The 100 Best Jay-Z Verses of All Time, Ranked

Producer: Dj Khaled, Friday, Streetrunner, Tarik Azzouz

Album: God Did (2022)

Billy talk? Check. Boss talk? Check. Aspirational talk? Check. Drug talk? Check. Pop culture references? Check. Clearing up new rumors? Check. The most hyped verse of the last couple years checked all the boxes that we’ve come to expect from a primo Jay feature. The god went into his bag, set up shop in there for like four minutes, and what came out of that water was a work of art. He seemed angry and he seemed hungry, which—when I think back again to first hearing it—makes my head hurt. Jigga had plenty of memorable lines on this, but the “I got lawyers like shooters” line is just perfect because we all know it’s true. —Angel Diaz

Producer: The Neptunes
Album: The Neptunes Present...Clones 

Eight bars of effortlessness; near-distractingly brief, yet far from a mail-in. There's genius in brevity. Only Hova at his peak could give 20 seconds and still have his an essential contribution, and turn fellow living legend Denzel into a verb. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: 40 & Tone Mason
Album: Thank Me Later

Hova making unexpected noises is one of the true delights in modern rap music, and the way he pronounces “Owwww” and “Owwwwl” on this Thank Me Later Drake cut is enough to carry the whole performance.

Of course, there’s much more to Hova’s verse, like that bar in which he’s disturbingly clairvoyant: “Drake, here’s how they gonna come at you,” he raps. “With silly rap feuds, trying to distract you.” —Will Schube

Producer: Kid Capri
Album: Volume 2... Hard Knock Life 

Verse: 2

Q: How tight is Jigga's flow?
A: "I'm a motherfuckin problem, is this what you want?"

Jay leaves no bar wasted on Kid Capri's beat. The delivery may be laid back but, make no mistake, he's very much in every rapper's face, daring them to take the bait. Overachiever, indeed. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Purp Dogg
Album: N/A
Verse: 2

A stunning confirmation that, when he wants to, album rollouts be damned: Jigga can still jump in the booth and onto the hottest beat at the moment and like a "melatonin, black out at any given moment." (And a nice G-check to Drake.) —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Kanye West, 88-Keys & MIKE DEAN
Album: Watch the Throne

Jay and Ye were friends, Frank Ocean was still interested in making music. Man, 2011 was wild. Hov clearly wanted to bring his fastball here, namedropping the ancients and cooking up what remains an all-time closer of a line: “Jesus was a carpenter, Yeezy laid beats/ Hova flow the Holy Ghost, get the hell up out your seats.”— Will Schube

Producer: T.T.
Album: The Dynasty: Roc La Familia (2000)

I grew up with both parents, but my relationship with my pops could've been better. Through all of our disagreements, though, he was always there. Jay opening up about his father will always be Jay at his most heartfelt. You can hear the disappointed young kid in his voice here, always making me grateful that my father was around. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Pharrell Williams
Album: It’s Almost Dry

“Neck & Wrist” marks Pusha-T and Jay-Z’s first collaboration since 2016’s “Drug Dealers Anonymous,” and neither one of them came to play.

Jay, in particular, laid down a saucy verse over Pharrell’s gritty production in which he issued some subliminals and addressed rumors swirling the media circuit. “The phase I’m on, love, I wouldn’t believe it either/ I’d be like, ‘Jay-Z’s a cheater,’ I wouldn’t listen to reason either,” Hov spits. The bar is in response to comedian Faizon Love, who attempted to discredit Jay’s reputation as a street hustler. Elsewhere on the track, Jay talks about comparisons and his legacy, rapping, “They like, “If Big was alive, Hov wouldn’t be in his position”/ If Big had survived, y’all would have got The Commission/Hov was gon’ always be Hov.” —Jessica McKinney

Producer: Hit-Boy, Kanye West, Anthony Kilhoffer, Noah Goldstein & The Twilite Tone
Album: Cruel Summer

It’s wild how much good music JAŸ and Ye made together while they were still on speaking terms. “Clique“ remains one of the great artifacts from the G.O.O.D. Music Friday era, with this one particularly notable for Hova’s surprising use of Spanish. ¡Vámanos! —Will Schube

Producer: Kanye West, MIKE DEAN, RZA & Ken Lewis
Album: Watch the Throne

As of publication, Jay-Z has three kids with wife Beyoncé, including one son, Sir. But at the time this song was released both Hov and Ye were childless, yet you could see how much the future was on their mind. Jay is unusually emotional here; he still has some of the bravado (“So at thirteen, we'll have our first drink together/Black bar mitzvahs, mazel tov, mogul talk”) but also presents a level of vulnerability that doesn't come naturally to a December-born Sagittarius (“Sins of a father make your life ten times harder I just wanna take ya to a barber”). The verse is one of his most emotive. And predictive; a couple of weeks after the song was released Beyoncé announced she was pregnant at the VMAs. —Dimas Sanfiorezo

Producer: Just Blaze
Album: The Blueprint 2: The Gift & the Curse

Parenthood was on Hova’s mind long before he was married to the baddest in the game or had kids performing on world tours. “Meet The Parents” is one of the best and most tragic story songs Jay ever penned, and it doesn’t hurt that the Just Blaze beat is fucking electric, too. —Will Schube

Producer: B-Money
Album: Kingdom Come 

Weakest album? Sure, but it boasts one of his strongest intros. Wikipedia tells me some guy named B-Money produced this gorgeous beat; it sounds like something Bernard Hermann scored for Hitchcock, or the lobby music in an Italian hotel. It's the perfect canvas for Jay to black out in the most casual mode ever, tossing off line after line on the first song of his comeback, with the arrogant air of someone who doesn't need to be here but can still do this in his sleep. Hell of an un-retirement party. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: DJ Dahi
Album: N/A

