Jay Z may be more invested in delivering music than making it at this point, but there would never have been a TIDAL without the extended come-up…
Verses To Live By: Jay Z’s 50 Greatest Lines Of All-Time was originally published on hothiphopdetroit.com
1. Jay Z – Can I Live
“I’d rather die enormous than live dormant, that’s how we on it / Live at the main event, I bet a trip to Maui on…
2. Jay Z – Feelin’ It
“Since diapers, had nothing to live for like them lifers but / Making sure every nigga stay rich within my cipher.” – Jay Z
3. Jay Z – Glory
“The most beautifulest thing in this world / Is daddy’s little girl / You don’t yet know what swag is but you was made in…
4. Jay Z – The Takeover
“A wise man told me don’t argue with fools / Cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who / So stop with that…
5. Jay Z – Public Service Announcement
“I’m like, Che Guevara with bling on, I’m complex / I never claimed to have wings on.” – Jay Z
6. Jay-Z – D’Evils
“The closest of friends when we first started / But grew apart as the money grew, and soon grew black-hearted.” – Jay Z
7. Jay Z – Intro: A Million And One Questions
“I got mouths to feed till they put flowers on me / And kiss my cold cheek, chicks crying like I was Cochise.” – Jay…
8. Jay Z – Dirt Off Your Shoulder
We’re not betting against ‘Hov to make a b-line from his own headlining gig to take in some of the late rounds.
9. Jay Z – Izzo (H.O.V.A.)
“Show them how to move in a room full of vultures / Industry is shady, it needs to be taken over.” – Jay Z
10. Jay Z feat. Amil & Ja Rule – Can I Get A…
“Could ya see yourself with a nigga working harder than nine to five / Ten to six, two jobs to survive?” – Jay Z
11. Jay Z – I Just Wanna Love U
“Okay, hot Hov’, too hot to hold / Ladies love me long time like 2Pac’s soul.” – Jay Z
12. Jay Z – Dear Summer
“They say if you love it, you should let it out its cage / And fuck it, if it comes back you know it’s there…
13. Jay Z feat. Eminem – Renegade
“See I’m influenced by the ghetto you ruined / That same dude you gave nothing, I made something doing.” – Jay Z
14. Jay Z – Nigga What, Nigga Who
“Got a vendetta even though I been better / Left him in the cold with a thin sweater.” – Jay Z
15. Jay Z feat. Rihanna & Kanye West – Run This Town
“I get more in depth if you boys really real enough / This is la Familia, I’ll explain later / But for now let me…
16. Jay Z feat. Amil & Beanie Sigel – Do It Again
“The game is ours, we’ll never foul out / Y’all just better hope we gracefully bow out.” – Jay Z
17. Jay Z feat. Alicia Keys – Empire State Of Mind
“Afrika Bambaataa shit, home of the hip-hop / Yellow cab, gypsy cab, dollar cab, holla back / For foreigners it ain’t fair, they act like…
18. Jay Z – Lost One
“And I ain’t even know how it came to this / Except that fame is / The worst drug known to man / It’s stronger…
19. T.I. feat. Jay Z, Kanye West, Lil Wayne – Swagger Like Us
“School of hard knocks: I’m a grad / And that all-blue Yankee is my graduation cap.” – Jay Z
20. Jay-Z – Brooklyn’s Finest
“Time to separate the pros from the cons / The platinum from the bronze / That butter soft shit from that leather on the Fonz.”…
21. Jay Z feat. Lenny Kravitz – Guns And Roses
“They giveth and they taketh life is cruel that way / But even a broken clock is right at least two times a day.” –…
22. Jay Z – Hovi Baby
“They say a midget standin’ on the giant’s shoulder can see much further than the giant / So I got the whole rap world on…
23. Jay Z – Beach Chair
“Life is but a dream to me / Gunshots sing to me/ These other guys with lullabies don’t mean a thing to me.” – Jay…
24. Jay Z – Dope Man
”F— the system / At Lady Justice I blaze nine / Your Honor, I no longer kill my people / I raise mine / The…
25. Jay-Z & R. Kelly – The Best of Both Worlds / Take You Home With Me
