4 out of 5

Label: Weightless

Produced by: Blueprint

That dern Blueprint and his reverb; he loves it so.

While ‘Print makes a point of – in his typical slow-roll drawl, even on this debut – repping the friends he’s producing for all over The Weightroom, the album is rightly attributed to the man himself, as you can make no mistake: this is a Blueprint joint all over.

I mean, he’s doing the rap thing on almost every track, either as back-up, or as part of Greenhouse Effect, or solo, but that aside, the dense, smooth, instant head-bobbing beats and occasional deep, harsh cuts – and that reverb, of course – or unmistakably Mr. Albert Shepard’s handiwork.  And I’d further venture that the big name guests on here (Cannibal the Ox; The Orphanage) are outclassed by ‘Print, just because he brings such a confident presence to any given track.

The Weightroom is perhaps more well-balanced than later Blueprint albums, but – for better or worse – because there are less risks.  ‘Print’s production always sounds great because of how homegrown it is, but early on, he stuck more to standard hip-hop arrangements.  Thankfully, all the featured players know how to work those arrangements like pros, keeping any given cut engaging – excepting the repetitive “Rags to Rugged” with  Badaddy Shabaz, as Shabaz seems to think that having a Busta Rhymes-y delivery is all he needs.  There’s also a missed opportunity of ending on the soulful spoken word of “Before Freedom (Fight the Power),” after which there’s this really oddly long pause and then the disc loops back on its Intro sample.  A good bookend concept, but that silence and the diminished returns in comparison to the preceding track prevent the disc from really nailing the end to end experience.

Oh well.  More reverb, then.