The Blueprint

Jonathan Mannion, who had photographed Jay-Z since Reasonable Doubt, took the cover picture for The Blueprint. The composition was inspired by an image from The Firm, a series by photographer Jocelyn Bain Hogg about organised crime in Britain.

Mannion's version adapts the original's still life. Where Bain Hogg's photograph showed a telephone and brass knuckles beside an ashtray, the Blueprint cover swaps in a cigar, a pack of cigars and a microphone, trading the tools of a gangster for the tools of a rapper while keeping the same cool, cinematic mood.

The understated cover matched an album that turned to soul samples and a more reflective tone. The Blueprint was released by Roc-A-Fella on 11 September 2001, the day of the attacks on New York and Washington.