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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.

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