I don’t know where Blueprint’s 2005 record, 1988 stands in the history of Columbus records. I know it’s one of the best albums our city has ever released. I just haven’t made a ranking.

In the least, I won’t rank every Columbus record I like while reviewing a concert in Grandview. I know Blueprint’s 1988 is one of the most important records our city created. Blueprint performed Columbus Classic 1988 at Natalie’s. We were bumping a Rhymesayers Classic complete.

Natalie's was packed. I looked around. I understood why people attended. I worked with Blueprint’s Weightless Recording for years.

I promoted the original release party for 1988 with Blueprint’s label Weightless in 2005. I’ve seen Print at DJ PRZM’s events, Scribble Jam, Newport, Comfest,  Skully’s, and Carabar etc. RIP PRZM.

I’ve watched Print in San Francisco, and various Illinois cities. I watched Detox and Blueprint every week for three years at Cafe Bourbon Street during So What Wednesdays. DAYMON DODSON RIP. Peace Sinkane.

You can ride the 2 and transfer at 5th for the 5. Burger King’s app sold an Impossible Whopper without mayonnaise, fries, and a Sprite for under eight bucks. I walked from Burger King of 5th towards Natalies off King. I could’ve taken the 31 but I wanted B.

Natalies was packed. Dudes were wearing Cazals and Kangols. I walked in the door shortly after 8:00. The room was a large selection  of DJ Przm’s Hip Hop community: So What Wednesday’s Cafe Bourbon Street regulars, the entire Carabar community who still live in Columbus and people who drove in from other cities.

I said, I thought you were in NY at least twice. Even though, I’ve seen Print a zillion times.

Blueprint playing 1988 in Grandview felt unique.

Natalie’s Coal Fire feels like a miniature House of Blues. Print, and DJ Detox were on stage…

DJ Detox dropped in the introduction for 1988. Blueprint, and Detox were backed by a screen playing familiar clips.

At Skully’s, Print let me show i.o.’s graffiti video, Better Days during our New Years Eve shows. Saturday Night’s 1988 show video resembled DJ Detox’s Hot Box event which uses music videos which interact with his deejay sounds. A beatbox played while chants of 88 permeated the sound system. A guitar riff and Detox scratching Weightless transitioned from the beatbox..

Blueprint started rapping Anything is Possible, Anything is Possible sequences like a second introduction into the 1988 album. Anything is Possible presents the idea of going from a kid who loves rap, into a Bush-era stagnation and realizing Hip Hop would save Blueprint from the corporate dehumanization.

1988’s title song starts with a piano and chord progression which takes us from beatboxing, and an 80’s sounding drum machine into the Bladerunner, Def Jux/Rhymesayers album.

Minnesota label Rhymesayers released 1988 after the success of Columbus, Ohio’s Soul Position.

1988 sounds like a Def Jux album because our city absorbed Wu-Tang into Ei-P in Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito’s in whole. Def Jux released RJD2’s Dead Ringer that showed everyone Wu-Tang into El-P via the Numero Group wasn’t a sign of bad taste.

Our city’s sound was the logical progression from Wu into El-P which is why Columbus became an avant- rap epicenter. Wu and Run The Jewels are currently involved with an Arena tour.

Classic continues.

Print led the audience chanting, “Automatic…Just for My People…Automatic just for My Crew” from the El-P cannon. Wu paved the way for Run The Jewels’ El-P via Community Radio.

1988 is a year that influenced Wu. 1988 is the year that influenced Biggie, Pac, Jay, Nas,  Organized Konfusion, the Roots, Black Moon, DJ Premier etc.

BDK told y’all, Ain’t No Half Steppin. Our cities’s most revered rap releases are a result of 1994 into the late 90's indie rap boom.1988 is a year which influenced all our current legends.

Important 1988 releases:

Eric B and Rakim - Follow The Leader
BDP - By All Means Necessary
Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation of Millions
Slick Rick - The Great Adventures of Slick Rick
NWA- Straight Outta Compton
Easy E- Easy Duz It
ICE T- Power
MC Lyte- Lyte As A Rock
EPMD - Strictly Business
Biz Markie - The Biz is Goin Off

I could list several other records.

This is a show review about Blueprint’s 1988 album released in 2005 from Rhymesayers Entertainment. Print released from Rhymesayers because his Weightless Crew clicked with the Minneapolis label during Scribble Jam, shows, and collaboration.

Print formed a supergroup with Rhymesayers’ Slug, Aesop Rock, Eyedea RIP and Illogic called the Orphanage. Rhymesayers current roster includes Black Star, Kurious and MF Doom.

Hip Hop understands Hip Hop’s entire history.

After 1988, Blueprint played Inner-City/Native Son which described our societies’ economic and racial problems that Hip Hop transcends. 1940’s book Native Son finds an audience in 1988, 2005, or infinity…

DJ Detox then dropped the blues original sampled in Print’s next song, aptly titled Tramp.

