Episode 110: Blueprint

Show/Hide Search

Al “Blueprint” Shepard is a Columbus, Ohio-based emcee and producer. He got his start in that city’s vital scene in the late 1990s, along with talents like RJD2, Copywrite, and Camu Tao. However, most rap fans first heard his unique voice, freestyle skills, and creative, melodic beats either via his work on the influential Rhymesayers label, or in his duo with RJ called Soul Position.

Blueprint has been all over the map musically – from straight ahead boom-bap to electronic experimentation to jazzy instrumentals to full-length tributes to his favorite bands. But he’s brought his unique musical sensibilities and inquisitive, ever-searching nature to all of it.

His latest album, released this past April, is King No Crown.

Tracks featured in this episode:

1. Blueprint, “Respect the Architect”
2. Blueprint, “Automatic”
3. Blueprint, “Unbreakable”
4. Blueprint, “The Lounge”
5. Blueprint, “The Talented Tenth”
6. Blueprint, “Big Dreams”
7. W. E. B. Dubois The Talented Tenth 1 of 4
8. Boogie Down Productions, “My Philosophy”
9. Blueprint, “Black Intellectual”
10. Boogie Down Productions, “My Philosophy”
11. Boogie Down Productions, “Edutainment”
12. KRS-ONE CSULA Full Lecture
13. Greenhouse Effect, “Supply & Demand”
14. Soul Position, “The Jerry Springer Episode”
15. Blueprint, “Black Intellectual”
16. Blueprint, “Don’t Make Me”
17. Blueprint, “King No Crown”
18. Blueprint, “Live For Today”
19. Blueprint, “Great Eyedeas Never Die”
20. Eyedea vs Pack FM - Rocksteady 2000
21. Blueprint, “WKCO Freestyle Part Two”
22. Groove Shack (trailer)
23. Intalec, “Frustration”
24. Illogic f/Blueprint, “Favourite Things”
25. The Roots, “Proceed”
26. Soul Position, “Just Think”
27. KRS-One, “Outta Here”
28. Soul Position, “Fuckajob”
29. The Pharcyde, “Passin’ Me By”
30. Soul Position, “Share This”
31. Blueprint, “Kill Me First”
32. The CIpher Episode 94 Tanya Morgan
33. Blueprint, “Kill Me First”
34. Aesop Rock f/Blueprint, “Alchemy”
35. Blueprint, “Fresh”
36. Blueprint, “Keep Bouncing”
37. Blueprint, “So Alive”
38. Blueprint, “Go Hard Or Go Home (Printnificent)”
39. Blueprint, “My Culture”
40. Blueprint, “Radio-Inactive”
41. Blueprint, “Dream Big”
42. Blueprint, “Too Funkadelic”
43. Blueprint, “See Thru”

Show notes:

1. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “Who Really Invented the ‘Talented Tenth’?”
2. Wikipedia, “The Talented Tenth”
3. Wikipedia, “Cincinnati Riots of 2001”