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“The Blueprint 3” will be Jay-Z’s eleventh studio album, released on Sept. 11. It is fitting that on that same day, the 39-year-old Brooklyn native will also be performing a benefit concert at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, where all proceeds will be given to the New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund.The rapper has noted in press conferences concerning the event that the benefit is very much in step with the message of his new album. No longer is Jay-Z looking back; he’s moved to the forefront of the music industry and seeks to be more than just an artist. He’s deemed himself an icon, an unlikely philanthropist.

For this album, the weary nostalgia that defined his entire career is replaced with a world-worn sense that his kingdom’s come on songs like “Already Home.” Driven by rhythmic violins and inlaid with a mellow horn background, Jay-Z reassures you, if there had been any lingering doubts, of his stamp on the rap game: “I’m in the hall already/On the wall already/I’m a work of art/I’m a Warhol already.”

In a world of fast-forward and shuffle, of 140-character gibberish tweets, it’s something to be said that this album flows almost seamlessly from start to finish. “The Blueprint 3” is sound, and though it’s not his best, it is better than what’s out on the market now, a sentiment echoed in the first single, “Death of Autotune,” in which he raps “I know it’s a recession/But the music y’all making/Gon’ make it/The Great Depression.”

Certain tracks leave more to be desired.The first that comes to mind is “Hate,” a faux-proclamation with a techno-pop sound reminiscent of Kanye West’s “808’s and Heartbreaks,” though here the latter raps, not sings. The song is nothing more than a rehash of barbs Jay-Z has already thrown at opponents, except that what he’s said before has been more thoroughly memorable and biting than this.

Standouts include the surprising “Empire State of Mind,” a pop jazz-infused track featuring Alicia Keys. The hook is interspersed with a hard-earned arrogance that allows him to carry off lines like “I made the Yankee hat/More famous than a Yankee can.”

“Empire State of Mind” reminds us that New York has molded him, though the success is all his own. And so this song portrays an emotion running throughout the album better felt than described: Jay-Z’s growing up, moving forward-but never letting go.

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