Jay Z's Most Fire Guest Verses
It's not just #DrugDealersAnonymous with Hov.
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No Interviews, Just Verses - In true Jay Z fashion, any question about the rapper’s personal life or his reaction to media messiness are answered through his verses. Remember when this TV personality tried to drag Beyoncé over her husband’s past? Well, in Hov’s latest guest verse on Pusha T’s “Drug Dealers Anonymous” he deals directly with the rogue TV personality with some mean bars and an audio interpolation. Sure enough, this isn’t Jay’s first fire guest verse over the past 20 years. He’s given us and other rappers some legendary bars. – Jon Reyes (Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Global Citizen Festival)
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Kanye West, ‘Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix)’ - For Kanye’s sophomore album, Late Registration, Jay Z delivered what many consider to be one of the best verses of his career. With an insane amount of lines that have survived the test of time, the biggest one has got to be: “I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man!”(Photo: Patrick R. Murphy/Getty Images)
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Rick Ross, ‘The Devil Is A Lie’ - Illuminati rumors, be gone? Nope. Not if they keep Jay fired up like he was on this Rick Ross collaboration: “Devil want these n***as hate they own kind / Gotta be Illuminati if a nigga shine.”(Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for TIDAL)
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Drake, ‘Pound Cake/Paris Morton Music’ - Since this collaboration, we’ve all noticed a weird relationship between Hov and Drake – The OVO frontman even talked about it on an interview with Beats 1 – but on Drake’s third album, Nothing Was The Same, Jay went in for, not one, but two verses. Instead of just talking about his fortune, he went ahead to talk on the fortunes he made for others: “I've done made more millionaires than the lotto did / Dame made millions, Biggs made millions / Ye made millions, Just made millions / Lyor made millions, Cam made millions.”
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J. Cole, ‘Mr. Nice Watch’ - For Cole’s official debut album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, this ode to Hov – based off of a Jay Z line from 1997 – was almost finished without the rapper being on it. Cole ended up getting his wish and Jay jumped on, tying together this classic line from one of his tracks to Cole’s time as a member of the hip hop new guard: “What up, Cole? It's your time, let's these niggas know / Adjust your Rollie on these motherf***ing hoes, whenever you ready, go.”(Photo: Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
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Cam’Ron, ‘Welcome To New York City’ - You gotta hand it to Jay Z. On a track titled “Welcome to New York,” you would think the featured rapper would be on verse two or three, but not Hov. From the get-go, the track belongs to him on verse one. In the days of pre-paparazzi, lines like this were hella fun: “I ain't hard to find you catch me front and center / At the Knick game, big chain in all my splendor / Next to Spike if you pan left to right / I own Madison Square, catch me at the fight.”(Photo: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)
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Puff Daddy, ‘Young G's’ - Puffy’s debut – recorded during the year of Biggie’s death – was an introspective recorded before and after his best friend was gone. Jay’s contribution touched heavily on morality and legacy: “These here's the dog years and motherfuckers don't shed / I try to bring you life but motherf**kers want dead…”(Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Live Nation)
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Lupe Fiasco, ‘Pressure’ - Hov was at it again, blessing a newcomer’s debut album. For Lupe’s debut, Food & Liquor, Jay contributed during a time when his Kingdom Come return was in the works, which he talks about in this verse: “I'm back for these puppies with the pound boy / (Blaow) Here's a round boy (blaow blaow) down boy.”(Photo: Johnny Nunez/WireImage for Entertainment Weekly Magazine)
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Kanye West, ‘Never Let Me Down’ - Recorded before Jay “retired,” the track serves almost like a farewell or an “I’m not going far” statement. Among many quotables: “It's plain to see, n***as can't fuck with me / Cause I'mma be that n***a for life.”(Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images For Roc Nation)
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Dead Prez, ‘Hell Yeah (Pimp the System) (Remix)’ - The NYC hip-hop duo cut this track about making the best of an economical system through loopholes. Jay plays into the theme perfectly by touching on his ascent in the drug game: "As long as there's - drugs to be sold / I ain't waiting for the system to plug up these holes / I ain't slipping through the cracks / So I'm at Portland, Oregon tryin’ to slip you these raps."(Photos from left: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Live Nation, Matthew Eisman/WireImage)
