His Favorite Hue: A History of Jay-Z's Obsession With the Color Blue
Jay-Z's "Blue" Reference: He recorded "Girl's Best Friend," the first single from the Martin Lawrence movie, Blue Streak.
The Year: 1999
How It Showed His Love For His Favorite Color: Maybe this was purely coincidence. In fact, we're pretty sure it was. But Jay had the lead single from a movie with "Blue" in the title in one of his first really big commercial looks. As a result, we hope he gave the producers a discount.
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Jay-Z's "Blue" Reference: On Mya's "Best Of Me Pt. 2," he rapped, "Carolina blue kicks, hottest n---- on the block!"
The Year: 2000
How It Showed His Love For His Favorite Color: You're "hot" if you're rocking baby blue. At least, that's what Jay thought. And, who were we to argue when he was standing next to Mya, who was rocking a Carolina blue jersey dress and looking pretty damn hot herself?
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Jay-Z's "Blue" Reference: He named his sixth solo album, The Blueprint.
The Year: 2001
How It Showed His Love For His Favorite Color: The title was Blueprint and the album cover (and the case that the album came in) was blue as well. At this point, it was becoming pretty apparent that Jay loved blue.
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Jay-Z's "Blue" Reference: On Jay's Blueprint track, "Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)," Kanye West sampled the song, "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City," by Bobby "Blue" Bland.
The Year: 2001
How It Showed His Love For His Favorite Color: Another coincidence. Or, is this coincidence? On The Blueprint, newcomer Kanye West sampled an R&B singer who goes by the name of "Blue." Funny how things work out sometimes, eh?
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Jay-Z's "Blue" Reference: He named his seventh solo album, The Blueprint 2: The Gift & the Curse.
The Year: 2002
How It Showed His Love For His Favorite Color: Following the success of the original Blueprint, Jay wanted to keep it going. So he dropped a sequel to it. And we started to sense a trend.
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Jay-Z's "Blue" Reference: He took shots at Nas on the track, "Blueprint 2," a year after engaging in a war of words with him on the diss track, "Takeover."
The Year: 2002
How It Showed His Love For His Favorite Color: Not content with simply dropping a sequel to The Blueprint, he also named a song from Blueprint 2 "Blueprint 2." And he made it one of the best songs—and most notable—songs on the double album. No coincidence there.
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Jay-Z's "Blue" Reference: He named a compilation album, The Blueprint 2.1.
The Year: 2003
How It Showed His Love For His Favorite Color: Haven't had enough Blueprint yet? Jay kept things going by re-releasing Blueprint 2 as a single album. He picked the best songs, added a couple of bonus tracks, and went gold with it. Hey, it's not "blue" but we're sure Hov was happy.
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Jay-Z's "Blue" Reference: On Young Jeezy's "Go Crazy (Remix)," he rapped, "Attract money, my worst color is light green/My favorite hue is Jay-Z blue."
The Year: 2005
How It Showed His Love For His Favorite Color: Finally! It took him long enough, but Jay finally admitted that his favorite color was "Jay-Z blue" on Jeezy's dope boy anthem. It might have seemed like a throwaway line at the time, but it's become one of Jay's most recognizable rhymes.
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Jay-Z's "Blue" Reference: He teamed up with GMC to release a limited-edition Yukon Denali painted a special shade of blue.
The Year: 2007
How It Showed His Love For His Favorite Color: Jay's not a businessman; he's a business, man! And he proved it by taking his "Jay-Z blue" line and turning it into a partnership with GMC that resulted in a Denali that was painted "Jay-Z blue." Pretty incredible.
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Jay-Z's "Blue" Reference: He called the first single from his tenth solo album, American Gangster, "Blue Magic."
The Year: 2007
How It Showed His Love For His Favorite Color: Blue magic is a high-quality brand of heroin that was produced and sold by Frank Lucas, who inspired the movie, American Gangster. That movie inspired Jay-Z to record his own album by the name of American Gangster, which featured the lead single, "Blue Magic." See how it all came full circle?
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Jay-Z's "Blue" Reference: On American Gangster's "Party Life," Sean C & LV sampled the 1975 song, "Get Into the Party Life," which featured Little Beaver singing, "When you're feeling blue and got nothin' to do, head into the party life."
The Year: 2007
How It Showed His Love For His Favorite Color: Producers Sean C & LV used a relatively obscure sample from R&B guitarist/singer Willie "Little Beaver" Hale to keep Jay's "blue period" alive and well.
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Jay-Z's "Blue" Reference: On Young Jeezy's "My President Is Black (D.C. Remix)," he rapped, "My President is black, my Maybach, too/And I'll be goddamned if my diamonds ain't blue."
The Year: 2008
How It Showed His Love For His Favorite Color: President Barack Obama had just been elected. And yet, in the very first line from his celebratory song, Jay rapped about his car, his jewels, and—of course!—his favorite color.
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Jay-Z's "Blue" Reference: He named his eleventh solo album, The Blueprint 3.
The Year: 2009
How It Showed His Love For His Favorite Color: Oh, you thought the Blueprint series was over?! Jay completed the trilogy by naming one more of his albums, Blueprint, and keeping the trend going.
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Jay-Z's "Blue" Reference: He appeared on a billboard near Madison Square Garden in New York City with New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov and the phrase, "the blueprint for greatness," written across the top of it.
The Year: 2010
How It Showed His Love For His Favorite Color: The Nets used one of their part-owners and his "Blueprint" theme to their advantage on this billboard that drew the ire of the New York Knicks because of its proximity to MSG. Don't they know that Hov owns the Garden?
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Jay-Z's "Blue" Reference: On his latest track "Glory," which samples the cries of Blue Ivy, he rapped, "The most amazing feeling I feel, words can't describe the feeling, for real/Baby, I paint the sky blue, my greatest creation was you."
The Year: 2011
How It Showed His Love For His Favorite Color: We've known Jay's been in love with "blue" for a long time. But, this is different. Now, he really loves it. And with good reason.