Jigga took off the blazer, loosened up the tie, and returned to the block like Marlo Stanfield in his last scene on The Wire. This was a snow tale long in the making, and Push and Jay didn't let Escobar down. Naturally, Hova steals the show with an extra-long verse that begins with niche Italian auteur shoutouts and (maybe) one too many references to Google, but ends with ingeniously dark spins on both Uber and one of 2016's most popular memes. Call Jay name-checking "Damn, Daniel's" Vans #DadBars all you want, but as the Tomi Lahren mean-mug proves, the inner snarl of young(er) Hov is still intact. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: J-Runnah
Album: Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life (1998)

Verse: 1

"So fuck DeHaven for caving, that's why we don't speak/Made men ain't supposed to make statements." —Angel Diaz

Producer: Timbaland
Album: Magna Carta Holy Grail 
Verse: 3

As his legend, celebrity, and tax bracket rises with each passing year, so too does the perception that Jay-Z is more or less completely divorced from the talk of mere mortals, or above acknowledging it at the very least. So hearing Timb supply him with a gritty beat change worthy of "Come and Get Me" so he can admit "even my own fans like 'Old man, just stop,'" "No sympathy for the king huh? Niggas even talk about ya baby crazy," and snarl rebuttals to both White America and detractors in the rap community with "Don't forget, America: that's how you made me," is an unpredictable thrill strong enough to carry the entire album around it. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Stevie J
Album: Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life 
Verse: 1

Good Lord, he got Mase out the paint with these bars, and sent him straight to hell. Stop talking greazy on them R&B records is still good advice. One time for Jay-Z, aka Hova, aka Jigga, aka the King of Subliminals. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Ski Beatz
Album: N/A
Verse: 1

This is from back when Jay-Z was just "the skinny nigga on the boat," popping Cristal in St. Thomas, rapping "In my lifetime, I need to see a whole lot of dough." Mission accomplished. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: StreetRunner, Tarik Azzouz
Album: Championships 

Did you listen to 4:44? Like, really listen? Leave it to a Biggie flip to get Jay back in that zone of Educated Thug Music, advisory but not preachy with a couple devastating flexes thrown in to make sure he has niggas' attention.

How many rappers are still losing sleep over "ain't got a billion streams—got a billion dollars." Like any great Jay verse, the entendres and triple-layer meanings keep revealing themselves upon further listen, while sparking intense debate.

Whose spouse and house can't see Beyoncé Giselle Knowles Carter and their $96 mil compound—Trump or Jay's errant little brother? I'm just glad I caught carefree and nair-free before Guru had to tweet it. Recall that Hov and his family were either in South Africa or on their way when he recorded this verse, and that opening hits even harder. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Irv Gotti
Album: Streets Is Watching Soundtrack 
Verse: 3

Rumor has it Jay beat LL Cool J in a battle once upon a time, so him using Cool James' voice as a sample on the hook makes this verse that much more special. The stunting must've had Uncle L sick! —Angel Diaz

Producer: DJ Green Lantern
Album: N/A

Hov rapping in Spanish over a beat made from a tennis ball is so ridiculous it makes you forget, for a second, about the Fat Joe dig when he mentions the Rucker in response to Crack's Rucker sub in "Lean Back." "You don't see the big picture yet, nigga, get." —Angel Diaz

Producer: No I.D.
Album: Watch The Throne 

What a showoff this guy is. When you've said and seen it all, motivation is the key to maintaining vitality. That goes for Jay, as the already certified living legend still rapping, and us as the listeners now hundreds of verses deep.

Jay's best latter-career material shines brightest when he either has something new to say, or feels like going out of his way to give everyone a reminder in case the respect was waning. "Primetime" is the latter, a dazzling display of technical proficiency in which Jigga locks himself in a numbers theme for the majority of the verse, and completely bodies it. The old man's in the booth playing puzzle games in his bars, wow. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Boi-1da, Sevn Thomas, NAV, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Jahaan Sweet
Album: Everything Is Love 

In 2017, Jay-Z killed Jay Z, and whoever that is walking around with the Basquiat fro these days caught the "Hovi Baby" holy spirit, because Jesus!

I love post-retirement Jigga, but how many of his verses this decade are as tightly wound, nimbly worded, and seamlessly delivered as this shit right here? He even improves one of his best recent bars when WTT's "fuck you squares the circle got smaller" becomes "tight circles, no squares, geometrically opposed to you—y'all like to try angles." The Kanye-bars get the most shine naturally but I'm haunted by the casual disdain in his voice when he says "y'all like to troll, do you? y'all talk around hoes, do yo?" Nothing cuts deeper than a disappointed dad. This verse is exciting, primarily because Boi-1da, Nav, and Sevn Thomas made the beat. 4:44 was proof that when he focuses, Jigga is never far from his bag, no matter how long the hiatus or how far he strays. But he basked in sonic comfort and familiarity. A Jay-Z who can talk that talk like Old Jay-Z on new sounds? Fear the GOAT. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Ski Beatz
Album: MTV Unplugged 

Jay locked in with Ski Beatz and went full Reasonable Doubt-level blackout mode. How this didn't make The Blueprint's final cut I'll never understand, but it deserves a shinier home than being the bonus on Unplugged. That trademark Jigga mix of casual arrogance, undercut with undeniable charm is on 1000 here: "Throw in the towel, I'm better with vowels." Jesus. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Ty Fyffe, Irv Gotti
Album: Venni Vetti Vecci

"Slumped, Kennedy-style with your memory out" is one of those lines you have to run back 10 times in the whip. This team of Jay, DMX, and Ja Rule could've been one of the grimiest trios in rap—had their rumored group album ever come to fruition. At least they left us with a couple bangers and one very memorable XXL cover. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Just Blaze
Album: American Gangster

This thing ain’t half bad for the last bonus track of the American Gangster soundtrack, eh? Another Just Blaze production gives Hov enough juice to dance around the beat like he’s Ali, a reference he makes during his thrilling second verse. Other references? Kanye’s jaw, “Billie Jean,” and, remarkably enough, former USMNT great hope Freddy Adu. —Will Schube

