Top 10 Jay-Z Songs

Very few rappers can match Jay's lyrical prowess and domination in the rap game and this song (as well as the number 1 spot) may be the perfect representation of that skill. Vol. 2 exploded with splashy radio anthems, becoming Jay-Z’s only album to be certified five times platinum. “A Week Ago,” however, was the album’s throwback to the rueful street tales that he built his reputation on. Bay Area trailblazer Too $hort wasn’t supposed to be the only regional rap legend on the track �" Jay asked Pimp C to appear, according to his UGK partner Bun B. The session fell through, but Jay linked up with UGK a year later for the far more famous “Big Pimpin’.” The haunted storytelling on the track is a nod to the two classic albums that preceded it and made sure that Jay-Z was not seen as a pop star due to the nature of his new album.

Jay-Z paid Rick Rubin a visit to “recapture that feeling I had when I was a kid,” as he explained in documentary Fade to Black. What came out of that session did have vintage heavy metal riffery reminiscent of Rubin’s Eighties work with LL Cool J and Beastie Boys, but lyrically it was a blistering, modern-day critique, taking aim at those who demonise him as a black man and rapper. The hook, borrowed from Ice-T and Brother Marquis of 2 Live Crew �" “I got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one” �" was bait for talking heads, since verses play with the other meanings of the word. “Even as I was recording it, I knew someone, somewhere would say ‘Aha, there he goes talking about them hoes and bitches again! '” Jay writes in Decoded. The song became iconic enough that Barack Obama brought it to the 2013 White House Correspondents Dinner: In light of Jay and Bey’s controversial visit to Cuba, he said, “I’ve got 99 problems and now Jay-Z is one,” to hearty laughs.

By at least one measure, “Empire State of Mind” is the biggest record of Jay-Z’s career: He had never topped the Hot 100 as a lead artist until he released this collaboration with Alicia Keys, the final Number One hit of the 2000's. “Jay hit me up like, ‘I feel like I have this record that’s going to be the anthem of New York,'” Keys, another Big Apple native, explained to MTV. “He’s like, ‘The piano, the way the style [is], the whole flow, and it couldn’t be the anthem of New York without you.'” “Empire State of Mind” loops the dramatic, golden opening motif from a towering slice of orchestral soul �" in this case, the Moments’ “Love on a Two-Way Street” �" to great effect. Jay-Z touts his credentials as the “new Sinatra,” while Keys aims for universal uplift: “These streets will make you feel brand new/Big lights will inspire you.”