Today, Jay-Z is a cultural icon. He’s married to the most popular female songstress of the last decade or so, is worth half a billion dollars, and has seemingly won over the hearts of everybody in America, young and old, black and white. He’s performed at Glastonbury and met the President of the United States on more than one occasion. It’s hard to believe that just 18 years ago he was a hungry kid from the Marcy projects dropping his first album and freestyles alongside Big L on the Stretch and Bobbito show, an independent album no less. Jay was always destined for hip-hop greatness. It’s not everybody that gets a DJ Premier beat and a Biggie verse on their first album. Who knew he would make it so far? We’ve seen him evolve lyrically from a vicious battle ready MC, to a smooth rapper with a knack for seemingly endless premonitions, to the juggernaut he is today, rhyming about Tom Ford and fine art. Picking his ten greatest verses was definitely no easy task but we put it together. Check it out.
1. Dead Presidents/ Reasonable Doubt
If Jay-Z wasn’t involved in the streets in some way, shape, or form then he deserves an Oscar and a Pulitzer Prize. Dead Presidents, with its Nas sample and mellow beat was the platform for Jay to spit rhymes about living the street life and finally making it with clever wordplay and a sick flow. You can feel Jay’s hunger on this track and maybe that’s why this is the song that really put him on the map. Plus, who doesn’t love the spendin’ money since ’88 line?
Ah, who wanna bet us that we don’t touch leathers?
Stack cheddars forever, live treacherous all the et ceteras
To the death of us, me and my confidants, we shine
You feel the ambiance, y’all niggas just rhyme
By the ounce dough accumulates like snow
We don’t just shine, we illuminate the whole show; you feel me?
Factions from the other side would love to kill me
Spill three quarts of my blood into the street, let alone the heat
Fuck ‘em, they hate a nigga lovin’ his life
In all possible ways, know the Feds is buggin’ my life
Hospital days, reflectin’ when my man laid up
On the Uptown high block he got his side sprayed up
I saw his life slippin’; this is a minor set back
Yo, still in all we livin’, just dream about the get back
That made him smile though his eyes said, pray for me
I’ll do you one better and slay these niggas faithfully
Murder is a tough thing to digest, it’s a slow process
And I ain’t got nothin’ but time
I had near brushes, not to mention three shots
Close range, never touched me, divine intervention
Can’t stop I, from drinkin’ Mai-Tai’s, with Ty Ty
Down in Nevada, ha ha, papa, word life
I dabbled in crazy weight without rap, I was crazy straight
Patna, I’m still spendin’ money from eighty-eight, what?
2. Intro/ The Dynasty: Roc La Familia
I’m sure we’ll write many more installments of the column using many different artists and I can all but guarantee that an album’s intro will never be on here again. It just shows that Jay is capable of great things and it doesn’t hurt that Just Blaze made the beat. Jay, once again, takes us on his journey of, what could have been? Jay always had a knack for appreciating how lucky he is and what could have happened had just one small thing gone differently.
The theme song to The Sopranos
Plays in the key of life on my mental piano
Got a strange way of seein’ life like
I’m Stevie Wonder with beads under the doo-rag
Intuition is there even when my vision’s impaired, yeah
Knowin’ I can go, just switchin’ a spare
On the highway of life, nigga it’ll sharpen my sight
Oh! Keen senses ever since I was a, teen on the benches
Every time somebody like Enus was mentioned
I would turn green, me, bein’ in the trenches
Him, livin’ adventurous not worryin’ about expenditures
I’m bravin’ temperatures below zero, no hero
No father figure, you gotta pardon a nigga
But I’m starvin’ my niggas and the weight loss in my figure
Is startin’ to darken my heart, bout to get to my liver
Watch it my niggas, I’m tryin’ to be calm but I’m gon’ get richer
Through any means, with that thing that Malcolm palmed in the picture
Never read the Qur’an or Islamic scriptures
Only psalms I read was on the arms of my niggas
Tattooed so I carry on like I’m non-religious
Clap whoever stands between Shawn and figures
Niggas, say it’s the dawn but I’m superstitious
Shit is as dark as it’s been, nothin’ is goin’ as you predicted
I move with biscuits, stop the harder niggas actin too suspicious
This is, food for thought, you do the dishes
3. Bring It On feat. Sauce Money & Jaz-O/ Reasonable Doubt
A classic Rocafella track, Jay and company all murder this track but Jay stands above the rest. Some of Jigga’s best lyrics have been laid over the simplest beats and this is no exception. With the money and gangster references this is vintage Jay-Z and one of the standout tracks on his debut album.
