Friday 5ive: My Top 5 Jay-Z verses of all time
I have wanted to do this list for some time. But where do you start? How does the quintessential Jay-Z fan come up with the best verses?
Because I’m a fan and he is always making new music and you could be sleeping on a verse that you rediscover, I have decided it’s too difficult.
But what I will do is give you my top 5 verses from the reigning and still King of New York at this time. This list is ALWAYS subject to change.
My Top 5 Jay-Z verses of all time. (Right Now)
5) Jigga What Jigga Who verse 2:
This verse combined the trademark braggadocio lyrics of Jay-Z with speed and smoothness. Add this hot Timbaland beat and you have one of Jay-Z best.
Got a condo with nothing but condoms in it
The same place where the rhymes is invented
So all I do is rap and sex imagine how I stroke
See how I was flowing on my last cassette
Rapid-fire like I’m blasting a Tec, never jam though
Never get hot, never run out of ammo
Niggas hating and shit cause I slayed your bitch
You know your favorite, I know it made you sick
And now you’re, acting raw but you never had war
Don’t know how to carry your ho, wanna marry your ho
Now she’s mad at me cause Your Majesty
Just happened to be a pimp — what a tragedy
She wanted, us to end cause I fucked her friends
She gave me one more chance and I fucked her again
I seen her tears as she busted in
I said shit There’s a draft
Shut the door bitch and come on in
4) No Hook verse 3:
This song off the American Gangsta album was a great illustration of what Hov’s feelings were as he begins his career in the drug game.
But the 3rd verse took it to another level.
Asking not to be compared to other rappers because he’s more Frank Lucas than Ludacris. This verse reaffirms Jay-Z as the valedictorian of the school that gets you out of the crack game and into the rap game.
This is not for commercial usage
Please don’t categorize this as music
Please don’t compare me to other rappers
Compare me to trappers, I’m more Frank Lucas than Ludacris
And Luda’s my dude, I ain’t trying to diss
Like Frank Lucas is cool, but I ain’t trying to snitch
I’ma follow the rules no matter how much time I’ma get
I’ma live and die with the decisions that I’ma pick
So fuck DeHaven for caving, that’s why we don’t speak
Made men ain’t supposed to make statements
End of the story, I followed the code, cracked the safe
Other niggas ain’t in the game so they practice hate
Leave that boy Hov’ alone, why don’t cha?
You don’t have to if you don’t want to
But don’t say I didn’t warn ya
Oh… and I don’t need no hook for this shiiiit
3) The Watcher 2 verse 1:
What do you do when you have 3 of the most influential figures in Hip Hop all together on one track?
Well if you’re Jay-Z you bring one of the best verses you ever spit. I mean you have to.
Rakim is legendary and his verse on this track keeps the legend alive.
Dr. Dre dual threat continues by dropping a more than acceptable verse to a more than acceptable beat he produced.
So when he vocalize that “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!” Believe him!
Things just ain’t the same for gangstas
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 their fingers
Disrespectin’ the game, no home training or manners
I was doin’ this shit when you was shittin’ your Pampers
I was movin’ them grams
Before you knew what a hand-to-hand was
Duckin’ the vans, radars, the scanners
Before you knew what “hard,” “white” or “tan” was
I was hittin’ the turnpike, aight with the bama’s
I was nice with my hands, cuz aight with them hammers
I was prickin’ my finger before you knew what a “Fam” was
I had it laid out ‘fore you knew what a plan was
300 mil 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
About 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’ ’em so long, fuckin’ your little neck up
Now you too big for your britches
You got a few little bitches
You think you Hugh Hefner, you just ridiculous
I blew breath for you midgets, 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
2) Dead Presidents II verse 1:
If Reasonable Doubt was Mr. Carter’s “Mona Lisa” than Dead Presidents II was his “Mona Lisa’s smile”.
It’s not a moment of have you heard this song but more of where were you when you first heard this song.
The first verse is a stroke of the brush on the canvas of perfection and solidifies the discussion that Jay made it a hot song! (No disrespect to Nas)
Who wanna bet us that we don’t touch lettuce
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’ this 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 setback
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, poppa, word life
I dabbled in crazy weight without rap, I was crazy straight
Partner, I’m still spendin’ money from ’88… what?
AND FINALLY!!!!
- Public Service Announcement verse 1:
Before you question this as number one…let me ask you a question.
You ever went to a Jay-Z concert?
If the answer is yes then you know why I am so high on this song and of course this verse. Nothing gets you ready for a night of Hip Hop (or a war…rough day of work…etc.) like hearing that beat, the slight pause, and “Allow me to reintroduce myself…”
If this verse doesn’t get your mind right and ready for anything…nothing will!!!
Allow me to re-introduce myself
My name is Hov, OH, H-to-the-O-V
I used to move snowflakes by the O-Z
I guess even back then you can call me
CEO of the R-O-C, Hov!
Fresh out the fryin’ pan into the fire
I be the music biz number one supplier
Flyer than a piece of paper bearin’ my name
Got the hottest chick in the game wearin’ my chain, that’s right
Hov, OH — not D.O.C
But similar to them letters, “No One Can Do it Better”
I check cheddar like a food inspector
My homey Strict told me, “Dude finish your breakfast”
So that’s what I’ma do, take you back to the dude
With the Lexus, fast-forward the jewels and the necklace
Let me tell you dudes what I do to protect this
I shoot at you actors like movie directors { *laughing*}
This ain’t a movie, dog (oh shit)
Those are just my thoughts…right or wrong…just what I was feeling at the time!!!
