Jay-Z

Jay-Z
Born	Shawn Corey Carter (1969-12-04) December 4, 1969 New York City, New York, U.S.
Other names	El Presidente Hova Jigga The Carter Administration
Occupations	Rapper songwriter record producer entrepreneur record executive media proprietor
Years active	1986–present
Musical career
Genres	Hip hop
Labels	Roc Nation Atlantic Def Jam Roc-A-Fella Freeze NorthWestSide Priority Payday FFRR
Website	lifeandtimes.com

Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), professionally known as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. Raised in Marcy Houses, a public housing project in Brooklyn, New York, he grew to become one of the most influential hip-hop artists. He is often cited as one of Lupe Fiasco's major musical influences, and gave the following advice: "Don't chase radio."

Background

I literally would not be rapping if it wasn't for Jay. And rapping the way that I rap at the level that I rap is all due to JAY-Z as a lyricist. So I studied Jay deeper than probably some people do superficially. I consider myself to be a peer of JAY-Z on many levels. I respect what he does and I understand what some of that is. So some of it's hype. We live in a hype generation, that's fine and that's cool, and I like hype, sometimes. But when I look at it, I gotta kind of look at it from two ways.

Lupe Fiasco to HipHopDX in 2022

Fiasco grew up listening to hip hop artists including Jay-Z, Nas, Pharoahe Monch, and Wu-Tang Clan. When he first started rapping, he learned by freestyling over Hov beats. When he first started rapping, he learned by freestyling over Jay-Z beats. Upon entering the music scene, he gained attention for his lyrical skills, catching the eye of Jay-Z from Roc-A-Fella Records who offered him a record deal. Although the deal fell through, as Fiasco wanted his production company to also be signed, as opposed to just a solo artist, they stayed in contact. Fiasco estimates this happened around 2003, during a period when he was disillusioned with the music business and contemplating leaving rap.

Following the arrest of his manager Chilly in 2003, Jay stepped in to help executive produce Fiasco's debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor. After Fiasco was dropped from Arista Records due to L.A. Reid's firing, Jay-Z assisted in signing him to Atlantic Records in 2005. According to HotNewHipHop, Chilly explained that Jay-Z was initially set to become president at Atlantic and offered to bring Fiasco on board. Despite Chilly proceeding with the deal, Jay-Z opted instead for a position at Def Jam, which included reclaiming his masters as part of the terms. Nonetheless, Jay-Z continued to executive produce Fiasco's Food & Liquor album and featured on the track "Pressure." Fiasco recalls a moment when he was at Jay-Z's home, helping clean out his closet and receiving pairs of Air Force 1's and Gucci jeans from him. His friend Wayne talked him out of keeping the Gucci jeans, so he gave them to Wayne.

In 2009, Fiasco dropped his mixtape Enemy of the State: A Love Story, where his song "Thank You" samples Jay-Z's "Thank You".

In November 2010, during an interview with Cornel West, Jay-Z spoke about Fiasco, saying, "For me, you know, rap is entertainment at some point, you know, it's entertainment, but it's based on our realities, and we can take it anywhere we want in fantasy, but at some point it has to be some sort of truth, some sort of integrity, some sort of pride to making music. That's what I love about Lupe. I met Lupe, I'm going to say maybe ten years ago, I mean, I thought he was an extraordinary writer from—I executive produced his first album, so my role that I play in that is to expand it as far as I can, you know, make it—expand the genre of words and the maturity and the subject matter, the things we talk about, and try to stay closer to those truths and try to, you know, explain it as poetry—it should be taken seriously, 'cause it is poetry. Some of the things that are said are just mind-boggling. If you sit down and really listen to some of the things that this young man has said, it's like you can't believe it."

In August 2013, Fiasco published the song "Peace of Paper/Cup of Jayzus," which samples Jay-Z's "Holy Grail".

