Jay Z may be more invested in delivering music than making it at this point, but there would never have been a TIDAL without the extended come-up that preceded it. Reasonable Doubt bled into In My Lifetime and then the dynasty just kept growing. When The Blueprint rolled around Hov demanded his own lane, The Black Album proved his music had become a cultural event.
Now it’s 2015, Hov is 45, and his first album is almost 20. It’s also been at least ten years since Jay informally ushered in the “Suit And Tie” era of his career—”I’m not a business man, I’m a business man” is probably the most-quoted lyric of his career by now—and yet he’s still rapping. Few other emcees have developed and progressed so conspicuously in the public eye. We might be less surprised to see Jay Z standing alongside Warren Buffet than to find him in the booth at this point, but his music has formed a narrative the whole way.
With that in mind, we compiled 50 of Jay Z’s best verses. While it’s not presented in chronological order, every track here is a reminder of how far he’s come. And he’s still bringing us along for the ride.
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2. Jay Z – Can I Live
“I’d rather die enormous than live dormant, that’s how we on it / Live at the main event, I bet a trip to Maui on it.” – Jay Z
3. Jay Z – Feelin’ It
“Since diapers, had nothing to live for like them lifers but / Making sure every nigga stay rich within my cipher.” – Jay Z
4. Jay Z – Glory
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“The most beautifulest thing in this world / Is daddy’s little girl / You don’t yet know what swag is but you was made in Paris.” – Jay Z
5. Jay Z – The Takeover
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“A wise man told me don’t argue with fools / Cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who / So stop with that childish shit, nigga I’m grown / Please leave it alone – don’t throw rocks at the throne.” – Jay Z
6. Jay Z – Public Service Announcement
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“I’m like, Che Guevara with bling on, I’m complex / I never claimed to have wings on.” – Jay Z
7. Jay-Z – D’Evils
“The closest of friends when we first started / But grew apart as the money grew, and soon grew black-hearted.” – Jay Z
8. Jay Z – Intro: A Million And One Questions
“I got mouths to feed till they put flowers on me / And kiss my cold cheek, chicks crying like I was Cochise.” – Jay Z
9. Jay Z – Dirt Off Your Shoulder
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“I paid a grip for the jeans, plus the slippers is clean / No chrome on the wheels, I’m a grown-up for real.” – Jay Z
10. Jay Z feat. Amil & Ja Rule – Can I Get A…
“Could ya see yourself with a nigga working harder than nine to five / Ten to six, two jobs to survive?” – Jay Z
11. Jay Z – I Just Wanna Love U
“Okay, hot Hov’, too hot to hold / Ladies love me long time like 2Pac’s soul.” – Jay Z
12. Jay Z – Dear Summer
“They say if you love it, you should let it out its cage / And fuck it, if it comes back you know it’s there to stay / It’s tugging, at my heart, but this time apart is needed / From the public, who should’ve gave me the pulitz’.” – Jay Z
13. Jay Z feat. Eminem – Renegade
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“See I’m influenced by the ghetto you ruined / That same dude you gave nothing, I made something doing.” – Jay Z
14. Jay Z feat. Rihanna & Kanye West – Run This Town
“I get more in depth if you boys really real enough / This is la Familia, I’ll explain later / But for now let me get back to this paper.” – Jay Z
15. Jay Z feat. Amil & Beanie Sigel – Do It Again
“The game is ours, we’ll never foul out / Y’all just better hope we gracefully bow out.” – Jay Z
16. Jay Z feat. Alicia Keys – Empire State Of Mind
“Afrika Bambaataa shit, home of the hip-hop / Yellow cab, gypsy cab, dollar cab, holla back / For foreigners it ain’t fair, they act like they forgot how to add.” – Jay Z
17. Jay Z – Lost One
“And I ain’t even know how it came to this / Except that fame is / The worst drug known to man / It’s stronger than, heroin.” – Jay Z
18. T.I. feat. Jay Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne – Swagger Like Us
“School of hard knocks: I’m a grad / And that all-blue Yankee is my graduation cap.” – Jay Z
19. Jay-Z – Brooklyn’s Finest
“Time to separate the pros from the cons / The platinum from the bronze / That butter soft shit from that leather on the Fonz.” – Jay Z
20. Jay Z feat. Lenny Kravitz – Guns And Roses
“They giveth and they taketh life is cruel that way / But even a broken clock is right at least two times a day.” – Jay Z
