On Wednesday The Library of Congress announced that it will adding 25 recordings to the National Recording Registry this year, which will include Jay Z’s iconic 2001 album The Blueprint.
Joining The Blueprint is Curtis Mayfield’s 1972 record Superfly, and Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual, released in 1983. In there too will be Nina Simone’s Mississippi Goddam, and Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline.
Jay Z’s 2001 album The Blueprint has been added to the offical Library of Congress sound recording archives. Joining him will be Nina Simone, Curtis Mayfield, and 22 others.
The National Recording Registry archives sound recording that are deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States,” under the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000.
Public nominations for inclusion are accepted for every year’s list of selections, with the lucky 25 joining the Library of Congress’s sound recording archives the following spring.
The Blueprint is widely regarded as Jay Z’s finest record. It’s his sixth studio album, and marks some of Kanye West and Just Blaze’s first breakouts in production. One of the cuts Just Blaze produced, Song Cry, was nominated for a Grammy. Kanye produced four tracks off the LP, including Jay Z’s first top ten single Izzo (H.O.V.A).