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Juvenile, ‘Ha (Remix)’ - Right before the massiveness of “Back That Azz Up,” Jay jumped on the remix to Juvenile’s prior 1998 single. The largest part of the appeal was a NYC rapper spitting with a New Orleans star, but magic is magic, and Jay comes out swinging on this one: “You better get it back, or sleep where the river's at / They send shots through your fitted cap.”(Photos from left: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for TIDAL, Erika Goldring/Getty Images)
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Juvenile, ‘Ha (Remix)’ - Right before the massiveness of “Back That Azz Up,” Jay jumped on the remix to Juvenile’s prior 1998 single. The largest part of the appeal was a NYC rapper spitting with a New Orleans star, but magic is magic, and Jay comes out swinging on this one: “You better get it back, or sleep where the river's at / They send shots through your fitted cap.”(Photos from left: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for TIDAL, Erika Goldring/Getty Images)
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Freeway, ‘What We Do’ - According to Freeway, Jay Z was in the studio to add some ad libs to Free’s verse, but not to record his own. After the Philly rapper laid down his verse, Jay was inspired to jump on and we got this Hov gem: “Gotta kill witnesses cause Free's beard's sticking out / Y'all don't want no witness shit, we squeeze hammers mang / Bullets breeze by you, like Lousiana mang / But I gotta feed Tianna mang.”(Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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Mya, ‘Best of Me (Remix)’ - This classic R&B gem had Mya in her prime. Of course, Jay Z was called in to the remix but folklore has it that Jay and Mya didn’t get along while cutting the remix which adds a brilliant layer to some of the lines from one of his verses: “Music is the same shit, gave away hits / So ma get it together or forget it forever / When I go at you hard I can get it through leather / You acting like / Jigga can't get at whoever / Talking you got a man, okay ma...and?”(Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Live Nation)
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Outkast, ‘Flip Flop Rock’ - Hov showed up for Big Boi’s side of Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below with major wordplay: “Why that, why this, niggas wanna hijack the flyness / I'm on a whole 'nother plane / A whole different lane, a whole 'nother game that I'm playin / Understand what I'm sayin.”(Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage)
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Scarface, ‘Guess Who’s Back’ - This Kanye-produced track also features Beanie Sigel which gives a Jay a leg-up for the Scarface cut. Having collaborated before on Jay Z’s The Dynasty album they bring the fire again: “Homey, we make a great combination don't we / Me and the Face Mob, every time we face-off.”(Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Coachella)
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Kendrick Lamar, ‘Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe (Remix) - The statement of this collaboration was initially found on the single cover, which was a photo of OG Michael Jordan and next-up Kobe Bryant. Jay took the opportunity to flex: “Sittin' next to Hillary smellin' like dank/ Presidental pardon, name one n***a out there harder than him/ I'll wait…”(Photos from left: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Global Citizen Festival, Ethan Miller/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)
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Missy Elliott, ‘One Minute Man (Remix)’ - From the jump, Hov goes in on a track revolving around shortened performance and turns it on its head: “Fifty grand I get this on one take (Hova) / Look, I'm not trying to give you love and affection / I'm trying to give you sixty seconds of perfection.”(Photo: Will Alexander/WENN.com)
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DMX, ‘Blackout’ - This cut, from DMX’s 1998 sophomore album, Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, finds Jay Z showing massive confidence and incredible foresight, since 17 years later he’s one music’s biggest acts: “I'm a monster, I sleep whole winter's; wake up and spit summers / Ghetto nigga, puttin up Will Smith numbers.”(Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Coachella)
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Talib Kweli, ‘Get By (Remix)’ - This 2002 cut is a massive rap party. On the mic you have Mos Def, Kanye West, and Busta Rhymes. The result is a stream of the rosters flexing the best they have. Hov of course rhymed about what he had to do to, well, get by: “Nigga I sold coke, nigga I pushed lah / Carried a fo'five / Claimed I was ready to die / Promised never to cry / Held it all inside.”(Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Clear Channel)