Jay-Z’s 10 Best Songs

Marcus Shorter
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The post Jay-Z’s 10 Best Songs appeared first on Consequence.

“I’m supposed to be number one on everybody’s list/ We’ll see what happens when I no longer exist.” That’s how Jay-Z finished “What More Can I Say” from what he said was his final project, The Black Album. Almost 20 years later and sure enough, Hov is number one on many people’s Greatest Rappers of All Time lists. And if he’s not number one, he’s more than likely in the top five.

When it comes to the fact Sean Carter has the most successful career in hip-hop history, there’s no argument — and that’s before even mentioning the fact he’s still relevant after doing this for almost 30 years. Walking that line between mainstream success and underground credibility is an Achilles heel for most rappers. They veer too hard to one side of the equation and lose the plot as a result.

But not Jay. Since truly announcing his mainstream dominance in 1998, no one in hip-hop history carried out that balancing act with as much ease as Jay. Even “Hard Knock Life,” with its beat practically engineered for radio, still maintains the hard-edged lyrics and clever wordplay that made Jay your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper two years prior. 2003 marked the end of a seven-year run that put the Brooklyn MC in rap’s upper echelon, where he produced an album year-after-year without fail. He even threw in a double LP to boot, though the less said about that one the better.

Jay came out of “retirement” in 2006, and while the output since isn’t as prodigious, a lot of it is just as compelling as his younger years. That’s why narrowing down his 10 best songs is yeoman’s work. Seriously, how do you shrink his massive career to a handful of joints? Do you go for the hits? Do you go for the underground joints? Do you stick to the front end of his catalogue or lean more to the back half? How can you not mention any of the songs related to his beef with Nas? It’s a testament to Jay’s greatness that just thinking of creating a list like this is daunting.

And yet, here we are. These are the 10 songs that not only showcase Jay-Z at his best, but encapsulate his fullness as an artist. He’s one of the few artists capable of going toe-to-toe with any rapper when it comes to bars while also holding his own with any pop star on the planet.

We make the case for his 10 best below; scroll to the end for a playlist.

10. “N***a What, N*** Who (Originator ’99)”

Vol.2… Hard Knock Life (1998)

Jay-Z in 1998 is a different animal than he was the year before and who he became after Hard Knock Life sold 5 million copies. He still sounds like the same guy from Reasonable Doubt and uses those techniques, but his raps and the beats are a bit more pop friendly. “N***a What, N***a Who (Originator ’99)” is the epitome of this. This is Jay at his apex, blending his original fast rap style over a Timbaland beat that sounds like it’s from another century.

This was also the first of many collaborations between Timbo and Jay, and it caught Jay right before he blew up and became the artist we know him as today. Shoutout to Jaz-O, who almost stole the show with one verse. This sequel to Jay and Jaz’s 1990 song exceeds the original and illustrates just how incredible ’98 was for hip-hop.

09. “Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love)”

The Blueprint (2001)

“Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love) crystalizes rap as a contact sport. Success breeds contempt because no matter what, there’s always someone who wants that number one spot. Jay found himself occupying that position in 2001, and with beef coming from all sides, he was more than a little fed up. “First the fat boys break up now everyday I wake up/ Somebody got a problem with Hov/ What, ya’ll n****s all fed up cause I got a little cheddar and my records movin’ out the store?”

The Blueprint isn’t Jay’s most intricate album from a rhyme standpoint, but he makes up for the loss of his typical word density with brevity and bluntness. This isn’t a song about “haters,” either; this is Sean Carter exposing some hurt feelings and exhaustion. Sure, the cockiness and arrogance is present — it usually is — but focusing on that misses why he chose these words and this beat to make this song. “Where’s the love?” isn’t dripping in irony, either. He really wants to know.

