Am I to assume that but “Songwriters” they actually mean “lyric writers?” Because I wouldn’t laud any of the folks suggested here as “Songwriters,” especially Jay Z. His first big hit out of the box was him ripping off an Orphan Annie theme…that’s not “writing” anything.

Most of these people don’t write songs because that implies they can write music. And most of them can’t…they sample and mix other people’s work and this is not “writing music” in any sense of the word. Maybe put them in a “Poet Hall of Fame” but there’s no music being written here.