The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse Review

Twenty five tracks across two discs, released barely a year after the album it is named for, and the bloat is the whole story. There is real material in here. Excuse Me Miss is a great single. Meet the Parents is a full narrative about a man killing his own son without knowing it, one of the best story songs he ever wrote. Some People Hate and the title track are hard and focused.

Around them sit ideas that should have died in the studio: a rock star guest, a guitar experiment, three separate attempts at a pop crossover, and a run of songs on the second disc that even devoted listeners skip. He later put out a single disc edit of it, which is an admission. The rapping is still excellent throughout, which makes the sprawl more frustrating rather than less. It is the clearest case in his catalogue of an artist who could no longer be told no.