It’s that time of year again. The NBA Finals have rolled around yet again. Which means for many media pundits that this will be yet another opportunity for an NBA superstar to gain ground on Michael Jordan and his legacy to cause yet another debate. The Michael Jordan comparisons come after every great championship/playoff moment. This had me wondering, who is Hip-Hop’s Michael Jordan? It is very clear that Jay Z is Hip-Hop’s Michael Jordan. Whether one wants to admit it or not no one has had the rap game in the choke hold in the fashion that Jay Z has over the years. We’re not just talking about selling records. We’re not even just talking about the money, Jay Z’s legacy is much deeper than that. It’s easy to get caught up in the Forbes list and the fact that Jay Z’s wife is the biggest Pop Star in the world. Outside of all of these material things Jay Z as an emcee is dead nice.
Word for word, bar for bar Jay has spared on songs with the likes of Rakim, Biggie, Big Daddy Kane, Scarface, DMX, Nas, Big L, & Eminem just to name a few. This isn’t by accident, Jay Z clearly wanted to be the best and made every effort to do so. Listening to Jay Z’s debut album “Reasonable Doubt” and looking at where he is today in his career makes Reasonable Doubt the most ambitious debut album we’ve ever seen in Hip-Hop. Everything this man said he was going to do he did it. Everything that he said he was he became. I remember listening to a radio interview with Jay Z back in 1999 and the radio personality ask Jay Z “did you ever think that you would ever be this big?” Jay Z simply answered “Yeah”. This level of confidence mixed with hard work and intelligence has given us this Michael Jordan type figure in the form of an emcee.
In this analogy Biggie and Pac would be more like Magic and Bird type figures and Rakim would be more of a Kareem or Wilt. Let’s be real, when Jay Z hit stride (in a similar way as Jordan) he went on a run where he dominated Hip-Hop every single year. Now this doesn’t mean that he outsold everyone every year, this means that he dominated with his level of consistency and classic jams. I think he said it best on his appearance on Kanye West’s debut album “when you hot I’m hot and when your feet cold mine is sizzlin……. I’m home on these charts y’all ni**as visiting”. In a genre where you’re lucky to get a good 3 album run out of an artist, Jay Z gave us 8 straight Summers. That 8 Summers is just the first section of his career. Just like Michael Jordan Jay Z has retired a few times to go on and do something else.
Be honest, has any emcee made more classic records with top tier talents in their prime than Jay Z? We have “Brooklyn’s Finest”, “Money, Cash, Hoes”, “Guess Who’s Back”, “Black Republican”, “Renegade”, “Show And Prove”, etc. Ok, let’s take the classic hit records that Jay Z has in his catalog off the table for a minute. Jay Z dedicated a 2 hour B-Side concert to nothing but B-Sides and rarities and it was one of the most streamed TIDAL events to date. Let that sink in, Jay Z’s B-Sides are so strong they garner just as much attention as his hit records. With the mixture of quantity and quality no one and Hip-Hop has a catalog as deep as Jay Z’s. Honestly bar for bar we would be hard pressed to find an emcee that seemed to get better and better as the years went on and the styles changed like Jay did. When the debate of what your best album is, is between your first album, your third album, your sixth album, and your eighth album that means that you are an extremely consistent artist. I think the only other Hip-Hop artist we can say something like that about is Scarface and Common.
Ok, so back to lyrical skills, the BARS. Have you heard “44 Fours”? Have you heard “Dead Presidents 1 & 2”? Have you heard “Streets Is Watching”? Have you heard the “Grammy Family Freestyle”? These are elite BARS. It’s funny that Michael Jordan by many is known for scoring and dunking but Jordan is also third all-time in steals. Jordan also has more blocks than any shooting guard to ever play the game. Jordan has a defensive player of the year award from the shooting guard position. Jordan also had a 48 inch vertical and it has been said that Jordan ran a 4.3 in the 40. Saying all that to say Jordan was elite at every aspect of the game.
When you look at what it attributes it takes to be a great emcee Jay Z is elite at every aspect. Classic Albums: Elite. Longevity: Elite. Lyrical Skill: Elite. Live Performer: Elite. Classic Songs Both Hits & B-Sides: Elite. Jay Z is even an underrated storytelling emcee, Meet The Parents, Song Cry, This Can’t Be Life. Jordan has built an empire with his brand off the court and we can say the same with Jay when we think about The Roc-A-Fella crew, Roc Nation, TIDAL, etc. The parallels of these two are staggering, also when you factor in that Michael Jordan was still a very effective player in the NBA at the age of 40 plus. Jay did the same thing, honestly Jay Z is in no man’s land right now signing a performance deal with Live Nation that will have him performing until he is nearly 60 years old. On a grand scale Hip-Hop has never seen this level of longevity and consistency. Hate it or love it, if you know your Hip-Hop and your basketball there is no one else in Hip-Hop that can be called the Michael Jordan of Hip-Hop other than Jay Z. Anything else is just inaccurate.
