Jay-Z

One Liner: Mount Rushmore of Rap guy.  Beyonce's man.  Not a businessman he's a business, man.
Wikipedia Genre: Hip Hop
Spotify Says Similar To: Kanye West and Drake (really?  Drake?)
Home: NYC

Poster Position: 1
Slot: Friday, ?

Thoughts:  So this post got a little into the wilderness below, but know that, when it comes down to the bottom line, I'm excited to see Jay-Z for the first time.  He is, without any realistic counter-argument, one of the best rappers of all time and has enough hits to absolutely destroy a set like this. I'll give you a general synopsis for the post below, if you'd rather skip the whole thing:  Jay-Z wasn't that great at first, but people act like he was immediately amazing even though they only found him later.  After that, he actually got great, then he got terrible, and now he's just a brand to sell many millions in product and fame.

When do you actually remember Jay-Z for the first time?  He was just Shawn Carter, born in Brooklyn and raised in Bed-Stuy.  He claims in his lyrics to have sold crack and shot his brother when he was a kid.  In one track from the Black Album, "December 4th," his mom talks about how he was always banging on the kitchen table and making rhythms, until he started free-styling and making a name for himself around the neighborhood.  But in the mid-90's, he was featured on a Big Daddy Kane track, and then with a few other rappers who I've never heard of (Big L and Mic Geronimo), before he finally created his own label (the now huge Roc-A-Fella Records) and released his debut, Reasonable Doubt.  This was in June 1996.  The album did OK, reaching up to #23 on the Billboard 200, and has since been lauded as a great album.  But if you recall, he was not that big at the time.  The album took six years to get to platinum status (and that was after all the later albums made him popular).  Wikipedia says it remains the lowest charting album of Jay's career.  I act like I'm crapping on it, and I'm not, it is a solid disc with some great tracks like "22 Twos" or "Can I Live" or "Dead Presidents II" or "Brooklyn's Finest (feat. BIG)."  All I'm saying is that despite all the critical love now, it wasn't that big back in the day.  Hell, Jay even raps about it on "Hard Knock Life," saying “I gave you prophecy on my first joint, and y'all lamed out/Didn't really appreciate it 'til the second one came out.” (although I'd argue that no one appreciated it until even later than the second one...) 

However, not long after that, 2Pac was killed (Sept. 1996) and then Biggie was killed (Mar. 1997), and a vacuum opened up at the apex of hip hop.  Let's look at some historical data from Billboard from this period.

• Top rap song artists in 1995 - 69 Boyz (hahaha!  Tha Tootsie Roll!), Notorious BIG, 2Pac (and those two traded the crown back and forth for several weeks, with "Big Poppa" and "Dear Momma"), Dr. Dre, Method Man, Notorious BIG (different song), Shaggy, Coolio, Goodie Mob, LL Cool J.
• Top rap song artists in 1996 - LL Cool J, Kris Kross, Junior Mafia (featuring Biggie), Busta Rhymes, something called Nonchalant, Bone Thugs, 2Pac, Outkast, LL Cool J (different track), Westside Connection (which included Cube), Do or Die, Nas, and Lil' Kim (feat. Puff Daddy). 
• Top rap song artists in 1997 - Lil Kim, MC Lyte, Puff Daddy, Notorious BIG (posthumous), Puff Daddy (different song), Notorious BIG (different song), Magoo and Timbaland, Mase, Puff Daddy (again, different song).
• I won't list out 1998, but just know that Jay-Z also did not make the top songs list in 1998, but someone named Sylk-E. Fyne did.

So none of Jay's tracks from either Reasonable Doubt nor his second album, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 (1997) were winning any popularity contests.  Biggie, Tupac, and then Puff Daddy continued to rule the waves, with a couple of other folks sprinkled in.  Most of those folks on that above hit list were one hit wonders (69 Boyz, Do or Die, Shaggy, Coolio, Kris Kross), were on the downhill slide of their careers (LL Cool J, Nas), were hot for a minute and then disappeared (Lil Kim, Mase, Puff Daddy), were soon dead (Biggie and 2Pac), or have continued in medium-sized careers (Method Man, Bone Thugs, Busta Rhymes).  The only ones on that list who had staying power to get or stay huge were Dr. Dre, Outkast, and Nas.  