Producer: Darrell "Digga" Branch, Lance "Un" Rivera, DJ Clue
Album: Vol. 3... The Life & Times of S. Carter 
Verse: 3

The trial concept here feels gimmicky until things shift into high gear on the last verse: "Blindfolded, expected to walk a straight line...Climbed over it, at a early age Jay shined/Fuck the system, at Lady Justice, I blaze nine/Your honor, I no longer kill people—I raise mine/The soul of Mumia in this modern day time." —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Ty Fyffe
Album: Streets Is Watching Soundtrack

Murderous Jigga is second only to Kingpin Jigga for me. Whenever he got on a track with Ja and X, he turned into ruthless killer. Rap Game Lepke Buchalter with the word play. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Just Blaze
Album: The Dynasty: Roc La Familia 

Hov got the fuck off on this shit right here and taught a young buck such as myself to always stick to the script. The William H. era was something else as Jigga continued to remind people he was gutter still even after all the success. Beanie always brought the beast out of him. Steel sharpens steel. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Kanye West, Hit-Boy, MIKE DEAN & Anthony Kilhoffer
Album: Watch the Throne

Verse: 1

Jay-Z has released hundreds of verses, and you could argue there isn't one as well known as his first on "Niggas in Paris." The opening stanza to his classic club banger may be the perfect summarization of club Jay: charismatic, witty and invincible. —Dimas Sanfiorenzo

roducer: Kanye West
Album: College Dropout

Verse: 3

It’s crazy that JAŸ-Z dropped a verse in 2004 that began like this: “Who else you know been hot this long?” This was over two decades ago! And he’s still doing it. —Will Schube

Producer: DJ Clark Kent
Album: Reasonable Doubt 
Verse: 1

I feel poor when I listen to this song. Jay was a rookie, spittin' flow like a veteran whose been in the game for decades. He transformed into Iceberg Slim on this one. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Jay Electronica
Album: A Written Testimony
Verse: 1

Jay Electronica took some heat for this song with the "synagogue of Satan" line, but no one could front on Hov here. He's brilliant. How many rappers even attempt a stanza like:

"My ancestors took old food, made soul foodJim Crow's a troll too, he stole the soul musicThat's the blood that goes through me, so you assumin'I could never sell my soul, they sold they soul to me." —Dimas Sanfiorenzo

Producer: Mike Dean, Kanye West
Album: Watch The Throne 

Verse: 2

The verse that inspired Jay-Z—Songwriting Hall of Famer—to declare "Words are tough" with a deep sigh as he tried to tease the flow out. The final product is well worth the writer's block.

Watch The Throne is a true collaboration, despite being lauded as Kanye's album with Jay verses. They both pushed each other to places they might not have gone alone, and the proper album closer finds Jay trying to wrangle a pocket that challenged him in ways he probably hadn't been in a while. The result is the return of the double-time flow, densely packed but still accessible, and when he does give himself a breath it's for dramatic effect: "Wasn't I a good king?" —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Just Blaze
Album: The Blueprint 2: The Gift & the Curse

This song is best known for Jay teaching the world about the joys of Japanese denim with one extra line: "How you want it, my jeans is 300. These ain't Diesel, nigga, these is Evisu." (When you factor in inflation those jeans would be $560 now.)—Dimas Sanfiorenzo

Producer: The Inkredibles
Album: Teflon Don

From Sauce Money to Beans to Jeezy, there are certain rappers Jay just has a special chemistry with. At the top of that list is Rick Ross; the two have multiple classics together. Ross is a capable MC, but there's a large gap between him and Hov—it's most apparent on "Free Mason," where Jay spits a shit-eating grin of a verse combating the Freemason rumors that have followed him.

He says it most concisely when he raps, “Hear me clearly, If y'all niggas fear me, just say y'all fear me…fuck all these fairytales.”

Producer: Cardo
Album: Seen It All: The Autobiography 

"Parked 92 bricks in front of 560 State/Now the Nets a stone throw from where I used to throw bricks." —Angel Diaz

Producer: Timbaland
Album: Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter

Verse: 1

Jay would admit himself that he got smoked by both Bun B and Pimp C. But that really speaks to the brilliance of UGK, Port Arthur's finest, because Jay sounds so cold on the track, which includes one of his best opening lines, "You know I thug 'em, fuck 'em, love 'em, leave 'em 'Cause I don't fuckin' need 'em." —Dimas Sanfiorenzo

Producer: Precision, Trackmasters
Album: DJ Clue Presents: Backstage Mixtape 
Verse: 2

This verse—matched with the image of Mya in her jersey dress—is one of the most iconic moments in R&B rap remix history. Jay gave us quotables to use on our summer crushes, whether they were spoken for or not. And "Have an affair, act like an adult for once" might be an undefeated line. —Angel Diaz

Producer: No I.D. & Kanye West
Album: The Blueprint 3
Verse: 3

Jay-Z has given many acceptance speeches over the years. But none have been as cheeky and clever than this Blueprint 3 standout. Throughout the song he's mostly having fun, rapping with this casual sarcastic tone. But the last verse is where he gets serious. He pulls off a brilliant metaphor, alluding to 9/11, which of course has significance as the release date for his first Blueprint album. —Dimas Sanfiorenzo

Producer: Rick Rock
Album: The Dynasty: Roc La Familia

Verse: 2

"Wanted to tell God I don't deserve this/was afraid he'd tell me that I deserve less" is, in my opinion, Jay's most profound bar.

