Jay-Z is awesome.

First of all, the new Jay-Z album, The Blueprint 3, is awesome. Way better than 2. In fact, it's 3x better.

Jay-Z for Rhapsody
My man Alex sent me this amazing commercial for Rhapsody music, in which Jay-Z recreates each of his album covers (minus the Greatest Hits and MTV Unplugged) in 60 seconds.

Compare Jay-Z's discography with the attached commercial. Alex pointed out that Blueprint 3 is the first studio album that hasn't had Jay-Z's face on the cover. Enjoy this beast of a video:



And now!
The Blueprint 3's cover (Higest-resolution on the net - you're welcome.):

There's tons of information online about this album cover:

-Jay-Z explains the symbolism.
-Interview with artist, Dan Tobin Smith.
-Fast-forward vid of production.
-dantobinsmith.com











Bonus
Jay-Z and his lady were at the free Grizzly Bear / Beach House / Vega concert, the last Brooklyn Pool Party of the summer. I was there (shout-out to Lauren K.) and I took photos for The Music Slut, who was responsible for Lauren's and my V.I.P. status at the show. I'm quite proud to be a part of one of the few reports that focused on the music, and not the celebrity guests in the crowd. Beach House was my personal highlight of the show.

Ford Fusion on TV, Apple invades Pitchfork

Ford is coming out with a Hybrid version of its Fusion sedan for 2010. "We Speak Car" is the ad campaign's theme, emphasizing that Ford knows more than just trucks or vans. They've released 3 commercials (of which I'm aware), and they all have some great animated type swirling around. I know nothing about digital animation like this, but I enjoy the commercials:








and this one is my favorite, typographically:


I especially love when the car slides through the letters near the end of that last ad.
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It reminds me of the Apple ads on Pitchfork -- I've been meaning to blog about that anyway. (I must have watched it at least a dozen times.) I loved that the ad interacted with the website!
This was on Pitchfork's home page to accompany the redesigned Pitchfork website. (The exact same animation was on ESPN.com.):






There was apparently one of these on Yahoo Games as well, but really -- who uses Yahoo anymore?






**BONUS TV AD!**

This was by far my favorite Super Bowl XLIII Commercial, advertising Jay Leno's new show: