My Top 10 Jay-Z Songs

This post is for my boy @ErOneH8zDerek from Twitter, he and I were talking a little over a week ago about listing our top 10 Hov songs and I swear this shit took me forever. I was saying to myself this nigga Derek gonna kick my ass if I dont finish this but it is hard being that I am a huge fan of Hov's and there aren't many of his songs that i DON'T like. The hardest 2 parts of this have been getting down to the final 10 (started with 50) and then trying to have solid explanations as to why I like these particular 10 and that part is still a work in progress but I at least wanted to post em for now. A few of them I will have explanations for right off the back but others I will have to come back to the blog to update so here goes D:

(in no particular order)

Blueprint 2 - Probably the song I could say is my favorite Jigga song for a few reasons ranging from the production to the lyrical content. Jay went in on this one & rode the beat about as effectively as I have ever heard him do it. Everyone always wants to pull Ether out their ass but that whole song compared to Hov's whole 2nd verse on this one pretty much makes that so called loss by Jay more of a wash (tie).

What More Can I Say - All I am going to say is the end of this song was the defning moment of not only the song but of the entire Black Album..."i'm supposed to be number 1 on everybody's list, lets see what happens when I no longer exist (man fuck this)" *throws down or pushes the mic away*.....come on that ending alone makes this song the banger that it is along with the way he just spazzed on it

22 Two's - Great conept song, actually to me one of the best concept songs to date, I still remember back in 96 when I 1st got Reasonable Doubt and I sat in my room with a notebook & counted each one of the Two's (To's, Too's) and that always blew me away how he managed to make the song and fit all of the Two's in & still have the meaning in the song be executed so well..."TOO many bitches wanna be ladies so if you a hoe imma call you a hoe TOO many bitches is shady, TOO many women give these niggas TOO many chances, TOO many brothers wanna be lovers & dont know what romance is" (come on yall dont ever say the boy Hov aint the truth)

D.O.A. (Death Of Autotune) - I have a whole blog about the reason why I love this song so much but let me tell yall why one more time, BECAUSE IT IS A DEFINING MOMENT FOR HIP HOP, if you dont understand what I mean check my previous blog post about it. Another reason why this song is so crazy is the music or production, the drums are amazing and the instruments used were so effective in giving the song a very vintage sound, very old school hip hop...& again his lyrical content was 2nd to none, people are so focused on just the Autotune death he was calling for but there were many other topics nailed by Hov such as the wack clothes, fake tough cats, etc. Great song & even more amazing video

Friend or Foe (Parts 1 & 2) - No matter how many times I hear these songs which to me are just one big song with a different beat, I never tire of them. This is a great visual picture painted through words "shot it in the air one woke him, son soaking sweatin in his bed like dunn loccin thinking to himself what done provoked him"................................"boy you don know who you fuckin wit...a gun in your face and thats all you can come up with" Jay was at his best and when you watch him & Dame execute this song on the Streets Is Watching DVD its just fits properly.

Dead Presidents - I liked Hov a lot from the song with Original Flava "Can I Get Open" to the 1st version of "In My Lifetime" when he was just that "skinny nigga on the boat" and all the way to "Cant Knock The Hustle" but this joint right here was the one when I knew and said to myself this dude is going to make it big because "Dead Presidents" is Jay-Z at his best, the zone he was in for this song is undeniable from start to finish "while others spit that wonderama shit me and my conglomerate shall remain anonymous caught up in the finest shit, live out my dreams until my heart give out involved with cream you know exactly what this shit's about, fuck y'all mean handlin' since a teen I dish out like the point guard off your favorite team without doubt" - From Dead Presidents (the original version) i am not even going to say anything else than that.

Meet The Parents - This was a very very good concept song because I swear when I got to the end of this joint Hov really had me thinking something serious, I was touched by this joint because I grew up in the streets & I always think along those lines like those same cats that dont tend 2 their sons wouldnt even know them if they ran into them 18 years later. This was just a real song especially this part, this is what did it for me "He can't explain what he saw before his picture went blank the old man didn't think he just followed his instinct six shots into his kid out of the gun niggaz be a father you're killin your son, six shots into his kid, out of the gun niggaz be a father, you killin your sons"

Imaginary Player - Jay at his best on that brag & showoff shit, he stunted on niggas so bad on this track that Range Rover lost money on the 4.0's lol ("whats the difference between a 4.o and a 4.6 about 30 to 40 grand cocksucker BEAT IT") thats when I knew this dude carried heavy weight in the game. This would probably have 2 be my 2nd favorite Hov song of all time just because it made me appreciate the nature of his arrogance, he made that shit cool. A few classic lines were "i got nine hundred and ninety six plus 4 mo dough"......"when I see em in the street I dont see none of that damn playboy where the fuck is the Hummer at, where's all the ice with all the platinum under that, those ain't Rolex diamonds what the fuck you done to that"

Lucky Me - When i was going through a rough time with finding my identity in life this was one of those songs that made me, well helped me to realize that people aren't always going to like or understand me, people aren't always going to look at me the way I look at myself thus why I love the chorus so much "you only know what you see but you dont understand what it takes to be me" I mean this song touched me on a more personal level than most songs have ever done because I just felt like if I could rap these would be the same words I would be spitting over a beat, "how can you fairly assess something from the outside looking in, majority of the time you'll be wrong"

Ride Or Die - This was always an ill song to me because it has a sick beat and Jay flowed perfectly on it, and if you listen to the wordplay of the song you can & will appreciate it just as much as I do because he brought the A-game out, peep...."i'm platinum a million times nigga check the credits, S. Carter...ghostwriter...and for the right price I can even make YOUR shit tighter" come on man was that not crazy "cuz i kick that deep shit that divide your peep shit that I DONT KNOW IF YOU FUCKING WITH JIGGA SPITTIN THAT WEAK SHIT" stop playing man and cats say they dont or never like Hov, stop folling yourself and listen to the music dont just skim through it. Song like this one showcase why he is always considered amongst the greatest to ever touch a mic.

HONORABLE MENTION: Streets Is Watching, Where Im From, Jigga (from Ruff Ryders Volume 1), Dig A Hole, Lost One, Dirt Off Your Shoulder, This Can't Be Life (I agree 100% with you Derek on this one), Soon You'll Understand, Regrets (again I agree with you 100% Derek), American Dreamin, Song Cry