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Jay-Z released his highly anticipated Blueprint III album today, three days earlier than expected.  Fueled by the singles “D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)” and “Run This Town,” Jay-Z revealed,

“We were supposed to come out on September 11th but due to the “demand” (leak) of it, we had to push it up which is great.  You can expect the level of musicality that I thought had started becoming missing in Hip-Hop.  It’s an approach to lyrics again and just an overall maturity and growth in music.”

Jigga also spoke on his “D.O.A.” record and gave little more detail on the message he was trying to get across.  Jigga stated,

“I think it’s cool for a couple of people but I don’t want to hear 10 songs in a row with Auto-Tune .  As a fan of the music, all I was saying is let’s just keep it diverse.  I used to have Q-Tip’s album and Ice Cube’s album.  Public Enemy and N.W.A.  It was just so much diversity in music and now everything is starting to sound like the same thing.  And I understand it because of the pressure to sell records right now is higher than ever with the Internet and sales being down 20% every year.  But still, there has to be some type of integrity in the music that we make.  It can’t all be for money.  We have to make a living of course but it can’t only be driven by that because then the music is gonna suffer.”

T-Pain, Hip-Hop’s King of Auto-Tune, recently had some choice words for Jay and his opinion on “D.O.A.”  During a performance, the Tallahassee Nappy Boy said,

“Jay-Z is 59 years-old so I don’t think he has the right to say what’s good and what’s not.  I mean if anybody’s dead, it should be him.  That’s just me.  Now I just want to clarify, if there are any Jay-Z fans in the house, excuse the fu*k out of me.  But you don’t hear me saying that rap is dead.  Even though it is because apparently all the rappers are trying to do T-Pain.”

Jigga also fielded questions from Cipha Sounds and Paul Rosenberg on New York’s Hot 97 radio station on the recent tirades, stating,

“I hope he had fun saying it.”

In related news, Jay-Z has announced his fall tour.

“We gone go out on tour in the fall around October and do something again before the end of the year and then in the spring head overseas.”

With 21 dates confirmed, the tour will make stops at a mix of college campus arenas and traditional venues across the North America starting at Penn State University on October 9th. Tickets go on sale in select markets beginning on September 11th at LiveNation.com.

Prior to the tour kickoff, JAY-Z will hold a charity concert at New York’s legendary Madison Square Garden on Friday, September 11th in support of the New York Police & Fire Widows and Children’s Benefit Fund. For this live event, 100% of the proceeds from tickets sales and concert merchandise will go directly to the charity. For more information please visit www.answerthecall.org.

Here is the concert itinerary below.  More dates are also expected to be added soon.

October 9 – University Park, PA @ Bryce Jordan Center

October 10 – Highland Heights, KY @ The Bank of Kentucky Center

October 13 – Edmonton, Alberta @ Rexall Place

October 14 – Calgary, Alberta @ Pengrowth Saddledome

October 15 – Kelowna, British Columbia @ Prospera Place

October 16 – Vancouver, British Columbia @ General Motors Place

October 17 – Seattle, WA @ Key Arena

October 21 – Ypsilanti, MI @ Convocation Center

October 23 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wachovia Center

October 24 – Providence, RI @ Dunkin Donuts Center

October 25 – Amherst, MA @ Mullins Center

October 27 – Baltimore, MD @ 1st Mariner Arena

October 28 – Columbus, OH @ Value City Arena Ohio State

October 29 – London, Ontario @ John Labatt Centre

October 30 – Montreal, Quebec @ Centre Bell Centre

October 31 – Toronto, Ontario @ Air Canada Centre

November 1 – Ottawa, Ontario @ Scotiabank Place

November 12 – Champaign, IL @ University of Illinois, Assembly Hall

November 19 – Albuquerque, NM @ Tingley Coliseum

November 20 – El Paso, TX @ Don Haskins Center

November 22 – Austin, TX @ Frank Erwin Center Arena