THE Blueprint
I’ll show you how to do this son
(Jay Z “La-La-La”)
Jay Z recently dropped his latest album, “The Blueprint 3”. Good Album but I don’t think it will crack the top five all time Jay Albums. I’ll never forget the original Blueprint album that he dropped back in 2001 on 9/11. It’s one of my favorite Jay Z albums of all time. Top 3. The original Blueprint introduced Kanye West to the world as a producer of hot soulful beats. Many rappers followed Jay Z and began using soulful beats produced by Kanye and others.
I personally think that Biggies “Life After Death” album was a hip-hop album blueprint because for years after that album dropped rappers were copying the format that Biggie used. He made an album where he included songs that had a West Coast, Dirty South, and Mid-West vibe to go along with his traditional New York flow. Classic album no doubt!
Blueprint Defined
When used as figurative language the Oxford dictionary defines the word blueprint as something that acts as a plan, model, or template.
I consider my grandfather Willie Speed The Blueprint. He is my biggest role model in life and always has been. He’s my template. Through the ups and downs of my childhood there was always one constant, a trip to Florida during the summer to visit mother and granddaddy. They were my father’s parents and even though my parents weren’t together they still treated my mother like family and opened their home to us yearly.
It’s funny because I was poor all year long in Philly but when I went to Apalachicola, FL. my friends there thought that I was rich. They saw my grandfather driving a Lincoln Town Car or Mercedes Benz every few years so I guess that was what gave them that impression. My grandparents were very stable and successful people. They were respected in the community and loved by many. My grandfather served his small community for many years as a teacher, principle, and school district administrator. He was very stern and taught my siblings and I many valuable lessons on life.
Going there gave me another perspective on life that many of my peers did not get to see. I saw a strong loving marriage between my grandparents. I was able to go to the beach and play in the sand. My grandfather took me fishing and shared stories with me that I will never forget. My grandfather taught me the value of earning an honest dollar. My job around the house was to keep the yard clean. Every Saturday I had to cut the grass and pick up all of the trash that may have blown into the yard during the week. My pay was $10 dollars a week. That was big money for a 8-12 year old. Every week when I was finished my granddaddy would go around the yard looking for any trash that I missed. Every piece he found cost me a tongue-lashing and a .25 cents deduction in pay. You see… he was always teaching me a lesson, always preparing me for life. The lesson was simple. Doing a job half way or cutting corners was unacceptable. Always go hard! Man, I used to hate missing a piece of trash, believe me. I did not like being screamed at and please believe me, I did not like loosing money. Lesson learned. When he paid me with ten one dollar bills every week he always said the same thing, “ Grandson, anybody can make a dollar but it takes a wise man to spend it”.
My grandfather, born in 1920, was raised by his grandmother and later by his oldest sister in the segregated South. Without a mother and father he had to start working as a young child to help out around the house. He eventually graduated from high school and enlisted in the Army and served during World War II. During his time in the Army a program called the G.I. Bill was created which gave soldiers an opportunity to go to college. My grandfather took advantage of the opportunity and went on to graduate from Florida A&M University. He worked several jobs in his life and made several sacrifices on his journey to earning a degree and becoming an educator. I don’t know many people who have a grandparent who went to and graduated from college.
Growing up in inner city Philadelphia I had many opportunities to make the wrong choices in life. However I always knew that I was expected to do the right thing because of the example that my grandfather set. Yeah I may have gotten into a few fights and a little mischief but I never took drugs, sold drugs, or did anything that would get me put in jail. And going to college was never an option, I just knew that it was a forgone conclusion that I would go because my grandfather and all of his children went to college. I could go on and on extolling the virtues of my grandfather because he truly lived a life of discipline, excellence, and purpose.
Today he is 89 and his health is diminishing. I recently visited him and it was sad to see that he wasn’t his normal healthy self anymore but I’ll tell you this… I still want to make him proud and I still strive to live up to the bar of excellence that he set.
He is The Blueprint.
Live life on purpose. Persist through obstacles. Love hard. Value family. You just may be living a life that will impact future generations in a major way.
You just might be someone’s Blueprint!
Kickin it on The Stoop,
Scott Speed
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