Sean Carter was born December 4, weighing 10 pounds and 4 ounces.
PHOTOS: Beyonce And Jay-Z Hit The Studio Together
What more can we say? It’s Jay-Z’s birthday!
In honor of Jay-Z’s 43rd birthday, GlobalGrind rounded up 43 of the best Jay lines, bars, and verses (in no particular order).
VIDEO: Beyonce Shakes What Her Mama Gave Her For Jay-Z!
Jay-Z has not only changed the landscape of hip-hop culture, but he’s inspired every kid from the Farragut projects in Downtown Brooklyn, to the suburbs of Seattle.
Today is his day. Happy Born Day Hov!
Check out Jay-Z’s best 43 verses, bars, and punch lines below!
1. Daddio with the calico, Let the gaty blow leave you bleeding on your patio, I leave rivals on their backs, looking up at the sky blue, Not only do I leave you I hide you – Jay-Z on Ja Rule’s “It’s Murda”
2.“Shit I’m a man with pride, you don’t do shit like that. You don’t just pick up and leave and leave me sick like that I was just fucking those girls I was gon’ get right back.” – Jay-Z “Song Cry”
3. “Niggas tryna subtract my life, my mathematics is precise/ I carry the nine, so fucking with me just ain’t the answer.” – Jay-Z “This Life Forever”
4. “I wanted to talk to him, but that shit’d never work/We was cut from the same cloth and what was under his shirt was his/momma’s rent, his young brother’s clothes/My nephew’s food, and with that I suppose.” – Jay-Z “The Streetz”
5. “I want money like Cosby who wouldn’t?/This’ the kinda talk that make me think you probably ain’t got no puddin’.” – Jay-Z “Dead Presidents”
6. “I arrived on the day Fred Hampton died/Uh, real niggas just multiply/And they say by 21 I was supposed to die/So I’m out here celebrating my post-demise.” – Jay-Z & Kanye West “Murder To Excellence”
7. “Oh, stuntin’ to the max, I’m so wavy/Used to shop at TJ Maxx back in ’83/I don’t even know if it was open then/I ain’t know Oprah then/Have the XL 80 bike/Loud motor, they be like, “Damn!” when I’m comin’ through, rrraaanngg/Had the grill in ’88, y’all niggas is late/You got all that, right?/I love this shit like my own daughter/Let’s spray these niggas, baby, just like daddy taught ya/Young, this is just different.” – Jay-Z On Rick Ross’ “3 Kings”
8. “Got this model slash actress slash part time waitress/spend a whole day she hangin round with part time haters/all they do is diss dirt and put a up on my latest/itinerary, but since I tend to vary see/I tend to carry, more rumors than ten Mariah Careys/ tend to hurries in ten places at once.” Jay-Z “Girls, Girls, Girls”
9. “And all you other cats throwing shots at Jigga/You only get half a bar – fuck y’all niggas”- Jay-Z “Takeover”
10. “I’m so far ahead of my time, I’m bout to start another life/Look behind you, I’m bout to pass you twice/Back to the future and gotta slow up for the present/I’m fast, niggaz can’t get past my past/How they propose to deal with my perfect present?/When I unwrap “The Gift & the Curse” in one session”- Jay-Z “Hovi Baby”
11.“Nigga I’ll step on your porch, step to your boss/Let’s end the speculation, I’m talking to all of y’all/Males shouldn’t be jealous that’s a female trait/What you mad cause you push dimes and he sell weight?” – Jay-Z “Heart Of The City”
12. “My president is black, in fact he’s half white…so even in the racist minds he’s half right/If you have a racist mind you’ll be alright/My president is black but his house is all white/Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther could walk/ Martin Luther walked so Barack Obama could run/Barack Obama ran so the all children could fly/so imma spread my wings you could meet in the sky.”- Jay-Z “My President Is Black” Freestyle
13. “Bootleggers, bombers, Bin Laden/I’m still crackin’/I will not lose, I simply refuse/I drop the same date as the twin towers/I show power/Still I show compassion for others/Sent money and flowers/Devote hours/I live in the struggle/I’m addicted to the hustle/I’m conflicted because, du'(de)/America, this land of mine/Is filled with prisoners/With the same plans as mine/So I’m a walking contradiction/On one hand I love my position/But easily I could have been in that prison/And no, I am not a Christian/Though I believe in God/But I don’t believe in the devil/My beliefs are odd/If we the people was given freewill from God/How could He give the people freewill/Without giving you E-vil?/We will..hold it together/Believe in the Roc/Long after you leave the spot/Long after my breathing stops/My spirit remains vibrant/I will lead the flock/And that’s the tip of the iceberg/You might hear Christ’s words in my scriptures/But I only write it for my niccas.” – Jay-Z “9/11” Freestyle