08. “22 Twos”

Reasonable Doubt (2001)

Because of all the hit records to his name, some people forget Jay-Z makes great conceptual songs. There are several on his resume, but “22 Twos” is at the tippy top of that list. Reasonable Doubt is one of the best emceeing performances in the history of the game, with this song serving as a lyrical exercise that feels like an almost four-minute flex. He takes a shot at West Coast rappers and their East Coast imitators (“Too much West Coast dick licking”), fake thugs (“Too many rough motherfuckers I got my suspicions/ That you’re just fish in a pool of sharks”), Black unity (To all my brothers it ain’t too late to come together/ Cause too much Black and too much love equal forever”) and just shows off how skilled he was in ’96. And yes, he says a variation of “two,” “too,” or “to” 22 times in the first verse. Impressive. Most impressive.

07. “Allure”

The Black Album (2003)

Pharrell lamented the fact he wasn’t around when Jay made “Dead Presidents,” so he felt compelled to make his own version. “Allure” is the result of that work. Addiction is a huge theme in Jay’s music. Sometimes it refers to the drug users or listeners, but he ensures we understand drug sellers and rappers are also addicts. “Allure” extrapolates on that point, detailing through three verses and a Pharrell hook why leaving the streets for rap was so hard while doubling as a metaphor for his feelings on leaving the rap game on what we thought was his final project, The Black Album.

“Allure” reads like a confessional, where Jay finally confronts his demons. Even though his brother sold drugs and he knew the way the story always ends, he still followed in his footsteps. He was addicted to the spoils and the adrenaline rush. Sure, he made ends meet selling drugs to his people, but ultimately, it was about him chasing the same high that led some of his customers to early graves. He isn’t asking for forgiveness, just providing clarity. If we get the message, that’s cool, but it’s mostly for his own peace of mind.

06. “Imaginary Players”

In My Lifetime, Vol.1 (1997)

The amount of arrogance and confidence seeping through the speakers before Jay even starts rapping on “Imaginary Players” rivals some rappers’ entire albums. Then the verses start. “You beer money I’m all year money/ I’m ‘Papi, you ain’t gotta count it, it’s all there’ money.” One of Jay’s greatest gifts is his ability at belittling other rappers. He mostly takes aim at no one in particular but sets himself aside from everyone else through sheer confidence. It helped that in ’97, very few rappers matched his flow, as he wrestled any beat into submission with the grace of an Olympic figure skater. “Imaginary Players” is another rap clinic in that way. It’s not the deepest joint in his catalogue, but it’s the epitome of the persona that carried him for most of his career. And it just sounds great.

05. “So Ghetto”

Vol. 3… Life And Times Of S. Carter

From ’97-’99, Jay-Z started his albums with a DJ Premiere-produced joint. “So Ghetto” is the last in this trilogy and it’s an incredible send-off. Jay had a lot to prove on Vol. 3…The Life and Times of S. Carter. The man went from a slept-on rapper to one of the biggest artist in the world. “So Ghetto” showed he was “the same old Sean” despite his commercial success the previous year. At times, Jay sounds like a man fighting his commercial status on “So Ghetto.” Starting an album with every hardcore rapper’s favorite producer is a sign in itself that Jay didn’t forget where he came from. “You see I live for the love of the street/ Rap to the ruggedest beats hall closet cluttered with heat/ I spit that murder-murder-murder, that Brook-Brook-a-Brooklyn shit.”

The whole song is Jay raising a middle finger to the idea that change is necessary. No matter how rich he gets, no matter how many records he sells, the durag stays on because that’s where he’s from. And he does all of this twisting the English language in ways most rappers can’t even dream of doing on their best days. Just peep the third verse and pretend any of that is normal. Not many can rhyme “R-C-Y” and “larceny die,” but of course he can.