That he delivers it sandwiched in a song that's beat, flow, and bars find him in peak Jigga form (you can just picture him rapping this in the booth exactly as pictured, bandana tight) is just further proof of how many lanes Jay can occupy at any given moment. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: No I.D.
Album: 4:44 
Verse: 3

"My therapist said I relapsed/I said prehaps, I, Freudian slipped in European whips." Cc: All ye blasphemers who thought Jay Hova lost it. —Angel Diaz

Producer: N/A
Album: N/A (The Stretch and Bobbito Show
Verse: 3

Jigga hit us with the machine gun flow and rapped the Batman theme song in that last verse. Sending a shout to Adam West and Big L. RIP. —Angel Diaz

Producer: No I.D.
Album: 4:44
Verse: 2

We could get into semantics and note how Jay-Z doesn’t even have the best version of “The Story of OJ,”. Still, the impact of the OG song featured on Hova’s late-career renaissance 4:44, remains a testament to JAŸ’s talent. Even as the rest of 4:44 proved he had his fastball, nothing sung quite as loudly of “The Story Of OJ.” — Will Schube

Producer: Sean C & LV & Diddy
Album: American Gangster
Verse: 3

There are a few things about “American Dreamin’” that haven’t aged well—like the “Please speak slow ’cause he no speaky no English” line. But that doesn’t stop the American Gangster soundtrack cut from being a gem, an ode to the fallacious vision of this country we’ve all been sold. —Will Schube

Producer: Just Blaze
Album: The Blueprint 
Verse: 2

I love a verse that begins in media res. Jay alone listening to Big’s mournful murder ballad. Watching Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway die together. “Me and My Bitch” and Bonnie and Clyde both lack happy endings. But they dissolve time for Jay, allowing him to reminisce about being happy broke, and how money messed that up. Messed with his thinking and his image and his memory. Time and money will change everything with certainty, and not always for the better, he reminds us. —Ross Scarano

Producer: The Neptunes
Album: N/A
Verse: 3

I remember being in the car with my mother when Jay got into this freestyle. She was talking to me, and I had to shush her. I apologized, of course, but only after I explained the situation: Jay was fresh off vacation and talking to Hot 97’s Angie Martinez about the events that transpired while he was away.

Summer Jam had just happened and Nas tried to hang a doll of Jay during his performance. When the station heads wouldn’t allow it, he cancelled his appearance and went to rival Power 105.1 to air his grievances. The way Jay and Angie chuckle as he mocks Nas makes this that much better. —Angel Diaz

Frazier addendum: "Trip financed by my greatest ability" > your favorite rapper's entire discography

Producer: Kanye West
Album: The Black Album
Verse: 2

Jay sounds so free and effortless here. And really all three verses are A plus—shout out to the Kool G. Rap shout out!—but on the second verse you get the extended Jordan metaphor that starts with "from Marcy to Madison Square" and connects all the way to “Cocksucker take one for your team." —Dimas Sanfiorenzo

Producer: James Blake & Jay Electronica
Album: A Written Testimony

Jay-Z always makes sure to set the record straight. “Why would I sell out? I’m already rich, don’t make no sense/Got more money than Goodell, a whole NFL bench,” he spits on “Flux Capacitor,” responding to the backlash he got for working with the NFL.

At a fresh 50-years-old, the greatest rapper breathing proves he’s only getting better. Hov goes from calling out critics to comparing himself to Moses and describing Roc Nation brunches as “a feast for non-believers, I created my own Easter.” Then there’s the notorious “Old Jay/ O’Jays/ O.J.” triple entendre—all in 26 bars. Evidence for your reverence. —Jordan Rose

Producer: Joe "3H" Weinberger, Aqua
Album: The Black Album 
Verse: 1

Fuck a cynic. There's no way the retirement wasn't in earnest at the moment, not with a denouement as perfect as this, so resolute it sounds like a celebratory eulogy. Jay comes to terms with his decision in real-time, finding comfort in remembering he's done the one-door-closes-as-another-opens dance before. It's a funeral, but with Armadale shots and Cristal corks ricocheting. Onward to Shawn Carter the business, man, Jay-Z [was] dead. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Kanye West
Album: The Dynasty: Roc La Familia 

This is the first time Jay mentions his bad luck becoming a father as he raps about having a stillborn, while also watching his peers pop in the rap game as he struggles to leave the streets alone. Easily one of his most profound verses. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Just Blaze
Album: The Blueprint
Verse: 1

Even when Jay wants to communicate that he's playing, he comes across as dead serious. Case in point: “Breathe Easy (Lyrical Exercise)”, a track buried on The Blueprint, where Jay opens by boasting about all of his accolades—including how he gives the “best interviews.” What he leaves out is that he's also the best lyricist. But I guess that's a given. The opening stanza is vivid yet casual, where he raps: “I jog in the graveyard, spar in the same ring/That was housed by the building where Malcolm X was slain.” —Dimas Sanfiorenzo

Producer: Don Cannon
Album: N/A

"The Mariano of the Marriott." This shit dropped when everybody thought the god was washed. Instead, he washed us. Best closer in the game. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Kanye West
Album: N/A

He may have dumbed down to double his dollars, but all of Jay's synapses are firing when asked to hold his own against Talib, Mos Def and an especially hungry Yeezy. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Kanye West
Album: The Fix 

Through incredible ability, a one-of-a-kind perspective, and a personality that often plays the background, closed off, Jay can be a convincing chameleon. His conversion of “back” to “bizack” opening “Guess Who’s Back” sounds great when from the lips of another it might’ve earned a cringe.

But not Jay, because he’s cool. (And there’s no way to really capture, in writing, what he does with that word, but the whistle he puts in it—well, you only need to hear the verse once to remember it forever.) —Ross Scarano

Producer: K Rob
Album: Vol. 3...The Life & Times of S. Carter 

Might get: "Don't trust uppity white folks, keep the canon tucked" tatted in these trying times. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Timbaland
Album: Vol. 3...The Life & Times of S. Carter 
Verse: 1

In 1999 Jay-Z was a cold, cold man. Both emotionally and lyrically. Rappers stealing your girl is far from new thematic territory, but no one has ever sounded quite so impressively nonchalant about it, though. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: N/A
Album: The S. Carter Collection 

Steer clear of anyone who alleges Jay-Z's recent music of late marks a radical shift in cultural awareness and commentary. That person is an opp, an ill-equipped listener whose favorite Hov LP is Black Album and loves "Young Forever." Jigga's been about empowerment, and with all due respect to Roc Boys, "Young, Gifted and Black" is truly black superhero music.