Detox blended the vocal sample and guitar over a hard drum. Blueprint’s drum didn’t sound like a napkin smacking a futon. While we absorbed raw essences of the drums, and the blues. Detox dropped in Print’s Tramp’s beats. Blueprint rapped Tramp which both SZA or Steve Albini’s fan would understand Blueprint’s blues complaint about an ex-girlfriend.

Print walked into the back and returned with a huge boombox while Sal from Do The Right Thing bitched at Radio Raheem over a break. Blueprint rapped Boombox about his Boombox.

A hard baseline backed Print as Print accented potency of ill. I watched Radio Raheem from the screen.

I wondered if we would see the scene where police kill Radio Raheem. We didn’t. Would you watch a different version of Do The Right Thing where Sal agrees Radio Raheem’s boombox is playing joints and offers him a deejay gig?

Radio Raheem led into where Print used Public Enemy’s Trouble On My Mind as a discussion of the various stress in his life.

After Boombox, Print played the “hit” song for Rhymesayers off of 1988. Print call and responded  Aesop Rock’s hook from Lo Fi Funk. Sal didn’t kill Radio Raheem so everyone yelled, “turn my volume up.”

During Lo-Fi Funk, Print’s radio is from a woofer in a car. Print’s radio was inside a Delorean while Print’s music blasted. Lo Fi Funk details a midwest Hip Hop existence.

“I hate commercial rap and anyone selling it. Almost as much as a I hate the President.”

Print disses George Bush and Limp Biscuits while bigging up Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X. I disagree with Print dissing Will Smith. DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince contributed to Hip Hop’s social revolution.

I hate the President and Limp Biscuits. I love Malcolm and Martin. Although Print isn’t into Fresh Prince’s 1988 release, he is the Rapper, and I’m the Deejay.

Blueprint isn’t without a funny bone.

KRS-1 and Public Enemy are conjured throughout 1988 in delivery and rebellion. BDK, Kool G Rap, LL Cool J and Rakim are present in patterns. Slick Rick is there in storytelling.

Biz Markie’s humor appears while Print performed the immature Big Girls Need Love Too. Print makes jokes about sexing skinny and overweight women. Print said he wouldn’t write a song like that now. While dating feminists in 2005, I would argue Print was body positive.

Feminists had heard worse things out of rappers’ mouths.

The moment of levity changed as scenes from the 2001 Riots after the Timothy Thomas police murder. Timothy Thomas suffered the same fate as fictional character Radio Raheem with less aggravation. Print rapped Kill Me First which is about DEI murders where cops kill black people because of their skin color.

Print took Hip Hop’s tradition route next and rapped Fresh. Fresh is about rocking with an original style.

Print returned into Biz Markie zone during Where Your Girlfriend At? Print’s song is discussion where Print explains to various men where he is gonna fuck the women they love. Print joked that he hasn’t actually said those things in real life.

Print played 1988 from start to finish. Print flawlessly rapped which displayed the technical innovations of rappers from 1988. We also heard production technics which studied Marley Marl, Hank Shocklee, Ced Gee, etc

We knew were at the record’s finale where Print channels Public Enemy’s intensity into a discussion about overcoming personal frustrations.

After Print finished Liberated we were impressed Print rocked the entire album without much difficulty. Natalie’s was baptized into both rap and Blueprint’ personal history. I wondered if Blueprint would deviate from the idea of rocking an album from front to back for encores.

Print’s collaborators RJD2, Envelope, and Illogic were in the building.

Print announced there were two songs which weren’t on the album but of the same 1988 process.

Print rocked his BDK ode turned weed anthem Ain’t No Half-Smokin. The thing about studying BDK’s styles. BDK can rap. The song is kinda silly because it’s about selling weed.

Print then announced RIP BIZ MARKIE. Print rocked his rendition of a Biz song Blueprint is Going Off. We were amused Print voted for John Kerry. I knew Print could rap live, but I’d attended shows as a friend. This was the first time since Kendrick Lamar’s Control defined determining elite rapping that I’d reviewed a Blueprint concert.

Blueprint left the stage reminding us that Biz Markie was a technically sound at rapping, which reminded us 1988 was a leap after Run DMC and Beastie Boys established rappers as charismatic frontmen.

I watched Print enunciate in patterns without losing his breath. While Biz Markie isn’t quite Weird Al Yankovic, Print did emulate Biz’s humor.

In the midst of Radio Rahee, Timothy Thomas, Hip Hop is still silly.

Blueprint’s 2005 study of 1988 from a national recognized underground rap is important for various reasons. Slug owns Rhymesayers in Minnesota. El-P owned Def Jux which is now owned by Fat Possum. El-P and Slug innovated Hip Hop in sound and marketing. Both Jux and Rhymesayers loved 614 because our city created new progressions which understood the genre. Blueprint 1988’s is one of the best recorded examples of our Hip Hop from Columbus, Ohio available for your record player.