04. “Girls, Girls, Girls”

The Blueprint (2001)

Jay-Z at his peak is possibly hip-hop’s greatest hitmaker because he was always true to himself, no matter the trends of the time. “Girls, Girls, Girls” is another example of Jay taking a beat built for mainstream audiences and subverting expectations. The rhymes sound simple, but it’s all wordplay or extended metaphor, along with appropriate references. “I got this French chick that likes to French kiss/ She thinks she’s Bo Derek wear her hair in a twist/ Ma cherie amour, tu es belle/ Merci you’re fine as fuck but you’re giving me hell.” He makes the obvious French kiss connection, mixes it with a Bo Derek line, and then references a Stevie Wonder song.

Then there’s the “merci/mercy” entendre for good measure. “Girls, Girls, Girls” is deceptively intricate, each verse building a puzzle and building on the previous rhymes. Unlike other songs about women up to this point in his career, the 2001 song has a playful sense of humor that showcases Jay’s wit. There’s still remnants of the guy who made “Big Pimpin” two years earlier, but he’s softening a bit. A dope song thoughtfully constructed that shows growth as well.

03. “D’Evils”

Reasonable Doubt (2001)

“D’Evils” is a cold-blooded song about the tragedy befalling friends who let money and power come between their relationship. Every bar hits hard whether Jay lived that truth or not, he understands the mentality. DJ Premier’s beat sounds like funeral music, which is apt for the topic. Jay rarely takes us inside, opting to keep the audience at arm’s length for most of his career. But Reasonable Doubt is one of the outliers in his discography in that it gets very personal but that’s not always at the top of mind because the rapping is so showy. “D’Evils” is filled with wordplay, couplets, metaphors, extended metaphors, entendres, and quotes like, “I never prayed to God, I prayed to Gotti.”

But underneath all of that flash is a tale explaining why friends become enemies in an environment where money is the only real thing. And like most songs of this ilk in his discography, he’s not condoning any of the actions, just explaining them. It’s a perfect song from a perfect album.

02. “Where I’m From”

In My Lifetime, Vol.1 (1997)

Mention “Where I’m From” to most hip-hop fans and dollars to donuts, the one thing they mention is Jay-Z inserting himself between The Notorious B.I.G. and Nas in the best emcees conversation. But the ’97 track is so much more than that. It’s a social critique, an economics lesson, and a historical recording.

Jay-Z’s bars about the Marcy Projects in Brooklyn feel universal for any Black person with even a little knowledge of our trials and tribulations in America. From news cameras ignoring neighborhoods because everyone expects and accepts the violence, to atheists birthed from corrupt religious leaders preying on true believers. Or just the fact there are neighborhoods with no hope which creates hopelessness, desperation, and the actions Jay chronicles on several albums. “Where I’m From” is an ethos for Jay’s career. Bringing Marcy — and places like it — to national television was always the goal.

01. “Dead Presidents II”

Reasonable Doubt (2001)

There is no other number one. 1996’s “Dead Presidents II” is the epitome of everything Jay does perfectly. The infinite rhymes, the couplets (“Who wanna bet us that we don’t touch lettuce stack cheddars/ Forever, live treacherous all the etcetera’s”) insane wordplay (“My dough flip like Tae-Kwon”), a flow that adapts to the slightest changes in a beat, and a delivery that makes the darkest tales digestible for any listener, regardless of their background. Jay talks dollars and cents better than any rapper in history.

More importantly, he explains motive. “Dead Presidents II” is all about the why. Why the bottom line is always his bottom line. Why Roc-A-Fella, even in its infant stages, contained better business sense than even the biggest record labels at the time, and why he realized a corner office was a better place for him than a corner because even “divine intervention” has its limits. While mafioso rap was definitely a thing in ’96, “Dead Presidents II” sets Jay apart from the pack through its intelligence, insightfulness, wit, and soul.

There are two other entries in the “Dead Presidents” series. There’s the ’95 original with the same dope beat (courtesy of Ski), and part three recorded during sessions for The Black Album that we finally heard in full in 2013. While they’re both great for different reasons, “Dead Presidents II” is in a class of its own.

Jay-Z’s 10 Best Songs:

Jay-Z’s 10 Best Songs
Marcus Shorter

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