Mannerisms of a young Bobby DeNiro, spent Spanish wisdoms
In a whip with dinero, crime organized like the pharaoh
I cream, I diamond gleam
High post like Hakeem, got a lot of things to drop
Brooklyn to Queens, I gotta keep my steam
Niggas wanna try to hem my long jeans
Uptown fiend for Jay-Z to appear on the scene
In the meanwhile, here’s somethin’ dope for y’all to lean
Liason for days on end
Money make the world go around so I made songs to spin
Can I Live, did dough, with my nigs, dividends flow
Like the Mississippi riv’, lookin’ jig
Can’t do for dolo, had to turn away when Tony killed Manolo
That’s real, mixed feelings like a mulatto
Thug thought he was O.G. Bobby Johnson
I played him like Benny Blanco, mano a mano
You ain’t ready, I find no trigger straight up shoot my guns
Horizontal, get your weight up, I am
Two point two pounds, you’re barely a hundred and twenty-five grams
Wouldn’t expect y’all to understand this money
Do the knowledge, do the few dollars, I’m due to demolish
Crews Brooklyn through Hollis to a hood near you, what the fuck?
4. The Watcher 2 feat. Dr. Dre & Rakim/ The Blueprint 2: The Gift And The Curse
Spit a stupidly hot verse and call in the Doc and Rakim. Jay definitely had the right idea on this one. He pulls no punches letting the youngn’s know what time it is. Jay had been on the top of the game for so long at this point that this verse was a long time coming. We also get more of a glimpse into Jay’s past and this song can just conjure up an image of a young Jay on a bus to nowhere with some precious cargo in a duffle bag.
Things just ain’t the same for gangsters
But I’m a little too famous to shoot these pranksters
All of these rap singers claimin’ they bangers
Doin’ all sorts of twisted shit with they fingers
Disrespectin’ the game, no home trainin’ or manners
I was doin’ this shit when you was shittin’ your Pampers
I was movin’ them grams ‘fore you knew what a hand that hand was
Duckin’ the vans, radars, the scanners
‘Fore you knew what hard white to tan was
I was hittin’ the turnpike, aight with the bammas
I was nice with my hands, ‘cause I’m nice with them hammers
I was prickin’ my finger ‘fore you knew what a Fam was
I had it laid out ‘fore you knew what a plan was
Three hundred mill’ later, now you understand us
Y’all ain’t see us comin’ through Vegas
You ever seen so much cham’ bust in one night
Grand fucked up one fight
I was on the Peter Pan bus
You was puttin’ Peter Pan up in your room, y’all fuckin with whom?
Allow me to retort
You cowards is just now learnin’ the shit that we taught
You niggas ain’t know about a Robb Report
‘Bout a high speed Porsche, i.e.
You niggas ain’t know how to floss ’til I came through the door
Like Eric B. for Pres respect me in this bitch
You can’t disrespect us ’cause you got a little check cut
You was suckin’ for so long, fuckin’ your little neck up
Now you too big for your britches, you got a few little bitches
You think you Hef, you just ridiculous
I blew breath for you bitches; I gave life to the game
It’s only right I got the right to be king
Niggas that got life really like what I sing
‘Cause they know what it’s really like, niggas feel my pain
Know the shit I don’t write be the illest shit that’s ever been recited
In the game word to the hyphen in my name
J-A-Y, Dash, Hoffa
The past, present, nigga the future, proper
The holy trinity of hip-hop is us
We give Dre his props but that’s where it stops
It’s the Roc
5. Song Cry/ The Blueprint
It’s not often that Jay really gets emotional on a song or even gives a glimpse into that side of his personality. He’s never comes across as vulnerable and in this verse, Mr. Big Pimpin’ tells the tale about how the ladies felt about him before the money. But leave it to Jay not to stay down for long as even in defeat it doesn’t take long to get back to victory.
On repeat, the CD of Big’s “Me and My Bitch”
Watchin’ Bonnie and Clyde, pretendin’ to be that shit
Empty gun in your hand sayin’, “Let me see that clip”
Shoppin’ sprees pull out your Visa quick
A nigga had very bad credit, you helped me lease that whip
You helped me get the keys to that V dot 6
We was so happy poor but when we got rich
That’s when our signals got crossed, and we got flipped
Rather mine; I don’t know what made me leave that shit
Made me speed that quick, let me see that’s it
It was the cheese helped them bitches get amnesia quick
I used to cut up they buddies, now they sayin’ they love me
Used to tell they friends I was ugly and wouldn’t touch me
Then I showed up in that dubbed out buggy
And then they got fuzzy and they don’t remember that
And I don’t remember you
6. Where I’m From/ In My Lifetime: Volume 1
One of Jay’s hardest tracks ever, and possibly the first time a rapper mentioned platinum on a song, Where I’m From goes hard. He tells the tale of living on the mean streets of Bed Stuy and what it took to get by. If ever anybody painted a vivid picture of their surroundings this was it.
I’m from where the hammer’s rung
News cameras never come
You and your man houndin’ every verse in your rhyme
Where the grams is slung, niggas vanish every summer
Where the blue vans would come, we throw the work in the can and run
Where the plans was to get funds and skate off the set
To achieve this goal quicker, sold all my weight wet
Faced with immeasurable odds still I made straight bets
So I felt some more something and you nothing check
I’m from the other side where other guys don’t walk too much
And girls in the projects wouldn’t fuck us if we talked too much
So they ran up to town and sought them dudes to trust
I don’t know what the fuck they thought, those niggas is foul just like us
I’m from where the beef is inevitable, summertime’s unforgettable
Boosters in abundance, buy a half-price sweater new
Your word was everything, so everything you said you’d do
You did it, couldn’t talk about it if you ain’t live it
I from where niggas pull your card and argue all day about
Who’s the best MC’s, Biggie, Jay-Z, and Nas?
