Blueprint was a step down commercially, didn’t have that one banger, Izzo was close but not really too soulful. Big pimpin, I just wanna love you, even can I get a are all bigger

When the kid throws mustard on ye shirt in the all falls down video ooh I wanted to smack him

There are more cities than New York in the USA...

Jay Z never reached sales Ye did so he def had less mainstream appeal. He also never did w his other albums. Nothing wrong w that either. Drake has more mainstream appeal than Ye and Hov. Doesnt make him the better artist tho

Lol the numbers even more in Kanye's favor by that metric tho

Wasn’t talking about ye was going off on a tangent I guess lol

What I mean is, it's not comparable for Blueprint when we know the context. Juste take the next albums in 2002-2003 :

Jay sold 545,000 units for Blueprint 2, and 463,000 copies for Black Album

Ye wasn't consider as mainstream before he dropped Gold Digger. He was seen as a product of Roc A Fella, well ... Jay-Z. So they got the same audience.

Ye confirmed with Late Registration, and Gold Digger helped so much Ye to be more seen at that time because of the Ray Charles sample, because the movie with Jamie Foxx was released months ago before Gold Digger. That was a genius move.

And then when he sampled one of the most famous Daft Punk song, he definitely became one of the most popular in the world.
Then yeah at that time he was easily outselling Jay.

Ye push back the boundaries for everybody, but in 2004, he was still considered as a good freshman, such as Cordae few years ago for example (I take him as an example because Cordae music sounds like College Dropout)

This quote will FOREVER be funny nigga typed this with a straight face

Bro my mom wouldn’t let me go get the mail outside let alone go buy an album lmfao

this is not true

this is still insane

technically the song mariah carey featured him on went number 1 i think

9/11 stopped Jay-z from getting sales smh

People on here always forget how big Vol 2 was because it came out before 2000. All it takes is a quick Google search

Vol. 2... became Jay-Z's first album to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200, selling over 350,000 copies in its first week, and spent a total of 5 consecutive weeks at the top spot. Vol. 2... charted at number one in its second week earning 208,000 copies 16 and stayed at the top for a third consecutive week selling 186,000 copies. In its fifth week, the album sold just under 174,000 copies and once again stayed at number one. It is Jay-Z's best selling album as of 2013 and was certified 5x Platinum by the RIAA in 2000. By 2013, the album had sold 5,400,000 copies in the United States. The album won Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards. Though he won the nomination he boycotted the ceremony, citing what he sees as the Grammys' continuing disrespect of hip hop because they were not going to broadcast the rap nominations. He told MTV, "I am boycotting the Grammys because too many major rap artists continue to be overlooked. Rappers deserve more attention from the Grammy committee and from the whole world. If it's got a gun everybody knows about it; but if we go on a world tour, no one knows."

Sold 174k in its 5th week, won a Grammy for it, and didn’t even go to the Grammys to boycott

If you were between the ages of like 7 and 10 this was exactly what a lot of ppl were thinking. (Not about blueprint maybe, but you way too preoccupied with kid s*** to grasp the fact a terrorist attack just happened)

Like 7 y/o me was ANGRY as hell I got home early (being in atlanta, there was apparently threats we was next) and couldnt watch KidsWB or PBS Kids cause they kept showing the same news story.

Of course reality hit the next day and I felt guilty asf. One of our teachers had a brother who was a fireman.

young kids have a very nonchalant view of the world man.

The album before Blueprint, The Dynasty sold 557,789 first week

The album after Blueprint, BP2 sold 545,000 first week

Just imagine where he would have been if Taylor Swift never happened tbh you bring up so many great perspectives on how big Ye was universally loved

Lmao how old are you?

This was back when new music was released on Tuesdays. Back when you had to go to the music store to buy the physical CD or cassette. So on the first day of its release the deadliest attack on American soil happened in none other than Jay's city.

It was also back when Jay-Z was significantly more popular in NYC than anywhere else, and as someone who lived through 9/11 as a resident of NYC (yeah i'm an oldhead), most s*** was closed for at least 3-5 days after 9/11, so you couldn't even get to the store to buy the album if you wanted.

Just realized I responded to a 2 y/o post thanks i'll see myself out lol

That's what I said too, but people on KTT doesn't think there was an impact lol

Blueprint could’ve outsold Vol 2

Nahhh this is brazy

Title gave me an aneurysm

For sure, Izzo was a big hit, he was on the right path to have his biggest sell