Friday May 10 at Dan Electro's, Blueprint aka Printmatic makes his return to Houston for the first time since 2018 featuring DJ Detox + DJ Notion!
Local support by Houston's own:
BXXNG (Brew x Nosa x Grinch x DJ Comp 1)
Early Event 8pm-12am
Ages 21+ Welcome
Tour presented by musicNmind!
Blueprint (aka Printmatic), is an emcee/producer from the city of Columbus, OH who began his career with the release of a couple unassuming cassette tapes in 1999. The success of those tapes at a local level inspired he and his crew to form their own independent label, Weightless Recordings, and led to national and international distribution of their releases. Those early recordings eventually spread to the internet (still new at the time), and propelled the Weightless crew to national recognition, as a part of the fast-rising Columbus hip-hop scene that included acts like Illogic, Camu Tao, RJD2, Copywrite, Greenhouse Effect, DJ Przm & Spitball, J. Rawls, and The MHz.
With Blueprint at the production helm, Weightless Recordings went on to become the most successful independent hip-hop label in the history of Columbus, releasing records from Blueprint, Illogic, Greenhouse Effect, Envelope, and Zero Star – which created strong local and national followings. The press took note as well and XLR8R Magazine featured Weightless Recordings as one of their “Labels to Watch,” and Blueprint was listed by URB Magazine in their Next 100 issue.
Although his initial buzz came from his work as a producer, the formation of Soul Position with instrumentalist RJD2 pushed Blueprint into the spotlight as an emcee. The duo signed to independent powerhouse label Rhymesayers Entertainment, and released three critically acclaimed projects (Unlimited, 8-Million Stories, and Things Go Better with RJ & Al), that were featured in outlets like Spin, URB, XLR8R, and Hiphopsite.com among others.
In 2005, Blueprint released his debut solo release 1988, touring the United States and Canada extensively, and over the course of the next four years proved to be one of the most prolific artists around by releasing two solo EP’s (Blueprint Who & Blueprint vs Funkadelic), two instrumental albums (Sign Language & Chamber Music), two Greenhouse EPs (Electric Purgatory Part One & Two), and his his genre-defying sophomore album Adventures in Counter-Culture in 2011 on Rhymesayers Entertainment.
In 2012, Blueprint added the title of author to his list of accomplishments, self-publishing two books: The Making of Adventures in Counter-Culture and Word is Blog: Volume One. Blueprint also released his b-side collection Deleted Scenes in 2012 and his collaborative Greenhouse album with Illogic, Bend But Don’t Break, in 2013. Not one for slowing down, Blueprint has released solo albums Respect the Architect in 2014 and King No Crown in 2015, and the Vigilante Genesis EP (his collaboration with Aesop Rock) in 2016. His first film, titled King No Crown, was released in the fall of 2017 and won the Best Feature Film award at the 2017 Columbus Black International Film Festival. He quickly followed up the film in 2018 with his fifth solo album Two-Headed Monster and followed it with a 65-city tour.
In his 17 years as a full-time artist, he has been on the cover of the Columbus Alive five times, the cover of Ghetto Blaster Magazine, been on the front page of MTV.com, had his video in regular rotation on MTV & MTVu, and toured the United States (15x), Canada (8x), & Europe (5x). His Soul Position crew has headlined a sold-out nationwide tour, and he has toured with acts such as Atmosphere, Murs, Brother Ali, Living Legends, Evidence, Blowfly, Islands, Grieves & Budo, and Eyedea & Abilities on his way to becoming one of the most respected artists in underground hip-hop.
After releasing his 2018 album, Two-Headed Monster , things in Blueprint’s solo career were peaking. Not only was Two-Headed Monster one of the most loved albums in his catalog, his sixty-city solo tour was the most successful headlining tour of his career. With momentum on his side and excitement about the future, Blueprint immediately hit the studio to work on a follow-up that he hoped to release the following year.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out the way he had planned. Just as he was planning the 2020 release and tour, the Covid pandemic took the world by storm. In a matter of weeks, the entire world and the entertainment industry was shut down; not only ruining his immediate plan to release his next album, but ending his twenty year career as an independent hip-hop artist and sending his life into a downward spiral.
What followed was financial devastation, relationship turmoil, depression, and a lost sense of direction. “In many aspects, I realized that I had fallen. The things I wanted to be doing and where I wanted to be, I wasn’t there. I was depressed and moving backwards,” Blueprint remembers about the circumstances that inspired the project.
That realization ultimately led Blueprint to do the one thing he does best—make music. Music that not only captured his unique experience, but also captured the human experience in a way that anyone could relate to. “I wanted to make a record that’s about how it feels when you’re down and you’re trying find to that inspiration to get up,” he recalls. That music that ultimately became Falling Down.
Falling Down is about falling down seven times, but getting up eight.
It’s about pushing forward, even when you can’t see the path clearly.
It’s about being down, but not out.
Falling Down by Blueprint will be released Tuesday April 23rd, 2024
“I’m down but never out, until I see the curtain close.” – Blueprint