Where the drugs czars evolve, and thugs are at odds
At each other’s throats for the love of foreign cars
Where cats catch cases, hoping the judge R and R’s
But most times find themselves locked up behind bars
I’m from where they ball and breed rhyme stars
I’m from Marcy son, just thought I’d remind y’all
7. Threat/ The Black Album
Threat is like an exercise in lyrical prowess. Up until this, Jay hadn’t showed this king of ability in a while. Not to say he wasn’t killing it but this song gave people a Reasonable Doubt version of Jay-Z on steroids. Between the wordplay, the flow, and cadence, this verse is a classic among classics.
Grown man I put hands on you
I dig a hole in the desert; they build The Sands on you
Lay out blueprint plans on you
We Rat Pack niggas, let Sam tap dance on you
Then, I Sinatra shot ya God damn you
I put the boy in the box like David Blaine
Let the audience watch, it ain’t a thang
Y’all wish I was frontin’, I George Bush the button
Front of all you in your car lift up your hood nigga run it
Then lift up your whole hood like you got oil under it
Your boy got the goods y’all don’t want nothin’ of it
Like, castor oil, I’ll Castor Troy you
Change your face or the bullets change all that for you
Y’all niggas is targets
Y’all garages for bullets, please don’t make me park it
In your upper level, valet a couple strays
From the 38 special, nigga, God bless you
8. D’Evils/ Reasonable Doubt
D’Evils is a hot song. With Snoop and Prodigy sampled into the chorus this track bangs hard and Jay has the subject matter to match as he talks about growing apart from a friend until the point that he needs to go. Drug dealing, murder, and bribing baby mothers all crammed into one verse. This is easily one of Jay’s best.
We used to fight for building blocks
Now we fight for blocks with buildings that make a killing
The closest of friends when we first started
But grew apart as the money grew, and soon grew black-hearted
Thinkin’ back when we first learned to use rubbers
He never learned so in turn I’m kidnappin’ his baby’s mother
My hand around her collar, feeding her cheese
She said the taste of dollars was shitty so I fed her fifties
About his whereabouts I wasn’t convinced
So I kept feedin’ her money ’til her shit started to make sense
Who could ever foresee, we used to stay up all night at slumber parties
Now I’m tryin’ to rock this bitch to sleep
All the years we were real close
Now I see his fears through her tears
Know she’s wishin’ we were still close
Don’t cry, it is to be
In time, I’ll take away your miseries and make ’em mine, D’Evils
9. D.O.A. (Death Of Autotune)/ The Blueprint 3
This song made a lot of people angry. After a bit of a hiatus spent wearing glasses and letting his hair grow Jay re-appeared, as he does, to take over the game….yet again. Besides challenging every popular trend in hip-hop at the time and telling rappers to pull their skirt down and grow some balls he also references Sinatra. You can’t go wrong there.
This is anti-auto-tune, death of the ringtone
This ain’t for iTunes, this ain’t for sing-alongs
This is Sinatra at the opera, bring a blonde
Preferably with a fat ass who can sing a song
Wrong, this ain’t politically correct
This might offend my political connects
My raps don’t have melodies
This should make niggas want go and commit felonies
Get your chain tooken
I may do it myself, I’m so Brooklyn
I know we facin’ a recession
But the music y’all makin’ gon’ make it the Great Depression
All y’all lack aggression
Put your skirt back down, grow a set man
Nigga this shit violent
This is death of auto-tune, moment of silence
10. Guess Who’s Back Scarface feat. Beanie Siegel & Jay-Z/ The Fix
This is one of those Jay’s verses that people will love until the day they die. If it comes on in a club they bug out. If it comes on the iPod they get extra hype. And why not? It might not be the deepest verse he’s ever written but he credits his mom and drops typical slick Jay-Z lines. He lets everybody know why he’s the king in a way only Jay can do.
Guess who’s bizack?
You still smell the crack in my clothes
Don’t make me have to relapse on these hoes
Take it back out to taxin’ them roads
When I was huggin’ it, niggas couldn’t do nothin’ wit it
Straight from the oven wit it, came from the dirt
I emerged from it all without a stain on my shirt
You can blame my old earth, for the shit she instilled in me
Still with me, pain plus work
Shit she made me milk this game for all it’s worth
That’s right; these niggas can’t fuck with me
I’m callin’ guts every time, drag my nuts every time
Homey, we make a great combination don’t we?
Me and the Face Mob, every time we face off
Face it y’all, y’all niggas playin’ basic ball
I’m on the block like I’m eight feet tall
Homey, I’m in the drop with the AC on
That’s why the, streets embrace me dogg, I’m so cool
