Skip to main content

12 featuring Jay-Z

"12 by..." aims to summarize an artist's career in 12 songs. This one features...













Jay-Z may have a lot of nice houses, but he's not content to just stay there. He likes to go visit his friends too. Here are the 12 best songs featuring Jigga as a guest. As I did with my 12 by Jay-Z feature, I'm going to let the man speak for himself. 

1. Foxy Brown - I'll Be (found on Ill Na Na, 1996) 
"Will tears fall to your ears if I don't stop?" 

 2. Notorious B.I.G. - I Love the Dough (found on Life After Death, 1997) 
"And tell me you won't ball every chance you get / and any chance you hit, we live for the moment / Makes sense don't it? Now make dollars" 

3. Mariah Carey - Heartbreaker (found on Rainbow, 1999) 
"She call me heartbreaker / When we apart it makes her wanna piece of paper / Scribble down 'I hate ya!'" 

4. Beyonce - Crazy in Love (found on Dangerously in Love, 2003) 
"Young Hov, y'all know when the flow is loco / Young B and the R-O-C, uh-oh / Old G, big homie, the one and only / Stick bony but the pockets is fat like Tony Soprano" 

5. Pharrell - Frontin' (found on The Neptunes Present...Clones, 2003) 
"Every time your name was brought up / I would act all nonchalant in front of an audience / Like you was just another shortie I put the naughty on" 

6. Outkast - Flip Flop Rock (found on Speakerboxx / The Love Below, 2003) 
"Why that, why this, niggaz 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'?" 

7. Kanye West - Never Let Me Down (found on College Dropout, 2004) 
"First I snatched the streets, then I snatched the charts / First had they ear, now I have their heart / Rappers came and went / I've been here from the start" 

8. Kanye West - Diamonds from Sierra Leone (Remix) (found on Late Registration, 2005) 
"I'm not a business man / I'm a business, man / Let me handle my business, damn!" 

9. Young Jeezy - Go Crazy (Remix) (found on Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101, 2005) 
"See I'ma '80s baby, mastered Reaganomics / School of Hard Knocks, everyday is college / You ain't did nothin' I ain't did, nigga pay homage" 

10. Nas - Black Republican (found on Hip Hop is Dead, 2006) 
"Now the team got beef between the post and the point / This puts the ring in jeopardy, indefinitely" 

11. Beyonce - Deja Vu (found on B'Day, 2006) 
"Is he the best ever, that's the argu-a-ment / I don't make the list, don't be mad at me / I just make the hits, like a factory / I'm just one-to-one, nothin' after me" 

12. Rihanna - Umbrella (found on Good Girl Gone Bad, 2007) 
"No clouds in my storms / Let it rain, I hydroplane into fame / Comin' down with the Dow Jones / When the clouds come we gone"

Comments

Kirsten said…
All these mentions by his friends show what a great guy he is.
1:49 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REO Speedwagon: R.E.O. Speedwagon (1971)

REO Speedwagon got its start in the late 1960s on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. The band grew out of a friendship between a students Neal Doughty (piano/keyboard) and Alan Gratzer (drums). Joining up with a couple of other musicians, they took the name R.E.O. Speedwagon. It wasn't long before they started getting gigs at parties and bars, doing covers of the hits of the day. The band cycled through several players in its first three years, with Gratzer and Doughty as the only constants. One-by-one they added the members that would form the first "official" lineup: singer Terry Luttrell in early 1968, bassist Gregg Philbin later that summer, and guitarist Gary Richrath at the end of 1970. Richrath was a native of Peoria, 90 miles northwest of Champaign, and had essentially stalked the band until they let him join. It was a good move, as he not only an accomplished guitarist, but also a songwriter. With Richrath the band ascended to the n...
Post a Comment
Read more

Stuck, or Obsession Cessastion

You may have noticed that things have slowed down around here. I had the summer off from teaching, and I spent it with my 7 month-old son. I gave myself permission to make this blog less of a priority. Well, "less of a priority" is putting it lightly. Initially, I considered an abrupt retirement. But then I reconsidered. Maybe the proximity to Brett Favre is causing this. If you're a long time reader, this is probably not all that surprising to you. Since 2007, it has become an annual ritual for me to soul-search about my waning interest in music. First I blamed an inability to express myself and a lack of quality music . Then in 2008 I cited new technology and the death of the album . Last year I wrote about how my changing life priorities hindered my ability to seek out new music. I've done a lot of thinking about it this summer and in truth I believe this was all just dancing around the issue, a slow realization of something I didn't want to admit to myse...
7 comments
Read more

Rock Bottom: The Beach Boys

The one constant in every established artist's oeuvre is the bad album , the one that's reviled by both fans and critics. Those unlovable albums are the ones this feature, Rock Bottom , is concerned with. Here's how it works: I've consulted three sources, the AllMusic Guide and Rolling Stone (for the critical point-of-view) and Amazon.com (for the fan perspective*). The album with the lowest combined rating from both sources is the one I'll consider the worst. I may not always agree with the choice, and my reviews will reflect that. I'll also offer a considered alternative. Finally, there are some limits. The following types of albums don't count: 1) b-sides or remix compilations, 2) live albums, 3) albums recorded when the band was missing a vital member, and 4) forays into a different genres (i.e. classical). *A note about Amazon.com. I consider this the fan perspective, because most people who choose to review albums on this site are adoring fans of ...
1 comment
Read more