21. Jay Z – Hovi Baby
“They say a midget standin’ on the giant’s shoulder can see much further than the giant / So I got the whole rap world on my shoulder they tryin to see further than I am.” – Jay Z
22. Jay Z – Beach Chair
“Life is but a dream to me / Gunshots sing to me/ These other guys with lullabies don’t mean a thing to me.” – Jay Z
23. Jay Z – Dope Man
”F— the system / At Lady Justice I blaze nine / Your Honor, I no longer kill my people / I raise mine / The soul of Mumia in this modern day time.” – Jay Z
24. Jay-Z & R. Kelly – The Best of Both Worlds / Take You Home With Me
“But it’s real like we grievin for Aaliyah with the masses / But I hope my boy Dash get to see her when he passes.” – Jay Z
25. Jay Z – Moment Of Clarity
“When your sense got that much in common / And you been hustling since your inception / Fuck perception, Go with what makes sense.” – Jay Z
26. Jay Z – Allure
“But the allure of the game, keeps calling your name ‘ To all the Laura’s of the world, I feel your pain / To all the Christies in different cities and Tiffany Lanes.” – Jay Z
We all hustlers in love with the same thing
27. Jay Z – What More Can I Say
“Far from a Harvard student, just had the balls to do it / And no I’m not through with it.” – Jay Z
28. Jay Z – 99 Problems
“I don’t know what you take me as / Or understand the intelligence that Jay-Z has / I’m from rags to riches, niggas I ain’t dumb.” – Jay Z
29. Jay Electronic feat. Jay Z – Shiny Suit Theory
“In the world of no justice and black ladies on the back of buses / I’m the immaculate conception of rappers-slash-hustlers.” – Jay Z
30. Rick Ross feat. Jay Z & Young Jeezy – Hustlin’ Remix
“We don’t resort to violence, we on resorts and islands / With linen shorts and shades, ‘case they thought you was lyin’.” – Jay Z
31. Talib Kweli feat. Mos Def, Jay Z, & Kanye West – Get By Remix
“Claimed I was ready to die / Promised never to cry / Held it all inside / Reality was too much to take so I / Kept my mind fried.” – Jay Z
32. Saigon feat. Jay Z – Come On Baby
“You ain’t crazy, don’t you play me, don’t you know it’s Jay-Z / When Internets ask who’s the best, why won’t you say me? / Don’t you hate me? C’mon baby, wasn’t all gravy.” – Jay Z
33. Sade feat. Jay Z – The Moon And The Sky Remix
“As God as my witness, timing was my mistress / I guess it’s in the stars for me to love you from a distance.” – Jay Z
34. Jay Z – Brooklyn We Go Hard
“I Jack I rob I sin / Aw man I’m Jackie Robinson / ‘Cept when I run base / I dodge the pen.” – Jay Z
35. Jay Z & Kanye West – Niggas In Paris
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“It’s only right that we be fair / Psycho, I’m liable to be go Michael / Take your pick, Jackson, Tyson, Jordan, Game 6.” – Jay Z
36. Jay Z feat. Swizz Beatz – On To The Next One
“I move onward, the only direction / Can’t be scared to fail in the search of perfection.” – Jay Z
37. Jay Z feat. Beanie Sigel, Freeway, Memphis Bleek – 1-900-Hustler
“And if you free tomorrow night we can meet and discuss price / FYI, I never been robbed in my life.” – Jay Z
38. Jay Z – No Church In The Wild
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“I’m wondering if a thug’s prayers reach / Is Pious pious cause God loves pious? / Socrates asked whose bias do y’all seek? / All for Plato, screech.” – Jay Z
39. Jay-Z – Regrets
“Time waits for no man, can’t turn back the hands / Once it’s too late, gotta learn to live with regrets.” – Jay Z
40. Jay Z – Can’t Knock The Hustle
“My cup runneth over with hundreds / I’m one of the best niggas that done it, six digits and running.” – Jay Z
41. Jay Z – Streets Is Watching
“I felt like life was cheating me / For the first time in my life I was getting money / But it was like my conscience was eating me / Was this a lesson God teaching me? ” – Jay Z
42. Kanye West feat. Jay Z – Diamonds
“People lined up to see the Titanic sinking / Instead we rose up from the ash like a phoenix / If you’re waiting for the end of the Dynasty sign / It would seem like forever is a mighty long time.” – Jay Z
43. Jay Z – Soon You’ll Understand
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“Now it’s too late, we got a little life together / And in my mind I really want you to be my wife forever.” -Jay Z
44. Jay Z feat. Beanie Sigel – Where Have You Been
“Will never ask mommy, ‘Why daddy don’t love me? / Why is we so poor?, why is life so ugly? / Mommy why is your eyes puffy?’ / Please don’t cry everything’ll be alright.” – Jay Z
45. Jay Z – Hard knock Life
“I don’t know how to sleep, I gotta eat, stay on my toes / Gotta a lot of beef, so logically, I prey on my foes.” – Jay Z