I disagree my brotha.
That's all B.S. man... Jigga is talented for the way he spits out words and the pattern he does it in but no way in hell does every single song that he has made is freestyle.
Maybe he freestyles like 30 takes til the right one is mastered..
but even then that would only make sense to say that Jay-Z
is really Lay-Z.... for not writting down line for line fire rhymes.
If you take a closer listen you'll find that he ain't saying much.
Easy rhymes don't get props...maybe back in the day when Run D.M.C were out. But not now...
Don't get me wrong I like Jay-Z...I just think he could do better then he has been. Back when Dead Presidents was the song.
That's when he was raw..that's when he was the real Jay-Z.
But hey whom am I to say anything...he still sells albums to all those kids now adays that forgot what real hip hop is...
Sad.. *Shakes his head*

I can understand that after so long, words can be repeated. But that just seems way too much for me. I never really followed Jay-z much, but this also gives me a new perspective on him. I can't deny his talent, but its still a shock to me he's ripped off more than anyone has thought.

That's why you emcees that write stuff online, beeee careful. Some mofo can just come up, snatch the line and claim as his unless you're smart and copyrighted it. Then, go and sue his ass or make him change the line.

I've been listening to this track on my shuffle for the past week, blinking back the tears...

Actually, many of his references are clearly in homage to the rappers of old. But some of them just sound like he's getting lazy.

I suspect if that same guy (who came up with the I'm Not a Writer track) did this for, say, Snoop, you'd see a lot of the same stuff going on in his history.

As a social networking nerd, I propose this to be an interesting project: create a social map linking rappers, by virtue of who they've "quoted" in their rhymes. Then you could see just how interlinked these artists are -- but more importantly, who said what first.

Hmm, I bet this could all be done by a computer (i.e. no need for a human to make the connections by hand). Just aim a search job at a database/website full of rap lyrics...