Solo Dre was weird, as he made a classic, then a good album, and then just stepped away from the mic.  Outkast were fantastic, but they were and are oddballs.  Nobody was mistaking them for the gangster rap kings ready to take over for Biggie and Pac.  Nas was critically adored, and people still talk about how great of a rapper he is, but something about him just never broke big in the popular culture.  He had Illmatic and another hit song or two, but nothing huge - I think he was too smart lyrically for people to follow.
So, we've got this vacuum there, waiting to be filled by someone bombastic enough to fill the collective shoes of Pac and BIG. Look, even Future kind of agrees with me!

So, my first real memory of Jay-Z was his absolutely solid turn as a guest on Jermaine Dupri's 1998 single "Money Ain't a Thing."  

Jermaine Dupri w/ Jay-Z - Money Aint a Thing from David Claessen on Vimeo.

A few things: (a) great beat and track anyway; (b) Jay's verses were solid; and (c) this video, and the moron Dukes of Hazzard police in the car scenes, is funny stuff.  But, recognize that this was in 1998, and Jay was doing guest verses on a songs for total no names like Dupri, M.O.P., Rell, and Another Level.  Yes, those are all really the artists that he guested for in 1998.  Some rapper or singer called "Rell."

But now, into this vacuum, he releases Vol. 2 ... Hard Knock Life (1998) and it has his first real hit -  so all of a sudden, he's the man that fills that the void.  "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" has a ridiculous beat and funny turns of rhyme - total classic.

Instantly recognizable, and shows more of his deft ability to take brags and turn them into gold.  That single went Platinum in the US and Gold in the UK, reaching up to #2 on the Billboard rap charts. The other tracks on that album aren't nearly so good, the other three singles were "N**ga What, N**ga Who," "Can I get A ..." and "Jigga My N**ga."  And I think the best was that second one, "Can I Get A..."

Rush Hour ruled.  But this one is good stuff, questioning whether his lady friend would even be around if he wasn't big time, and telling them off if they won't hang around.  The rest of that album was OK.  

Of course, I can't go back and listen to this album without hunting down my CD collection or mp3s, because Jay-Z doesn't allow any of his music to be streamed via Spotify (which is so very annoying).  I get it, he owns part of Tidal, and has to try to make that garbage idea work for the 47 subscribing members, but the fractured landscape of music streaming is an annoying (minor) problem of modern society.

And this album starts a trend that I've noticed as I write this post, that Jay-Z could have a freaking AMAZING greatest hits album, taking the good track or two from each album, but a lot of his albums really aren't that good from start to finish.  

But by now, he's big.  Like top three rappers in the world big, no contest. (more on that in a bit).  And in 1999 he releases Vol. 3...Life and Times of S. Carter, which was the first of his albums I ever bought.  That was the crossover moment, when he put out the fantastic single for "Big Pimpin," and everyone on the planet bought the album.

First, he's got UGK on there, which is already tight.  But on top of that, you realize that he's here to drop ridiculously bad ass beats on you and then rule the brag rap game like no other.  I also remember, after getting this disc, that I was listening to the disc at work when a co-worker came in and was bumping it with me.  I didn't understand "Do It Again," because the beat is super off-kilter. The opening is very ominous, but then once it kicks in, its hard to find the right groove, just really weird.

He helped me understand how cool it was to try something so different at the time, and I get that, but I've never really enjoyed the track. So, again, you've got one incontrovertible bad ass song on the album, and then some other stuff that is OK.

Next, you have 2001's The Blueprint, which is the album that most critics just creamed over. Produced by Kanye, it has some great sounds, and spawned his first top ten single (according to Wikipedia), which was Izzo (H.O.V.A.).

Terrible version of the video (annoyingly not available in its good version on YouTube, and that isn't even a complete version, dammit), but that beat!  So freaking good!  But the other singles from this album ("Girls, Girls, Girls," and "Jigga That N**ga") are again, just OK. I dislike Jay stealing Ice T's ideas, since T's 1993 song "99 Problems" was all about all of the different girls that he was hooking up with and their weird issues, which is copied by Girls. This is a really good album overall, probably Jay's second best to me.

The next year (2002) brought the Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse, which included a guest sighting from Beyonce on the biggest single ("03 Bonnie & Clyde"), which went Gold in the US and Platinum in Australia.

They apparently started dating before this video, or at least talked on the phone a lot, but between this video and Jay's appearance on "Crazy in Love" things kicked off.  Nothing else on this album to remember, the only other singles were "Hovi Baby" and "Excuse Me Miss" (which was alright).

Then, the true classic.  The realest album of all of his albums.  The one that he called his final album (which would have been a very good idea), the Black Album from 2003.  This one had three legit hit songs in "Dirt Off Your Shoulder," "99 Problems," and "Change Clothes," but was good even beyond those big hits.  "99 Problems" is Jay's best song, hands down, no contest.  AND the video I found of that track a week ago when I wrote most of this post has now been deleted, because JAY-Z HATES FOR YOU TO LISTEN TO HIS MUSIC!  Here is a kind of cool live version with Pearl Jam (that will likely be taken down in 30 minutes).

THAT BEAT IS SO FUCKING SALTY! (well, the real beat, on the real song, if you can find it) "You crazy for this one, Rick."  And on top of that, after some bragging, he rests that for a bit to tell a great little vignette about getting stopped by the cops that is freaking classic.  Let's go with some of the best lines from this thing:

• "You know the type, loud as a motorbike, but wouldn't crush a grape in a fruit fight."
• "If you grew up with holes in your zapatos, you'd celebrate the minute you was having dough"
• "I got two choices y'all, pull over the car or, hmm, bounce on the devil, put the pedal to the floor."
• "I heard "Son, do you know why I'm stopping you for?" Cause I'm young and I'm black and my hat's real low, do I look like a mind reader, sir? I don't know, Am I under arrest or should I guess some mo?"
• "Well my glove compartment is locked, so is the trunk in the back, And I know my rights so you goin' need a warrant for that, "Aren't you sharp as a tack? You some type of lawyer or something? Somebody important or something?" Child, I ain't passed the bar, but I know a little bit, Enough that you won't illegally search my shit."

So good!  And that beat!  If you don't feel tough and want to jam out when you hear that, then check your head.  And after those three hits, there are other great tracks on this album, like "Encore," or "What More Can I Say," hell, "Public Service Announcement" is good stuff. That beat on that last one just makes me want to bang it as loud as possible once it kicks in with the organ and drum.  Watch this little short video about how the track was made, I love the back story.

Also, video of him and Rick Rubin making 99 Problems.  I could watch this shit all day.

Freaking crazy to watch how that happens in real time without all the effects and stuff that you see in the movies.  So quiet when they are on the mic!

So, anyway, The Black Album was supposed to be his retirement.  He had announced it before the album and everyone freaked out and then it was amazing and so everyone freaked out some more.  But then, sadly, he decided to un-retire and release the truly awful 2006 album Kingdom Come.  Nothing on that album is memorable.  "Show Me What You Got" went gold, and "Lost One," "30 Something" and "Hollywood" (feat. Beyonce) all charted, but none of the songs were any good, none of them had anything cool or original about them, it was a terrible album.  

Now you ruined the sax from a classic Public Enemy track and featured Dale Jr. and Danica in your video. By this time, Jay has officially changed from a rap icon to a brand that must be packaged up so that he can say shit raps like this: "I'm ballin' the same, nigga, I am the Mike Jordan of recording, Nigga, you might want to fall back from recording, Shit that you write; it's not important, So it forced him to go for the hype." Yes, the true show of excellence, when you rhyme a word with that same word to show your lyrical prowess.  

And you know what happened in the interim between Black and Kingdom?  Jay's own protege passed him up, as Kanye released the amazing College Dropout in 2004, right there in the void created by Jay's dumb retirement.  And when this shit Kingdom Come album came out, I remember just thinking that Jay was done and Kanye was in his place.