Threaded throughout the verse, Jay overtly outlines the distinctions between the world hip-hop comes from and the contrast of the outsiders who consume it; almost each line of every bar ends with here or there with references to either a "you" or a "we." "You lose your job, your pop rich, y'all don't care/So I don't care, y'all acting like y'all don't hear/The screams from the ghetto or the teens ducking metal here/So they steam like a kettle here." Live reporting from the block, a dressing down of the vultures and fans-as-tourists who don't pay due respect, what could be grim is flipped into inspiration thanks to his OG's glorious instrumental. If Shawn can rise to become "America's worst nightmare," you can too. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Just Blaze
Album: The S. Carter Collection 

Having a mastered version of this is great and all, but I do miss having Kay Slay exclaiming "Damn!" in the background after "Who's the nicest? Life or lifeless on these mic devices, and I don't write this." Same, Drama King. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: DJ Premier
Album: Vol. 3...The Life & Times of S. Carter 
Verse: 2

Almost went with the last verse, but the second one has the ever-so memorable "Jigga Man, you rich, take the durag off" line that's still being rapped by Jay stans in the Year of our Lord 2017. Always remember: Never change and stay ghetto. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Just Blaze
Album: Blueprint 2

Blueprint 2 is post-"Ether" Hot 97 poll chip-on-shoulder music.

What sets Jay-Z apart though, is his response in these situations isn't meant to sound hurt. Rather, he'll hit you over the head with bars and make anyone disparaging him look stupid and sound foolish.

The first few bars of this verse are all setup, then once he mentions ‘Pac and Big being the only rappers who can be mentioned in the same breath as him, he unlocks an extraterrestrial level of breath control to go on a dizzying flow pattern as factually boastful as it is technically, that should effectively end all arguments about who the God of this shit is. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Swizz Beatz
Album: Flesh Of My Flesh, Blood Of My Blood 

DMX, each LOX, and Jay-Z together is like The Defenders of '90s New York rap. Every verse is A+, everyone shows up gritty, raw and stripped of any unnecessary blockbuster sheen. Jay sums it up best: "Surrounded by 6's and Hummers, bitches among us/Trying not to let this bullshit become us." —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Jaz-O
Album: Streets Is Watching Soundtrack
Verse: 3

Just, Ye, Timb, hell, No I.D.—they all have unquantifiable contributions to the sonics that comprise Jay-Z's vault of classics. But before they had a falling out that would send him back to Brooklyn to haunt the halls of Marcy Projects for the rest of his years, Jay's mentor Jaz-O gave him what is, arguably, a top five beat in his catalog.

"In My Lifetime (Remix)" is superior in every way to Jay's seminal first single; the beat is ethereal and spacey, shimmering like sun rays dancing across the ocean surface. The original had the video with the speedboat party, but you hear this and just picture Hov puffing cigars at sea on a lower key, laid back and reflecting. The last verse is basically proto-"Allure." The protagonist of the song falls for the game's bait and lands in jail, but when Jay says "the Medusa's head on Versace turned me to stone," he isn't just narrating. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Knobody, Sean Cane, Dahoud
Album: Reasonable Doubt

Verse: 1

Jay’s album openers are the stuff of legend, and this is the very first. Album one, track one, verse one. Demonstrating patience, he waits until nearly the last bar to tell you straight: “I'm one of the best niggas that done it.” And by now you believe him, because of how he hopscotches from the flurry of syllables and internal rhymes in “I'm leaning on any nigga intervening with the sound of my money machining” to the stutter-step that breaks up “My cup runneth over with hundreds.” This is rap at the highest level. —Ross Scarano

Producer: Kanye West, MIKE DEAN & No I.D.
Album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

What do you do when you’re mad? Punch a wall? Go for a walk? Journal? Jay-Z thinks about buying malls. Life’s a little bit different when you’re a billionaire. It’s one of many insanely quotable moments on his contribution to the G.O.O.D. Friday cut “So Appalled,” but perhaps none are funnier than when Hov instructs his haters to suck his balls through his drawers. —Will Schube

Producer: The Neptunes
Album: The Black Album
Verse: 3

The Black Album is the third act in a crime saga, and Pharrell, scoring movies well before Despicable Me, provided Hov with the gorgeous soundtrack to every crime film's necessity: the reckoning. Jay recites the Hustler's Prayer on the chorus like the mantra of someone desperately trying to change despite knowing damn well they won't.

The final verse doubles down on this reflection: Jay can plot his exit all he wants, but he already knows he'll never feel more alive. Like every De Niro who turns back, he knows he's facing almost certain death. A moth to the eleventy-million volt bulb.—Frazier Tharpe

Producer: DJ Premier
Album: Reasonable Doubt

"You draw, better be Picasso—you know, the best." —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: DJ Premier
Album: In My Lifetime, Vol. 1

Godfather to Godfather 2 levels of the sequel being better than its seminal predecessor. Both are IMAX motion pictures on wax. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Peter Panic
Album: Reasonable Doubt
Verse: 3

“We all gotta live with it," Jay told writer dream hampton during a Vibe interview in 1998, after she asked how he deals with the harm he’s likely caused hustling. “Regrets” is living with it on wax, and the third verse finds him talking to the spirit of a departed friend, possibly the great Marcy hustler Danny Dan. (Jay tells hampton about him in the same interview.) Musing on a friend he’s beefing with, Jay wonders if he’ll have to have this friend killed. He talks himself out of it, ending on the quintessential hustling Jay image: he’s alone, talking to the dead, because who else can you trust to not get you touched? —Ross Scarano

Producer: ​Dr. Dre, Scott Storch
Album: The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse

When you’re left breathless from Jay-Z slaughtering his haters and rap’s pathetic posers on “The Watcher 2,” you know you just heard gold. It feels like Scott Storch and Dr. Dre took “The Watcher”—from Dre’s classic 2001—and took it up a notch, allowing Jay to put hip-hop’s Peter Pans on notice at a blistering pace. I’ll make the case that his final five lines are among his best, starting with the proclamation—“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”—that can’t be matched, even by the two legends (Dre and Rakim) featured on the track. —Adam Caparell

Producer: Devo Springsteen, Jon Brion, Kanye West
Album: Late Registration 

"I got it from here, Ye, damn" is one of the most iconic tag-ins in rap history. Ye swore he spazzed, but Jay's never sounded more like a commander-in-chief than bumrushing the track for this emergency State of the Union. The chain remains. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Ski Beatz
Album: Reasonable Doubt
Verse: 1

While much attention is paid to Jigga's lyrics, part of his lasting appeal will always be his flow. He has the instinctive ability to stretch and contort his delivery to marry any beat he encounters. On the first verse of "Politics As Usual" his opening line "You can catch me skating through you town, puttin' it down, y'all relatin'" actually feels like he's creeping across the beat in a white Lexus GS.
Jay-Z has always managed to do a lot in a short amount of time; in this first verse he touches on his drug exploits, as well as the conflict that they cause. While aware of the potential ills, he's dealing with his reality. Lyrics like, "The price of leather's got me deeper than ever/and just think, Winter's here, I'm trying to feel mink nigga" almost convince you that the turmoil is worth it. Who doesn't wanna feel mink? I know I do. —Brandon 'Jinx' Jenkins

Producer: No I.D.
Album: 4:44
Verse: 2

Jay-Z has released many odes to his projects over the years. Those songs have mostly been icy street records repping his hood. "Marcy Me" is different—it’s nostalgic, in the way he speaks of an old Brooklyn that might have been tough but which is what sculpted him. The rapping here is exquisite and a little off-kilter, and it maybe contains one of the most poignant lines of his career: "Shout out to all the murderers turned murals." —Dimas Sanfiorenzo

Producer: Kanye West
Album: The Blueprint
Verse: 3

"Chains is cool to cop, but more important is lawyer fees" sounds familiar, no? Our king is so unselfish with his wisdom as he always gasses us to get our credit scores up. —Angel Diaz

Producer: The Bullitts
Album: A Written Testimony

Jay turns into a Black Panther when he raps alongside Elect. His pro-black raps have been going over people’s heads since his Reasonable Doubt days. From the Warren Buffet line to the bit about Jay's therapist offering a Prozac prescription to wondering aloud, "Since when have black men become kings?”—Hov doesn’t play fair. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Kanye West
Album: The Blueprint
Verse: 3

The only thing somehow even iller than "All you other cats throwing shots at Jigga/y'all only get half a bar: fuck y'all niggas"? "I'll step to your porch, step to your boss/Let's end the speculation: I'm talking to ALL of y'all." Disrespect via BCC. Blueprint-era Jay wasn't about leaving *any* room for those who would dispute his claim to the throne. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Rockwilder
Album: Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter
“Hat cocked, can't see his eyes—who could it be?/With that new, blue Yankee on—who but me?”

It’s damn near Shakespearean. Who made the Yankee hat more famous than the Yankee game? Back in ’99 few could wield the power on the mic that Hova could. When he asks on “Do It Again,” “How the fuck you gonna talk about MC on our heel?,” it’s not braggadocious. It’s a genuine question. No one was close. —Will Schube

Producer: Rick Rubin
Album: The Black Album
Verse: 2

The back-and-forth with the cop is so vivid, lived-in (and, by this point, classic to a point of having to disavow with anyone who can't go bar-for-bar with you) you could be forgiven for assuming Elmore Leonard ghostwrote it. Rick Rubin was verklempt. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: DJ Premier
Album: Reasonable Doubt
Verse: 2

The wordplay on this second verse is the stuff of legend. Jay-Z, the ruthless crack dealer, rears his ugly head as he talks about kidnapping a former friend's babymoms. "D'Evils" will make you do unspeakable things, even to those you once considered loved ones. —Angel Diaz

Producer: The Buchanans
Album: The Black Album
Verse: 3

It's scary how much a verse tailor-made to this very specific moment, The Retirement, is still so applicable today. It's basically evergreen. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Prestige
Album: In My Lifetime, Vol. 1
Verse: 2

"You pull up in your 4.0 with your bitch I pull up in the 4.6 with my bitch with the seat back bumping some other shit. You know, some OTHER shit. You’ll probably hop on my dick right there, right in front of your bitch, ask me some stupid shit like 'Yo, yo dog, what’s the difference between a 4.0 and a 4.6?' Like 30 to 40 grand, cocksucker—beat it! Do them shits even got leathers?" —Angel Diaz

Producer: Rashad Smith
Album: No Way Out (1997)

That Jay and B.I.G. are so locked into the pocket here, and still it's only their third best song together, is fucking terrifying. May the good Lord curse the man who denied us a Commission album for all eternity. "Some say Jigga's zone is like the falling of Rome: reoccuring." Hail Caesar. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: DJ Premier
Album: Reasonable Doubt

I don’t know if it was the multiple gangster movie references, the Hakeem Olajuwon shoutout, or the math lesson, but the first time I played “Bring It On” for my friend—fresh from dinner at an Italian joint where the bartender could tell you a million stories about the wiseguys Jay-Z channeled on Reasonable Doubt—it left him speechless.

