Well if the question is "can jay z rap" then the answer is absolutely. But for me GOAT for hip hop has a bit to do with keepin it 100 to the integrity of the fabric which hip hop derived from. In no way can I give this guy a single point in that category. And this is a major category that people over look or simply replace with sales and financial matters. But the thing is only one guy taught you that sales and financials added up the the best mc...and that guy was J himself. Big never equated album sales to the best mc nor did rakim, krs1, big daddy, nas or any other mc that could be considered top dog...no, only jayz brainwashed you into creating the requirements for top mc to look like what his resume has. It is a cunning marketing job...but some hip hop heads know better. Dude is nice, but he grabbed the corporate end of the hip hop wagon to "preach he was number 1" based on superficial worldly american standards. His album sales are a direct link to the power of marketing material and a superficial public. Whereas rakims album sales can be attributed to a public that was listening for deep message lyrical ability and delivery and personal persona. Jay is clever and is a top 7 mc in my book but he's not nicer than all IMO. After big and PAC the music industry realized the amount of hype they could generate from the public....before that hip hop marketers had NO CLUE....Jay worked with a def jam that had studied how to create that hype....when I listen to the hard knock life album I recognize the hype that was created then today. The blue print is the one album that stands the time test and it barely does that IMO. I can go and listen to strictly 4 my nikkaz and respect what I'm listening to because it wasn't pushed to me by some corporate hype machine, it's authentic and I feel it's authenticity when I bump it. Jay traded that authenticity for Babylon type shyt. Hip hop is too deep for him to be GOAT. For me Jay is about neck and neck with kool g rapSo I guess you're not a fan of Pusha T by that logic, right?
Also, I still disagree about your implications of him using the same subject matter over and over. You can't tell me his 'crack game' songs are the same as Lucifer, or D.O.A., or December 4th, or So Ghetto and so on and so forth. Plus even if he recycles certain subject matter, he knows how to keep it fresh, and that's the true test of an artist. I personally, clearly along with millions of others, don't get bored of his stuff. No matter how braggadocios he is, he says stuff in so many different ways, it's more than listenable. Now whether he benefited off Pac/Big or whatever that's another story and no way of telling for sure, but the implications are certainly there. Then again, it doesn't matter, this isn't a world of ifs and buts.
Also not necessarily saying you're a Nas fan, but Nas is a one trick pony technically in another way, because he uses the same rhyme style, flow and pretty lifeless delivery at least since I Am... to this present day.
made me laugh not gonna lie haha
Nah man, I don't want people to get the misconception I hate Nas or anything because I'm a Jay fan. Far from it. I was a Nas fan before I was a Jay fan, but after listening to the two side by side, the differences to me were night and day. My issues with Nas (initially beyond Illmatic) was his predictable flow, his lacklustre delivery (bar the odd occasion) and what I believe to be a very overrated discography.
Now I will admit this. Since that IWW thread was made, I re-listened to IWW and I gotta say I was wrong on some stuff I said about this particular album.
It's pretty great and it sat very well with me when listening the other day and opened my eyes a little bit
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why i barely come to the booth.
