CLEVELAND - Shawn Carter is without question one of the greatest artists in the history of hip-hop.With the arrival of his 39th birthday, he remains the best of today's elite.
Carter, professionally known as Jay-Z has achieved a tremendous amount of success and wealth in the 12 years since his major label debut, 1996's Reasonable Doubt and is the man behind a truckload of hit singles over the past decade. With 12 albums (including two full LP collaborations with R. Kelly) and countless guest appearances on other artists' songs, Jay has been consistently successful for longer than anyone in the genre's history.
He hasn't lost his touch, either.
With the forthcoming Blueprint 3 album, the Brooklyn bred Jay continues his remarkable relevance. Though his lyrics these days tend to be less about frivolous spending and relentless debauchery and more about his mature take on all he's seen and done, Jay hasn't lost his considerable hubris on the mic. On a recent collaboration with Ludacris and Nas, he proclaims that "these other rappers couldn't wash [his] socks."
I second that emotion.
Lil' Wayne may get all of the attention as being the "best rapper" nowadays, but in reality he's simply "the hottest." With the great Eminem in a self-imposed sabbatical the past four years, Jay is not only peerless. The gap is enormous between him and his closest challenger. Wayne and T.I. are outstanding, Ludacris is brilliant and Kanye, when he wants to be is a phenom. But nobody is on Jay-Z's incomparable level.
Happy Birthday Mr. Carter.
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