"Pushing Back Your Album Is NEVER A Good Sign": A Miss TLC Commentary

According to MTV.com, Jay-Z's "Blueprint 3" album is being pushed back and will not see the light of day in 2008. I'm not surprised by this considering "Jockin Jay-Z" never picked up any speed on the charts and in airplay, "History" (not a supposed BP3 track, but more of a random street track) sucks, and "Swagger Like Us", as successful as it was, was NOT his track.

It also must be said that as classic as "The Blueprint" was, "The Blueprint 2" S-U-C-K-E-D, so I wouldn't be surprised if Jay's just making sure "The Blueprint 3" doesn't continue that downward spiral and come out even worse (thereby killing off a little of the classic grandeur of the name in connection to Jay-Z).

In other "push back" news, according to PageSix.com, Eminem's new album ALSO will not be seeing the light of day in 2008. Again, I am not surprised. As much as I can't stand the new trend in artists' making sure to release something every year, or for some actually trying to release multiple albums in one year, it's harder when you wait. Years ago, an artist could wait 2-3 years in between albums, and still return to the same fanfare. Nowadays you run the risk of being forgotten. The reason is that albums used to be chock full of singles, so the labels were able to "work" them for quite a long time (releasing no less than 4 singles and videos). But now, artists are lucky to get one big hit per disc, and so it's "on to the next!" faster than you can say Slim Shady. Anyhoo, the pressure's on for any artist who steps out of the limelight for too long, so I can understand Em's anxiety and paranoia about his own relevance at this point. Good luck though Marshall! I hope for the best!