street" said, "Kid, you're on a roll. Enjoy it while it lasts, 'cause it never does." I guess Madoff gambled hard and lost hard. Could I be obsessed with Bernie? 

Stay scheming gents.

J.E. Albert

AirBull RedRaces..........What?

Grizz Transport Service

bad ass

infestation

see what I mean

hello

I am back from a 3 week break. It mainly consisted of playing golf with my dad, traveling a little bit and trying to keep my mental sanity (which is an on-going effort). I will have more blog content on that later, but first, my coverage of the Red Bull Air Races in San Diego. What do you want to hear first, how nasty the Hyatt's STD Jacuzzi was, or how annoying drunk people under 18 are. When Bollinger calls you with free tickets to the air races, you don't exactly want to refuse them. So naturally I selected the two most outlandish people I know as accomplices; Payam and Grizz. Payam refuses to dress normal or talk quietly pretty much 24/7 and demanded that he be able to wear a rabbit fur jacket that was stolen from a house in San Fransisco. He reminds me of a Binicio del Toro sketch cartoon from Fear and Loathing. But none the less my crew was somewhat coherent and we were on our way to the races. As soon as we got to the event it was 4pm. Not only had the races started at 1pm, but they ended at 5pm. So we watched one plane race and then finished our 60 minute stay with Jack and Cokes in the Lobby of Doug Manchester's Hyatt hotel. I took a couple photos, but this has to be the worst coverage of an event I have ever documented. I have no legitimate information about who raced or what planes were there, but I can tell you that the color of the pool was a dim yellow by the time we left and at least a thousand girls were impregnated by the time we got back home. Planes are pretty bad ass though. Probably thought my first entry back would be a good one? Expectations......

Stay std free gents.

J.E. Albert