And also, Jay expanded his world from rapping and co-owning a label to being a huge, real deal businessman.  Wikipedia does a shitty job of listing all of the businesses he was involved in (at least if you want a timeline), but by this time in his career he was focusing on the music label and clothing label and the mogul part of his image.  Point being, he doesn't even need to make music anymore, he could just coast on all the fame.  But now he can advertise for his own brands by continuing to rap, so get get stuff like "At the 40/40 Club, ESPN on the screen" in "Dirt Off Your Shoulders," to advertise for the club that he is part owner of.    Anyway, back to the music.

I actually liked the next album, which was the 2007 soundtrack to the movie American Gangster, and the soundtrack matched the movie well and I thought tied together well. Only one of the tracks from that album ever made any noise, but it is a pretty good brag track.

And who the hell doesn't enjoy a great beat mixed with a rags to riches story that makes it seem like even you could be a skinny kid in an old track suit and then turn into the dapper bad ass buying drinks for everyone in the joint?  With a fun horn sample?  Most of the other tracks for this album that were on YouTube are blocked from being available, so I'll need to go dig them up in my CD cases.

The next album was his biggest hit, even more so than The Black Album, although its bad as far as I'm concerned.  2009's The Blueprint 3 had the massive smash pop/rap hit of "Empire State of Mind," featuring Alicia Keys, which after old Frankie Sinatra is now probably the most New York anthem anyone has (despite a lot of attempts).  And it's solid, don't get me wrong.  The beat is good and Keys kills it and it went 5 times platinum in the US, which is his biggest hit for sure.  You gotta respect the fact that Jay figured out that a NYC anthem would kill it that way.  This album also had "Young Forever," which chomps down on the 80's hit "Forever Young" to make something new and kind of interesting, and also "Run this Town," with Rihanna and Kanye, which is the best track on the album.

Stupid YouTube.  Why the shit can't the real videos be loaded up to YouTube?  There are literally bad covers, a silent version of the video, weird remixes, and a bunch of other garbage, but no easy-to-find version of the real video for this song.  I'm sure it's some garbage where Nestle paid Jay-Z $50 million for the rights to use this in a Keebler elves ad, but then Kanye sold the rights to the NBA for $80 million for pre-game commercial breaks, but then Rihanna gave the rights to her dealer for a free bag of kush, and now 80 lawyers are fighting over the rights to post the video to YouTube so that people can watch it all for free.  I bet that is totally the reason.  Gotta say, that live video makes the song sound like dogshit. 

In 2011, we got apex Jay-Z and Kanye, with the absolutely brilliant Watch the Throne.  I don't consider this one a Jay-Z album for some reason, I've always thought of it as a Kanye album with Jay-Z on it, but it is totally billed as a joint album between the two of them.  "Otis" kills it, "HAM" is bad ass, "Gotta Have It" bangs, "No Church in the Wild" is even ominously good, but its the ridiculously over-the-top "N**gas in Paris" that takes the cake.

Annoying that this version changes things from the album version, and yet is billed as the "Official" video, but you get the idea.  That bouncing synth riff, that deep bass thump, the brags that are completely real and undisputed because these two guys really are at the top of the game, and the ability to yell that "shit cray."  Despite my love for this album, I'm curious if he can even perform any of these tunes without Kanye there to do his portions. We'll study some setlists later...

Next comes the second worst album of the canon, the truly terrible 2013 album Magna Carta Hold Grail.  The first single from this one featured Justin Timberlake and went four times platinum, so he is still getting playtime and is popular, but the quality of his lyrics is just in the crapper.  The one on here that killed me was "Tom Ford," where he lyrically just shits the bed and doesn't care that everyone noticed.  Here is the first half of the tune:

"Clap for a nigga with his rapping ass, Blow a stack for your niggas with your trapping ass Clap for a nigga with his rapping ass, Blow a stack for your niggas with your trapping ass.
Tom Ford
Tom Ford
Tom Ford
Coming up, Coming down, Riding clean fix your head, in my crown, Bad bitch, H town, Keep it trill, Y'all know y'all can't fuck around, Paris where we been, Part my Parisian, It's Hov time, in no time it's fuck all y'all season, Piss out Bordeaux and Burgundies, Flush out a Riesling, when's Hov's out, them hoes out, Y'all put y'all weaves in and (back to the chorus above)"   

I count that he says "Tom Ford" 16 times in the song. It's like a nervous damn tic or something. He likewise has the same problem on the track he assists with Drake, called "Pound Cake," where he just says the word "cake" like 30 times in a row.  Those lyrics are awful, and nothing on this album is worth holding on to.

But, this album went platinum immediately upon release, because being the savvy brand mastermind that he is, Jay sold a million copies of the album to Samsung, who then gave all of those copies away to users.  So the second that the album was available, he had already sold a million copies and therefore was in platinum status.  Which is annoying.  But you know what?  Can't knock the hustle - he figured out how to make that happen and Samsung was willing to pay for it, so go get 'em.  Not surprisingly, now that he figured this move out, he just recently did the same with his most recent album, selling a million copies to Sprint before it was even released.

That brings us to that final album, 2017's 4:44.  I just recently went ahead and bought the stupid thing, via iTunes, because otherwise I have no way to hear it because I am not one of the 47 people who subscribe to Tidal and I don't have Sprint service, so my brand allegiances don't line up with getting free access to the album.  And I wasn't too worried about it, because after the last few duds, who cares if I don't hear the new dud.  But honestly, I needed to hear the damn thing.  After a few times through (which is easy because the whole album is like 10 minutes long), the beats behind these tunes are, for the most part, really solid.  Check the one that has a video available, "The Story of O.J.," which will never be a radio hit but has a pretty chilled, laid-back beat.

I've watched that video like 8 times today alone.  Makes me want to just lay the seat back in my ride and cruuuuuuuuise.  But two things in there stick out as problematic.  First, of course, the repeated use of the N word, which means this won't ever be on the radio. Second, the anti-Semitic bit about Jews owning all of the property in America.  Really?  I'm not even Jewish and that lyric bugged me.  It bugged others as well.  But he's also rapping about his own foibles in real estate investments, so I don't get the sense that he is actually trying to be anti-Semitic, but he's still enforcing crap stereotypes (both about his own race and others).  But the track is gold, and the lyrics are otherwise solidly interesting. "I'm not black, I'm OJ. ... *sarcastic voice* OK."  I like that track.

If you read about the album on the Internet, everyone is freaking out about how confessional and open he is on the album.  His mom comes out as gay ("Smile"). He confesses cheating on Beyonce (which also came out because of Bey's Lemonade) and apologizes to her and the kids.  He calls out new rappers for sounding like everyone else (which I appreciate, even if that is kind of a shitty thing to do).  Short ass album, only 36 minutes, and nothing on here is really a club song or an exciting banger, they are more like chill tracks of a couple of good lyrical bends, but nothing special.  This feels like he decided to make his big confession, and then slapped some songs together to go with the confession, and tossed it out there despite only being a half hour long.  But, I'll say that the samples/beats on "4:44" and "O.J." and "Caught Their Eye" are freaking good stuff.  I dig this NoID shit.  But if you haven't bought this album, I wouldn't drop the $10 on iTunes.

Also, I had forgotten to mention this above, but I have to say that I really like the Linkin Park mashup that they did where Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory and Jay's Black Album (and a few other tracks) got mashed together into new performances.  The "Numb/Encore" one is freaking bad ass, and the "Points of Authority/ 99 Problems" one is tight as hell too.  But I'm a sucker for both of those old albums, so it works really well for me (and is great for running).  I'll say that the "Izzo" mix with "In The End" doesn't work as well, because that Linkin song is so depressing but the Jay song is so happy sounding.

Holy shit.  That was a huge information dump right there.  A few other things to talk about before I let this one go.  