“But it’s real like we grievin for Aaliyah with the masses / But I hope my boy Dash get to see her when he passes.”…
26. Jay Z – Moment Of Clarity
“When your sense got that much in common / And you been hustling since your inception / Fuck perception, Go with what makes sense.” –…
27. Jay Z – Allure
“But the allure of the game, keeps calling your name ‘ To all the Laura’s of the world, I feel your pain / To all…
28. Jay Z – What More Can I Say
“Far from a Harvard student, just had the balls to do it / And no I’m not through with it.” – Jay Z
29. Jay Z – U Don’t Know – Carnegie Hall (Exclusive)
“But when them shells come you better return ’em / All scars we earn ’em.” – Jay Z
30. Jay Z – 99 Problems
“I don’t know what you take me as / Or understand the intelligence that Jay-Z has / I’m from rags to riches, niggas I ain’t…
31. Jay Electronic feat. Jay Z – Shiny Suit Theory
“In the world of no justice and black ladies on the back of buses / I’m the immaculate conception of rappers-slash-hustlers.” – Jay Z
32. Dead Prez feat. Jay Z – Hell Yeah Remix
“The police, got me in the middle of the street / Trying to beat me blue, black and orange / I’m like hold up, who…
33. Rick Ross feat. Jay Z & Young Jeezy – Hustlin’ Remix
“We don’t resort to violence, we on resorts and islands / With linen shorts and shades, ‘case they thought you was lyin’.” – Jay Z
34. Talib Kweli feat. Mos Def, Jay Z, & Kanye West – Get By Remix
“Claimed I was ready to die / Promised never to cry / Held it all inside / Reality was too much to take so I…
35. Saigon feat. Jay Z – Come On Baby
“You ain’t crazy, don’t you play me, don’t you know it’s Jay-Z / When Internets ask who’s the best, why won’t you say me? /…
36. Sade feat. Jay Z – The Moon And The Sky Remix
“As God as my witness, timing was my mistress / I guess it’s in the stars for me to love you from a distance.” –…
37. Kendrick Lamar feat. Jay Z – Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe Remix
“Don’t waste my breath / I don’t know how many moons a nigga got left.” – Jay Z
38. Jay Z – Brooklyn We Go Hard
“I Jack I rob I sin / Aw man I’m Jackie Robinson / ‘Cept when I run base / I dodge the pen.” – Jay…
39. Jay Z & Kanye West – Niggas In Paris
“It’s only right that we be fair / Psycho, I’m liable to be go Michael / Take your pick, Jackson, Tyson, Jordan, Game 6.” –…
40. Jay Z feat. Swizz Beatz – On To The Next One
“I move onward, the only direction / Can’t be scared to fail in the search of perfection.” – Jay Z
41. Jay Z – No Church In The Wild
“I’m wondering if a thug’s prayers reach / Is Pious pious cause God loves pious? / Socrates asked whose bias do y’all seek? / All…
42. Jay-Z – Regrets
“Time waits for no man, can’t turn back the hands / Once it’s too late, gotta learn to live with regrets.” – Jay Z
43. Jay Z – Can’t Knock The Hustle
“My cup runneth over with hundreds / I’m one of the best niggas that done it, six digits and running.” – Jay Z
44. Jay Z – Streets Is Watching
“I felt like life was cheating me / For the first time in my life I was getting money / But it was like my…
45. Kanye West feat. Jay Z – Diamonds
“People lined up to see the Titanic sinking / Instead we rose up from the ash like a phoenix / If you’re waiting for the…
46. Kanye West feat. Jay Z & Swizz Beatz – Power
“Rumble, young man, rumble / Life is a trip, so sometimes we gonna stumble / You gotta go through pain in order to become you.”
47. Jay Z – Soon You’ll Understand
“Now it’s too late, we got a little life together / And in my mind I really want you to be my wife forever.” -Jay…
48. Jay Z feat. Beanie Sigel – Where Have You Been
“Will never ask mommy, ‘Why daddy don’t love me? / Why is we so poor?, why is life so ugly? / Mommy why is your…
49. Jay Z – Hard knock Life
“I don’t know how to sleep, I gotta eat, stay on my toes / Gotta a lot of beef, so logically, I prey on my…
