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13. The Blueprint 3 (2009): At this point, "Empire State Of Mind" is firmly entrenched in the lexicon of great New York songs, so it really doesn't matter that I wasn't much of a fan when it came out. Whatever you think of that song, it's probably the most effective piece of schmaltz Jay ever recorded. And for the most part, The Blueprint 3 finds Jay returning to the toothless-rich-elder persona of Kingdom Come after briefly recapturing some of his outlaw mojo on American Gangster. This time, though, it comes a little more naturally to him; that'll happen when the world collectively decides that you're the single coolest man alive. On "Run This Town" and "On To The Next One," Jay translates his old snarl into a seen-it-all sigh, for instance. But too much of The Blueprint 3 is just unfocused and embarrassing, like the clumsy EDM appropriations that an over-the-hill Timbaland produced, or the grumpy-old-man teeth-gnashing of "D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)," a song that Future probably thinks is fucking hilarious today.