First, who is the greatest rapper of all time?  I know, just a small, easy thing to write about here in the middle of this post.  There are people who would choose Jay-Z.  And I'm not one of them.  I think he has some freaking amazing, untouchable bars.  But I also think that he has some absolute clunkers.  Whole albums of garbage.  No one is going to have all fire all the time, but despite that I still feel like Jay leaves a lot on the table because he is so very intensely concentrating on bragging.  And instead of just spending the time to craft better bars, he goes with lazy recitations of his wealth.  

But anything you read on the Internet is going to have him in the top five of just about any list (although not the user lists on Genius, which are full of people trying to establish their bonafides by naming only deep cut people you haven't heard of - "oh, you don't love Durrschniget?  His 1997 mixtape was the dopest album ever, yo."). This Billboard list goes with top five of B.I.G., Jay Z, Eminem, Rakim, Nas.  Lin Manuel Miranda goes B.I.G., Big Pun (?!?), Eminem, Lauryn Hill, and Andre 3000, with Jay Z just outside the top 5.  Ex-President Obama goes with (in no order) Jay Z, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper, and Drake (although it looks like that is a listing of currently best rappers, not all timers).  Some website called The Top Tens says it is Eminem, 2Pac, B.I.G., Nas, and Jay-Z. 

Remember the Chris Rock movie "Top Five"?  I liked that flick.  As part of it, Rock would ask people who their top five were, and there was this good scene where his whole family responded and I loved it.  Rock's were Jay Z, Nas, Scarface, Rakim, and Biggie.  That feels like a well-thought-out list by someone who tried to really put it together.

That scene of argument over who would be better, and people disagreeing about it all, is super fun.  I love when everyone jumps his ass for including LL Cool J as his sixth man.  My friend Joseph says his, in no particular order, are Eminem, Jay-Z, Biggie, 2Pac, Beasties, and Ice Cube.  That is respectable (although I don't think you get to choose a whole group of three people and inject them into the conversation as though they are one person, but I'll let it slide for now).

How can we measure it, other than pure feeling?  I'll give you my gut feeling in a bit, but let's try for some measurables.  Album sales?  If you count Rihanna as a rapper, she is #1 by a mile with 220 million units sold.  If not (and I don't), then it is:

1. Eminem - 155 million
2. Kanye West - 121 million
3. Jay-Z - 100 million
4. Lil Wayne - 100 million
5. Flo Rida - 80 million.

I can't tell you how happy it makes me that crappy ass Flo Rida is #5 on that list.  So, there is your real top five, as voted by the American people's hard earned cash.  I can't tell by streams on Spotify because some people aren't on there (jerk face Jay-Z for one), but I expect that Drake would be #1 by billions.  He literally, no shit, has a song with more than a billion streams (One Dance has 1.266 billion streams, for now).  And yet he sucks at rap. How about most nominations for a BET award? That would be Chris Brown (kill me now), followed by Drake, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Nicki Minaj.  Most Grammy nominations?  Kanye then Jay-Z on the Wikipedia page I found. I don't know how you do this with data.

The other issue that comes up when you read about this is this - how are you measuring greatness?  Longevity of people listening to the music?  Social impact of the lyrics?  Clever crafting of rhymes?  Fun awesomeness of the tunes?  No one guy is going to top all four of those measures, I don't think.  For example, I think Eminem's craft is amazing, making words rhyme left right and center throughout his bars.  But he's rapping about farts and murders and drugs.  He's not going Chuck D or Kendrick to try to change your worldview through the rhymes.  But which is "best" or "better?"

I think no matter how you slice the modern conscious about it, you're going to have B.I.G., 2Pac, and Jay-Z in just about everyone's conversation for best rapper of all time.  Of those, I'd pick Biggie any day.  2Pac was visceral and exciting, and was killed before he could really cement his place on the Mount Rushmore of rap, but if I'm being honest he isn't someone I go back to and listen to again all the time.  When I do, I usually love it and am into it again, but I definitely go back to Biggie and Cube (and Ghostface Killah) more often than either Pac or Jay.  