Because it’s 1:02 of deliciously buttery Hov flowing like few could, can, or ever will. There’s his first Robert De Niro and dinero hook. Numerous nods to trafficking narcotics. And, of course, we got a glimpse at the rapper’s softer side. On the 13th track of his debut album, we learned Jay-Z had to turn away when Tony killed Manolo. Watching Scarface do his day one dirty was just too much. Who knew a couple of white guys that went to school in Connecticut had something in common with drug dealer from Brooklyn? —Adam Caparell

Producer: Amen-Ra, D-Dot
Album: In My Lifetime, Vol. 1
Verse: 1

This verse is even better when you watch him rap it in Streets Is Watching. Honestly I was hoping for the 4:44 visuals to be sort of a long music video instead of all these separate vids. Jay describes Marcy—or insert any American ghetto—with vivid detail. I've done came up on many a sweater or bootleg authentic jersey for cheap. I might’ve bartered some trees for some once upon a time as well, but that’s another story for another day. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Nashiem Myrick
Album: In My Lifetime, Vol. 1
Verse: 2

Some people would have you believe that Jay just started to open up, that what happened on 4:44 is new. Don’t be like them. Listen to the music and you'll hear that he’s been baring his soul from the beginning. On the second verse on Vol. 1’s last track, he reveals that he shot his brother in the shoulder over a missing ring. And still his brother asked to see him while he was in the hospital. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Ski
Album: Reasonable Doubt
Verse: 1

How many quotables in this verse? Let’s point ‘em out:

“Who wanna bet us that we don't touch lettuce/Stack cheddar forever/Live treacherous, all the etceteras"

“We don't just shine, we illuminate the whole show"

“I'll do you one better and slay these niggas faithfully”

“Word life, I dabbled in crazy weight/Without rap, I was crazy straight/Partner, I'm still spendin money from '88”

To name a few. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Just Blaze
Album: American Gangster
Verse: 1

"Ignorant Shit" is a joy to rap along to, the first verse in particular. The lyrics are fun, indulgent, and indeed ignorant. Clearly very aware of his audience's appetite, Jay broke down exactly what we wanted to hear, and perfectly packaged up all of our guilty pleasures—all over a Just Blaze rework of the Isley Brothers "Between The Sheets." The ability to repurpose heavily discussed subject matter in a fresh presentation only further cements Jay as one of the greatest writer of the 21st century. Pen or no pen. —Brandon 'Jinx' Jenkins

Producer: Nashiem Myrick and Jay "Waxx" Garfield for The Hitmen
Album: N/A (Hot 97 Freestyle

“I want 700 percent!” This shit is fucking jokes. He’s digging in on Cassidy, Game, and T.I.—and has the entire studio chuckling about it. This version is way better than “Dear Summer,” it’s raw, natural, and it didn’t intro a subpar Bleek album that I wish I hadn’t spent money on. —Angel Diaz

Producer: J-Love
Album: Black Gangster Soundtrack
Verse: 1

The wordplay on the second verse is quite impressive, even by Jay’s standards, but the first verse has some of the most uplifting bars he’s spit in his illustrious career. The flashbacks to a nine-year-old Hova being introduced to the streets; the way he persevered through rapping; and rapping about the police hating on him trying to go legit—the arc is something many a ghetto kid had to go through to make it out. I feel bad for people who feel like Jay just started to speaking on the struggle. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Just Blaze
Album: The Blueprint
Verse: 1

I had mad Rocawear in high school, and I still scour eBay for a leather, or this black-and-gray hoodie I used to have that the cops in my hometown ruined by making me take out the string after I just bought it. I’m pretty pissed about that, especially since they took me in for hot-boxing in my car.

I probably was listening to “U Don’t Know” when this happened. Whatever. The third verse is my favorite because Jay predicted everything he rapped on that shit, and if he's not your favorite rapper it probably makes you sick because you have too much hate in your heart. —Angel Diaz

Producer: N/A
Album: N/A (Hot 97 Freestyle
Verse: 1

First thing, this should be higher on the list. Second, I'm picking two verses. Third, this is the greatest freestyle in rap history. I'll explain.

Hearing this in real-time on Hot 97 during the station's glory days, when Hov and Flex were on friendlier terms, was mind-blowing. Jay-Z was already retracting from the public eye and there wasn't anyone in rap holding a candle to his accomplishments, artistically or commercially. He was at the top, far beyond the need to deliver a radio freestyle. It was his larger than life stature that became the subject of his live poetry.

“Same sword they knight you they gon good night you with
Sh.., that's only half if they like you
That ain't even the half what they might do
Don't believe me, ask Michael
See Martin, see Malcolm
You see Biggie, see Pac, see success and its outcome
See Jesus, see Judas; see Caesar, see Brutus
See, success is like suicide
Suicide, it's a suicide
If you succeed, prepare to be crucified”

Jay opens up to his listeners about what life is like at the top of the pyramid, something he has pursued since the release of "Dead Presidents" back in '96. On the final verse he avoids lamenting about the ills of his success; instead he delivers a verse that has aged into prophecy, all while telling us that it was a prophecy.

“They respecting my mind now
Just a matter of time now
Operation: Takeover, corporate makeover offices-es-es, then takeover all of it
Please may these words be recorded
To serve as testimony that I saw it all before it
Came to fruition, sort of a premonition
Uncontrollable hustler's ambition”

This freestyle has aged like some expensive wine that I don't have the lifestyle to accurately reference. Everything this motherfucker said came true. Everything. And he did it in one take, live on the radio. Your fave could never. —Brandon 'Jinx' Jenkins

Producer: Timbaland
Album: Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter
Verse: 1

For those who thought Jay shipped 5 million copies of Vol. 2 just to spend his days in the sun, Vol. 3 is the album-length reminder that, trust, he's still street, and "Come and Get Me" is the crux of that. Jay and Timbo have done extraordinary work across multiple albums. But this shit right here?! Never forget Jay-Z was orchestrating 360-degree beat changes in '99 before it was the producer gimmick du jour. The latter half is fantastic, but that opener...shit like this is why they called him Iceberg Slim. Jigga got the mainstream ascension he'd been plotting on, then he opened the door and dared you to come try and take it from him. Not even "Takeover" is this brazen. There are a myriad of classic Jay-Z opening lines, but the real ones know what's good: "I remove ya roof, nigga, let the sun shine in." —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Kanye West
Album: The Blueprint 
Verse: 3

I can remember copping The Blueprint a day early from this record store in my old hood, opening the CD, plopping it into my new sound system in my hooptie, and losing my mind when I heard the full version of “Takeover.”

