HOT TRACKS LISA ROBINSON

Float like a butterfly, sting like Jay-Z.

In hip-hop, the rule often is: here today, gone in three years. Not so for Jay-Z, who's been on top for 13 years and whose new album. The Blueprint 3, proves both his staying power and his superior skills. Recorded with the feel of live instruments and featuring complex, syncopated rhythms, The Blueprint 3 is, says Jay, "new classic. The musical styles may feel familiar, and it's a return to classic, but with a new take." Jay, who always tweaks his records "until they take them out of my hands," says he likes trilogies and wanted to do The Blueprint 3 because "the end of the story hadn't been told. The Blueprint 1 had soul samples, stuff from my mom and pop's record collection—Michael Jackson, Prince, Stevie Wonder. The Blueprint 2 was more my musical influences—all over the place—it had rock, R&B; that's why it was a double album. This one is for the next generation, who've been influenced by us." On the song "Already Home," Jay's lyrics are about "how when you get to a certain point in your career, despite the detractors, your legacy is set." In "D.O.A.," Jay criticizes some of today's techno and robotic recording techniques—although he says when it's done correctly, like MGMT, it's fantastic. And while "D.O.A" calls for the "Death of Auto-Tune" (the software that helps people sing in tune), he says, "I'm not really dissing it; there are some things—like Kanye's 'Heartless'—that are great. But I'm just challenging the music." The video for "D.O.A." is smart, sophisticated, and jazzy, and was shot at Rao's restaurant in New York City with guest stars Harvey Keitel, LeBron James, and record exec Lyor Cohen. The song has Jay's swagger and contains such lovable lyrical references as "Sinatra at the opera."

When you've loved and lost the way Frank has, then you know what life's about.

As Claude Rains says in Casablanca, "Everybody comes to Rick's."

When it comes to music, that would be Rick Rubin, the multiple-Grammy-winning producer (and Columbia Records honcho) who, after more than 25 years in the music business, has influenced, in one way or another, the artists on many of this fall's new releases. Gossip'sMusic for Men is a Rubinproduced, sexy, postpunk dance record with vocals from the extraordinary Beth Ditto. The sincere backwoods dirge of the Avett Brothers on the Rubin-produced / and Love and You conjures up the best of Gram Parsons, Neil Young, and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Pete Yorn, whose solo, Rubin-co-produced

Back and Fourth is out now, has also recorded Break Up, an intimate duets album with Scarlett Johannson that Yorn says was inspired by "the vibe and attitude of the 1960s collaboration between Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot." The new one from the Beastie Boys (whose Rubin-produced 1986 Licensed to III is a classic) will be Hot Sauce Committee Part 1. The Black Crowes (who were on Rubin's American label early in their career) recorded their new Before the Frost at Levon Helm's studio, in Woodstock; a second CD, Until the Freeze, will be given away free to fans through a download code included in Before the Frost.

Non-Rick Rubin releases include Sandra Bernhard's third studio album, Whatever It Takes, which combines rock 'n' roll and world music. Kanye West's protege, the British pop singer Mr Hudson, evokes Freddie Mercury and Duran Duran and takes a title from Thelonious Monk on his debut, Straight No Chaser. Another Kanye protege, rapper Kid Cudi, debuts with the tuneful and psychedelic Man on the Moon. No doubt Mariah Carey will dominate the airwaves with Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, the album she considers her most intimate yet. Also out: / Look to You, Whitney Houston's big comeback; Get Over It! from Care Bears on Fire;Joy from Phish;Time Flies When You're Having Fun from Smokey Robinson;Memoirs at the End of the World from the Postmarks; and Kris Kristofferson'sCloser to the Bone, dedicated to his friend the late guitarist Stephen Bruton.