Jay-Z: U Dont Know | Public Service Announcement (Live At Carnegie Hall)

Wack shit. Jayz is alright, but people on here be riding him like his one of the greats.For one he has very weak lyrics and really doesn’t have the emotion of a
2Pac to make up for the lack of lyrical talent. I really don’t think he
is necessarily overrated because he did put out good material, but then
again with the production he had I think any above average rapper would
be on the GOAT list. But despite all of that, these lines explain it
all.

“If skills sold, truth be told, I’d probably be lyrically Talib Kweli

Truthfully, I wanna rhyme like Common Sense

(But I did five Mil)

I ain’t been rhyming like Common since”

That is why anyone in Hip-Hop should lose all respect for him as an
artist. You don’t sellout first of all, and second of all if you do
sellout don’t fukking admit that shyt. Same with biting lyrics and all
of that.

You know you fukced up when you admitted to biting lyrics, flows, styles, and selling out, all on the same song.
His lyrics are very good compared to other artists in the mainstream
media right now HOWEVER when you listen to his albums they do start to
run together and things sound the same throughout. There are people who
feel he is overrated because there are so many emcees that deserve
limelight and don’t get it. I can think of several emcees with powerful
wordplay and production that don’t get the credit they deserve. Bavitz
is one helluvah emcee and he gets harped on for being “weird” but dude
has better wordplay than Jay.

It’s pretty much a preferential thing though. I prefer metaphoric lyricism over simple word play

Plus everyone knows he will never be as good as Talib, Common, Big Daddy
Kane, or Biggie Smalls, so I don’t even know why he would front, like
he’s talent wise, on the same level in that song.