He had performed some of it at Summer Jam before the album dropped and made headlines, not for bringing fucking Michael Jackson out, but for putting Prodigy (RIP) on that Summer Jam screen, creating one of the most memorable moments in rap history. This was the beginning of the Nas beef, a rap war for the ages. And Hov hasn’t stepped down from rap’s Iron Throne since. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Ski
Album: In My Lifetime, Vol. 1
Verse: 3

"The mind state of a nigga that boosted the crime rate/So high in one city, they sent the National Guard to get me."

Honestly I kinda wanted to name the Sleepers sample the best verse on "Streets Is Watching" but that would've been too confusing for some and would've seemed like I wasn't taking this list seriously. The last verse on this track is life changing, giving you a glimpse into the mind of a kingpin. Jay took boss rap too another level. Before him most rappers were talking from the POV of a soldier. Jigga raised the price. —Angel Diaz

Producer: Timbaland
Album: Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life
Verse: 2

When double-time Jay-Z and radio wizard Hova meld, the clouds part and an angel gets its wings. Jay dumbed down the flow to double his dollars, but every now and then he goes back to "fuck rap, coke by the boatload." There's none better than this next-century level Timbaland gem; you can picture his eyes going Bran Stark zoned-out in the booth on this one.—Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Eminem
Album: The Blueprint
Verse: 1

"I bring you through the ghetto without ridin round/Hidin down, duckin strays/From frustrated youths stuck in they ways/Just read a magazine that fucked up my day/How you rate music that thugs with nothin relate to it?/I helped them see they way through it—NOT YOU."

Murdered, where? —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Just Blaze
Album: The Dynasty: Roc La Familia

This beat sounds like the intro music for Thunderdome, and Jay saunters into the ring with the assuredness of someone who already knows he's the victor. Don't mistake him starting off the Roc's de facto group album alone for hubris. To pledge allegiance to a crew you first have to believe in its leader; Jay-Z treats intros like reminders. Who would dare question his squad when the general is rapping this foolishly, extolling the daily mindset of his hustlers spirit pre-fame with such intensity. Corner of the block or corner office, Shawn is starting every morning with a yawn and a reflexive reach for his gun. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: Just Blaze
Album: The Black Album
Verse: 2

A mission statement packed with his most evergreen bars, the track that has become his uncontested flagship song. Part of its eternal concert appeal rests on Just Blaze's thunderously urgent beat, but David Chase lines like "You could try to change, but that's just the top layer, man, you was who you was 'fore you got here" are the reason why "PSA" will stick to your ribs forever. —Frazier Tharpe

Producer: DJ Premier
Album: In My Lifetime, Vol. 1
Verse: 2

Vol. 1 is probably the most underrated album in Jay's vast catalogue and the intro track is one of the best songs he's ever recorded, especially it's second verse. As the beat switches up, Jigga goes from rapping about his struggles with becoming this sudden rap star to a verse about how the fame and success will never change who he is. And left us with this gem: "Don't listen to these rappers, man, they dying to floss." —Angel Diaz

Producer: DJ Irv
Album: Reasonable Doubt
Verse: 1

I want to begin this by saying that I've met Jay-Z, on the 20th anniversary of Reasonable Doubt, in a private setting. His old friends like Kareem "Biggs" Burke and Kyambo "Hip-Hop" Joshua—as well as other folk who also just happened to be in the room—were in attendance. I surely wasn't supposed to be there. We toasted to the lasting impact of his classic debut album which is widely regarded as his best. First impressions matter.

It was surreal, and my only focus was trying to remain cool. Which became more challenging when Jay nodded in my direction, dapped me up, and started speaking to me about a piece published on Complex, as well as some others.

I honestly didn't want to talk about the writings of my colleagues, I wanted to talk about his writing on Reasonable Doubt. And if we're talking about Reasonable Doubt, we're talking about "Can I Live." And if we're talking about "Can I Live" we're talking about his first verse. It hits like a freshly rolled blunt, eliciting the related medley of after effects: euphoria, awe, hyper-awareness, an insatiable hunger, and the longing look popularized in the 'hits blunt' meme. Like Hov, the first verse has not only endured the test of time, but gotten better with age. Each line embodies everything that Jay-Z was and is.

A young man, with a gift of expressing his wisdom with accessible, charming lyrics. An observant poet, as aware of himself as he is environment and the figures who inhabit it. A hustler, offering you the rules of urban existence, with dreams of life beyond the constraints of the sidewalk.

When I was unemployed and dead broke—not far from the age Jay-Z was when he wrote Reasonable Doubt—I played "Can I Live" on repeat. His words resonated with me so deeply that they gave me assurance. If this is how he was thinking at this point in his life, and it earned him the success and status that he had, then I'd be fine. "I'd rather die enormous than live dormant, that's how we on it." It's a declaration. A life mantra. A big fucking mood for life on earth. It's by far one of the most important theses offered in rap, and frankly one of the flyest things ever uttered by anyone.

I wanted to tell him all this when I met him. But I was trying to be cool, and again, first impressions matter. —Brandon 'Jinx' Jenkins

Producer: Ski Beatz
Album: N/A
Verse: 2

It's crazy how the music game used to be. The original "Dead Presidents" was a street single used to promote Jay's debut Reasonable Doubt. He recorded the album with the intention of retiring soon after to focus on building a rap empire. Instead, he decided to continue rapping while also forging one of the most recognizable brands in music history because he was better than everybody else on both sides of the ball.

Deciding to continue his rap career is the best decision he’s ever made. And for those that have been listening to Hova from the very beginning know that he’s been giving us game way before the jewelry he dropped on 4:44. Do you fools listen to music, or do you just skim through it? —Angel Diaz