Yeah, I still love Cube and would probably pick him as my own personal top rapper, and I also believe in Eminem who could be the best when he was at his best.  He definitely dropped some clunkers but some of the Eminem things, the way he could technically weave words and ideas and emotions, was amazing.  And I think Kendrick Lamar, while still young, is up there in that top five conversation.  His three real albums are all classic and full of real deal informative lyrics and clever wordplay.  In fact, let's look at Metacritic (which is crowd-sourced and so it may not be perfect, but still, I think it is an interesting data point), which has the following critically top ranked rap albums:

1. Kendrick - To Pimp a Butterfly (96 rating)
2. Kendrick - DAMN (95 rating)
3. Outkast - Stankonia (95 rating)
4. Kanye - My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy (94 rating)
5. Madvillian - Madvilliany (93)

Kendrick's Good Kid is at 91 rating (which is BS, its his best one).  Jay's Blueprint comes in a 88 rating.  Nas' Illmatic is at an 89.  Run the Jewels 3 is at 88.  Ghostface's Fishscale is at 88 (which is a bad ass album of grimy stories and great rhymes).  But, no Pac or Biggie albums make the top 4 pages of results, and Hot Sauce Committee is the top rated Beasties album, so this list is likely made of garbage.  If you look at it by User Score, instead of critic's scores, you get the following top 5:

1. Nas' Illmatic (9.2)
2. Kendrick's To Pimp A Butterfly (9.1)
3. Kendrick's Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (9.1)
4. Common's Be (9.1)
5. Nas and Damian Marley's Distant Relatives (9.1)

I was pretty good until that last one.  Now you have no right to comment on the goodness of albums, Metacritic users.  GTFOH with Damian Marley.

I also love me some Kanye West.  I know Kanye is a douche in real life, but when he was crafting those first few albums, he was freaking ridiculously talented and clever.  However, from what I have read today, it looks like a lot of his music was written with collaborators, so maybe he isn't as clever as I thought.  T.I. had some good stuff.  LL Cool J had some classics.  Scarface, both with the Geto Boys and then on his own, is excellent.  Q-Tip has some great bars.  Nas' debut was fantastic, but nothing since then has been that great.  I don't honestly know Rakim that well.  Pusha T kills it at times.  Dre and Snoop, or Lil Wayne, or the guys from Outkast, or Killer Mike, there are a bunch of other guys who might get votes, but I think my personal preference of people I go back to to hear again and again would be Cube, B.I.G., Eminem, Kendrick, and Ghostface.  And Outkast and the Beasties would get my honorable mentions.  Jay-Z is right up there with them, definitely top ten, but not top five for me, personally.

Finally, what does Jay-Z play these days?  He's not touring, really, and so his most recent set-lists have nothing from the new album, which will likely, unfortunately, not be the case in the fall.  The most recent setlist I found shows a kind of weird set:

• Made In America (one of the weaker tracks from Watch the Throne)
• Dirt Off Your Shoulder (Black Album)
• Run This Town (Blueprint 3)
• Fuckwithmeyouknowigotit (Magna Carta Holy Grail, MCHG)
• Jigga My Nigga (Vol. 3)
• Nigga What, Nigga Who (Originator 99) (Vol. 2)
• U Don't Know (Blueprint)
• Clique (pretty solid posse cut he did with Kanye and Big Sean)
• Public Service Announcement (Black Album)
• Niggas in Paris (Watch the Throne)
• Beach Is Better (MCHG)
• Beach Is Better (yes, it really is listed twice?)
• I Got the Keys (a DJ Khaled track)
• Holy Grail (the Justin Timberlake track from MCHG)
• Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem) (Vol. 2)

Uh, wait.  No "99 Problems"?  NO FREAKING "Big Pimpin'"?  No "Izzo," no "Encore," no "Empire State of Mind"?  This will be even worse than the Radiohead debacle last year if he just ignores "Big Pimpin" and "99 Problems."  I would have been pissed at this show in Ohio. You have to imagine that we'll be getting prime greatest hits Jay, not the guy who is going to try to go deep cut on us.  He's got a show in late August at a Fest in England, then his Made in American Fest in early Sept., so we can get a better idea of what he's going to do after those two shows.