Jay-Z, America's Most Overrated Rapper?

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i saw this article on daveyd.com and since Jay-Z seems to be NT's favorite rapper i thought i would share.

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Jay-Z, America's Most Overrated Rapper
by Ben Westhoff

www.blackelectorate.com/a...sp?ID=2016

Rap's Grateful Dead? Hova? Young? The No. 1 MC of all time?

None of the above.

A more appropriate title for Jay-Z is Most Overrated Rapper. Ever. With Tuesday's release of his second post-retirement album inspired by the movie American Gangster and, if the leaked single "Blue Magic" is any indication, crappy it's time to clear the air. Rap critics fear that the guy they've loved for so long has fallen off, but it's time to face facts. He was never really on.

The American Gangster project went from conception to shelves in about two months, illustrating Jay's career-long tendency to rush out songs that aren't art.

He's long bragged about not putting his lyrics to paper before he spits them, and sure, his freestyling ability and flow are first-rate.

But this is not Scribble Jam. Bragging about not writing down lyrics is like Albert Pujols boasting he simply goes to the plate and swings. That's cool, but wouldn't he be better if he took BP? Would it kill Jay to give his songs some extra consideration and editing?

Placing Hova alongside Biggie Smalls, Nas and Wu-Tang Clan on the list of the greatest rappers of all time is ridiculous. They were personalities; they had stories. Jay has little charisma and only one story, the one about how great he is.

While expressing self-love is nothing new in hip-hop, Jay takes it to another level. His new album, for example, is ostensibly based on the story of Harlem heroin dealer Frank Lucas, but if the following lyrics, as related to The New York Times, are any indication, it appears to be all about...guess who?

"Please don't compare me to other rappers. Compare me to trappers. I'm more Frank Lucas than Ludacris. And Lude is my dude, I ain't trying to dis. Just like Frank Lucas is cool, but I ain't tryin' to snitch."

Jay's ego manages to ruin other people's songs as well. "Never Let Me Down" should have been the best track on Kanye West's The College Dropout. Kanye's second verse is poignant, while Saul J. Ivy's third verse is a revelation. The song should have ended there, but then Jay who not only leads off the track but comes back for another verse pulls a Bill Buckner. See accompanying pie chart for the gory details.

Jay-Z is a good rapper whose talents are overshadowed by his hubristic megalomania. But he really should retire for real this time.

This article first appeared in The Houston Press


theres a lot of points i agree with and disagree with. regardless of how you feel about jay today, theres no denying this man can make good music and is gonna go down as one of the best in hip hop history. now with that said, im also gonna say this guy is super super super overrated. when i hear people talk about jay-z, it sounds like theyre talking about god when there are rappers out there better than him. Jay is good and a legend but not the best hip hop has ever seen.

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I would say without a doubt dude is overrated along with 75% of rap/ hip hop artists
 
He seriously is the best rapper though.
Due to the fact that fiscally I'm extremely grandiose at this juncture, I can now be referred to as J.R. Paperstacks
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Old or young, don't matter, greatest to ever touch the mic, nobody can convince me otherwise.
Think of me as John Gotti wit a Phd
Or either Martin Luther King wit a G.A.T
Maybe Malcolm X with a GED or better yet Nietzche unds'n some heat lol.

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Man that dude is just hatin'. Hov stopped "Never Let Me Down" from being the best track on CD? He's wilin'. Hov may somewhat be overrated but that doesn't take away from dude being one of the best to ever do it. I think all of the greats are somewhat overrated by their fanbase.
 
Dude sound salty as hell...

But he is right about one thing......Jay's album did come out one tuesday.....

Everything else is hate....
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Biggie Smalls is the Greatest of All Time.

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that was a horrible article...
....yea, Ima Need All That....​
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'...Now yall know why I flow like that...I aint Em, I here to put the real hood on the map, b****!!!!"...'
 
Even if he's overrated, Jay at his lowest is better than 99.9 percent of rappers out. Like who is better right now and what have they done to justify such qualification? Let's not discuss the legends and what coulda woulda shoulda been. Right now and over the last decade or so Jay has been one of if not the best. Haters need to deal with it.
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He seriously is the best rapper though.
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He cold as hail regardless of how overrated he is... to say he's not top 5 is mind boggling :smh:
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Quote:
Biggie Smalls is the Greatest of All Time.


Ditto. BIG told stories as stated in the article. BIG lyrics were so vivid that you could picture it as he was tellin it. For those questioning what I'm saying listen to "Got A Story To Tell" from the Life After Death double CD. Jay is a great artist indeed, but IMHO not the greatest of all time.
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damn people are catchin feelings. jay is one of my favorite rappers too BUT there are legends that are better than him. he's not number one thats for sure

the thing that got me was the whole not writing your rhymes down thing. its crazy how he can formulate and keep raps in his but imagine what he could do if he wrote them down and touched it up a little.

i was watchin this documentary on rakim and he would write down his rhymes, spit it out loud, tweak it up a little, see how it looks on paper and fits with the beat, tweak it some more and then get to the booth, spit that and tweak it in his mind while hes rappin.


