James R. wrote:^I used to say the same thing. He doesn't bite. He uses lines from well known songs of his admitted favorite rappers or rappers he's feuding with. And even that shit is outweighed 30/1 by the shit that he did write/come up with on his own.
The point that was made to me that changed my mind was he's not a dumb guy. he's worth almost half a billion dollars and that's NOT from music for the most part. IF he was going to bite, why would he bite famous people's lines from well known songs? Why would he bite Slick Rick, Biggie, Nas, Pac, Big Daddy Kane, and people like them if he was doing it to be dishonest? I mean anyone who listens to Jay probably listens to Big and can pick out every time he uses one of his lines. I don't agree with this particular method of shouting out to someone you admire, but I can't call it biting when it's so blatant.
And btw he did come up with that on his own
So he's LAZY then. I love music from a lot of rappers, but you don't see me biting or taking well known emcees lines, and say I'm just paying homage. That's NOT paying homage. I'm not trying to argue or disagree blatantly here with you James, but I think Jay-Z is fraudulent, lazy piece of sh*t. Tupac didn't EVEN LIKE HIM. They had beef and dissed each other on numerous records, mostly cause Jay was (rolling) with Big. Nas aint even like his ass either. They were never that cool from the beginning, and had one of the biggest beefs all time. And Jay wasn't using Nas' lines for reasons of paying homage, not only cause they were dissing each other, but Jay had the nerve to say, you made it a hot line, I made it a hot song, in reference to Dead Presidents. I don't know about the rest as far as paying your dues and homage, but it's easy to just write your own shit, instead of copying (yes it's copying) 99% of other people's shit. He basically stole a Slick Rick song from under him, used a million of big's lines and stolen lyrical, dope shit from Rakim when he was with Eric B. I know Jay's not dumb. He's a smart, business man getting his cheddar, respect and working his investments, and to his favor. He's on his grind like Diddy and 50, but all 3 can't rap. And mainly, Jay-Z could be better off writing 99-100% of his shit, and still having time and energy to pay homage to his fav. emcees, without stealing their work and making it his.