While many people might be familiar with Blueprint as an emcee, fewer people are probably aware of his efforts as a producer. Which is a shame, because you’re not getting the full picture if you haven’t spent time with his instrumental works. As an emcee, he’s bold and playful, telling tales of social unrest and personal struggles with a good balance of seriousness and humor. As a producer, he explores areas of music outside of hip hop that are warm, soulful, and sexy. On Sign Language, his second full length instrumental album, he provides a soundtrack that moves towards down-tempo and trip-hop, building slow, intricate layers of beats and melodies and electric piano and flutes and bass and kick drums and some key vocal samples. It’s music to get lost in, and Blueprint has really shown some growth as a producer, making an album that’s completely coherent from start to finish. On previous works, I thought he might have tipped his hand, just a little, but I don’t think that’s the case any more. This is a solid, rewarding album.