In 2017, when Jay-Z dropped his album 4:44, Fiasco shared his review by posting a two-part rhyme:

Album dropped when I was overseas, data plans & coverage limitations wouldn't allow a decent listen, usually like to oversee when I be whippin, back from china on a American, long story I'll take you back there again, for now let's just focus on the pair of twins times 3, the 13th Jigga, had to make the review rhyme this time for you n***as, shit takes me back like Royal slippers, with sublime glimpses of that old spitter, baseline bully, he wouldn't freestyle a whole album would he?, leave the speculation to the bookies, push me back to when we was rookies, chip off the old Roc, presenting my cookies to the cutter, the album is better than yours motherfuckers, hence why I peruse swift, and curse all ya gifts, Smile is the shit, 4:44 too personal for my opinion, but makes me wanna go up and apologize to random women, Blame Jay, the vibe checkered but dirty beats make it hard to sneak past the first 5 records, looped up the jewels viewing the clarity during a layover, right now awesome, give you the rest when I get to Boston…

The second half meditation, sounds like what happens when education meets decorations for mass that met black witchcraft and went half on calf, holy cow, MARCY ME!, had to put it in all caps, the artistry separates the bullshit from the Bulls Chips, partially, all facts, how he gone take it there? The beat feel like Sanaa Lathan hair…in slow motion, next to the ocean, wordplay gorgeous, 5 mics no sources, I ain't publicly leaned back bopped in a while especially to this style of a portrait, vulnerable but not tortured, a fortress ain't gotta force it, real time classic, a revival of the corpus, the Tribeca Jay cool but he like for the masses, the Brooklyn Jay a ghoul only suitable for the masters, MARCY ME so fucking stupid! Funny part is I know exactly how he do it, can even reproduce it, but just cuz you can imitate the bruises that don't mean they Bruce's, message to the hearer, Lee that boy alone, he's fighting without fighting we just cuts inside his mirror!
10/10

In 2018, when asked who "the greatest rapper ever" was, Fiasco replied over Twitter, "To me...I think all around factoring in all the tangibles and intangibles…Jay Z is the GOAT…bars, sales, influence, swag, power, credibility, hits, beats, wife, longevity…I'm mean who else comes close?" He continued, "I think the best rapper is undeterminable. But just off bars alone Jay is still top 3 and probably spent more time and top 1 than anyone else […] I don't think it's automatic Jay has put in effort and has multiple moments of blacking out and doing things in eras that were just above and beyond his peers. But rap is big and all the top 30 have moments of brilliance so I stopped even trying to pick a "best.""

When asked about Jay-Z's verse on DJ Khaled's 2022 song "God Did," Fiasco felt it wasn't the emcee's best, but still "the fucking shit" for its current climate in rap. He added, "I'm not a JAY-Z fan, I am a JAY-Z child. I'm a son of JAY-Z. I am the son of Jigga. I literally learned how to rap by rapping over JAY-Z records. [I'd] put on Reasonable Doubt and I would write raps on top of him rapping. I study him deeply. He executive produced my first album. I've been in studio with him, there's business things that have occurred. There's a deep, rich history with me and Jay that the world knows about, or maybe the world doesn't know about it. It's not really super public. But I've given him records and we have a song together, right? I can say I've got a record with JAY-Z." He continued, "So every time JAY-Z raps, I start rapping. It's like a Pavlovian response. And that's why I can't listen to Jay, because if I do I'll start rapping the entire day. The bars are just coming because it's like the bell rings. It's like, raps, raps, raps. That's the effect he has on me."

Collaborations

Title	Year	Artist(s)	Album
"Pressure"	2006	Lupe Fiasco featuring Jay-Z	Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor

Lyrics

Fiasco mentions Jay-Z in many of his freestyles/loosies. His single, "Roc-A-Fella Y'all," references the NY rapper's label.

• "Lean" (2001): "Spice-1, Twista, Biggie, Jay-Z (Yeah) / Inspirings for writing in my spiral"
• "Dear Fall" (2006): "Haha! President Carter, what up?"
• "Lupe Outro" (2006): "Y'know what I'm sayin'? Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor executive produced by my man, Jay-Z"
• "Ignorant Shit (Freestyle)" (2007): "Jay don't mind me I'm just blowin' my zone up"
• "Popular Demand" (2009): "Jay gave me a co-sign like I was Rocawear"
• "SLR (Super Lupe Rap)" (2010): "A 2 album Jay-Z, a 1 n*gga Wu-Tang"
• "Steve Jobs: SLR 3 1/2" (2021): "Hov think I'm Hov"
• "The Singularity" (2023): "Just like an art of Chicago's Shawn Carter except he's odder"
• "SLR 2" (2013): "I love Jay, that's my n*gga" and "N*gga you ain't Jay-Z"