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^quality, impact, influence > quantity
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TG/G.B'z the fam, ESD what I bleed
'...Now yall know why I flow like that...I aint Em, I here to put the real hood on the map, b****!!!!"...'
 
Lol overrated.






Quote:
The theme song to +The Sopranos+
plays in the key of life on my, mental piano
Got a strange way of seein life like
I'm Stevie Wonder with, beads under the doo-rag
Intuition is there even when my vision's impaired
in to darken my heart, bout to get to my liver
Watch it my @#%$, I'm tryin to be calm but I'm gon' get richer
through any means, with that thing that Malcolm palmed in the picture
Never read the Qu'ran or Islamic scriptures
Only psalms I read was on the arms of my @#%$
Tattooed so I carry on like I'm non-religious

Clap whoever stand between Shawn and figures
@#%$, say it's the dawn/Don but I'm superstitious
sh*t is as dark as it's been, nothin is goin as you predicted
I move with biscuits, stop the harder @#%$ actin too suspicious
This is, food for thought, you do the dishes



Quote:
I'm from the place where the church is the flakiest
And ***** is praying to god so long that they Atheist
Where you can't put your vest away and say you'll wear it tomorrow
Cause the day after we'll be saying, damn I was just with him yesterday
I'm a block away from hell, not enough shots away from straight shells
An ounce away from a triple beam still using a hand-held weight scale
Your laughing,
you know the place well
Where the Liqour Store's and the base well
And Government, @#%$ Government, ***** politic themselves
Where we call the cops the A-Team
cause they hop out of vans and spray things
And life expectancy so low we making out wills at eight-teen
Where how you get rid of guys who step out of line, your rep solidifies
So tell me when I rap you think I give a f*** who criticize?
If the @#%$ is lies, god strike me
And I got a question, are you forgiving guys who live just like me?
We'll never know
One day I pray to you and said if I ever blow, Let 'em know
Mistakes ain't exactly what takes place in the ghetto
Promise fulfilled, but still I feel my job ain't done
Cough up a lung, where I'm from, Marcy son, ain't nothing nice



And to show that he has not fell off...

Quote:
Step One in this process, scramble up in your projects
And head to the heights where big coke is processed
You gotta convince 'em that you not from the Precinct
Please speak slow, cause he no speakey no english
If he takes a liking after a couple of trips
If your money is straight, he's gon' give you consignment
You're now in a game where only time can tell
Survive the droughts, i wish you well...
Survive the droughts? I wish you well?
How sick am i? I wish you HEALTH
I wish you wheels, i wish you wealth
I wish you insight so you could see for yourself
You could see the signs, when the jackets is schemin'
And the cops is comin', you could read they mind
You could see from behind, you could redefine
The game as we know it, one dream at a time
I'm american dreamin'



 
Quote:
Jay at his lowest is better than 99.9 percent of rappers out.
Due to the fact that fiscally I'm extremely grandiose at this juncture, I can now be referred to as J.R. Paperstacks
Subscribe To This...
I got money schemes that come to me in my dreams...
 
Quote:
I wonder what motivated that article in the first place, it reads very personal.


Yea this dude is very unprofessional. When writing an article it should never be personal. Might as well call it a blog. And dude hasn't even heard American Gangster yet bases how good it is off of "Blue Magic". This dude can't be serious....
 
^ peep the date though. this article was written on the 2nd when the album wasnt released yet (atleast not legally :lol:
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Jay-Z = G.O.A.T.

anyone who doesnt agree doesnt know hip hop.

no further explanation needed.
 
Dude's facts are skeweds. Jay didn't have stories?
Heart of the City
Song Cry
Meet the Parents
Momma Loves me....there is atleast 10 more I don't feel like thinking of, and none of them are about Jay's ego, more stories of dudes in the hood.
Jay's personality is that of a Trapper turned rapper, not a rapper turned trapper. He is a hustler and you see that in every step of his music. I"m sorry dude sounds to iodized to write this article.
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From the title alone Id say yes, especially recently

Its only until a rapper self proclaims they are king or best ever to do it that they get over hyped to an insane degree and stans come out the blue to ride their sack. Making it hard to differentiate from a great artist with a huge following and a good artist with insane followers. Theres a lot of ppl who dont even understand the music yet they are GOAT. This is one of the clearest cases with said rapper in question. It seems like ppl think this is what they are suppose to do. Everybody wants the next Michael Jackson(music wise only)

Its shocking to me but thats the way it is in society today. The themes and under tones ring loud in this scenario and probably will never change

EDIT- Its clear this writer has a bias tho, maybe he feels Ol Man Jigga sucks and doesnt deserve the praise he gets

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