14. “I’m from the place where the church is the flakiest/And niggas is praying to God so long that they atheist/Where you can’t put your vest away and say you’ll wear it tomorrow/Cause the day after we’ll be saying, “Damn, I was just with him yesterday”/I’m a block away from hell, not enough shots away from stray shells/An ounce away from a triple beam, still using a hand-held weight scale/You’re laughing, you know the place well, where the liquor stores and the base well/And government.. fuck government, niggas politic themselves” – Jay-Z “Where I’m From”
15. “Do not step to me – I’m awkward, I box lefty/An orphan my pops left me, And often, my momma wasn’t home/Could not stress to me I wasn’t grown, especially on nights” – Jay-Z “Renegade”
16. “I’m from the streets where the/Hood could swallow ’em and, bullets’ll follow ’em and/There’s so much coke that you could run the slalom/And cops comb this shit top to bottom/They say that we are prone to violence, but it’s home sweet home/Where personalities clash and chrome meets chrome/The coke prices up and down like it’s Wall Street holmes/But this is worse than the Dow Jones, your brains are now blown/All over that brown Brougham, one slip you are now gone/Welcome to hell where you are welcome to sell.” – Jay-Z “U Don’t Know”
17. “No more war, no more Iraq, no more white lies..my president is black.”- Jay-Z “My President In Black” Freestyle
18. “I jog in the graveyard/Spar in the same ring/That was housed by the building/Where Malcolm X was slain/I spring train in the winter/Round early December/Run suicide drills over and over/With the weight of the world on my shoulder/That’s why they call me “Hova”/I’m far from being God/But I work goddamn hard.” – Jay-Z “Breathe Easy”
19. “Sounds so soulful don’t you agree/I invented swag/Poppin’ bottles, puttin’ supermodels in the cab, proof/I guess I got my swagger back, truth/New watch alert, Hublot’s/Or the big face Rollie I got two of those/Arm out the window through the city I maneuver slow/Cock back, snap back/See my cut through the holes.” – Jay-Z “Otis”
20.“You guessed it, manifest it in tangible goods/Platinum Rolexed it, we don’t lease/we buy the whole care, as you should/My confederation, dead a nation, EXPLODE/on detonation, overload the mind of a said patient.” – Jay-Z “Can I Live”
21. “Now I’m Titanic, Iceberg’s the name/Leave players on injured reserve, hurt the game/The best way to describe me in a word, insane/I dick down chicks all emerged in my fame/Jigga been dope since Slick Rick’s first chain.” – Jay-Z “Jigga My Nigga”
22. “I was the worse/I used to switch chicks every day/Had niggas mad for real like “I wish he was gay”/Cause they knew sooner or later hun was gettin’ with Jay/Just a matter of time she was gettin’ with Jay.” – Jay-Z “Hey Papi”
23. “She keep beggin’ me to hit it raw/So she can have my kids and say it was yours/How foul is she? And you wifed her/Shit, I put the rubber on tighter/Sent her home, when she entered home/You hugged her up/What the fuck is up?/She got you whipped, got your kids/Got your home, but that’s not your bitch/You share that girl.” – Jay-Z on “Is That Yo Bitch?”
24. “Now run along wit’cha little ass hits/Read my rap sheet nigga, THREE CLASSICS/Shut ya bumba’ got A-Rod numbers/All you muddaskunks get buried in the trunk/When I blast the pump, I leave you relaxed/In the hospital lookin’ at MASH for months/Then I dumps dough on the D.A. desk/And flee scot free and pee-pee on the steps/We’ve got no respect.” – Jay-Z “All I Need”
25. “You cats is home, screaming the fight’s on/I’m in the fifteen hundred seats, watching Ty-son/Same night, same fight/But one of us cats ain’t playing right, I let you tell it.” –Jay-Z “I Love The Dough”
26. “Allow me to re-introduce myself/My name is Hov’, OH, H-to-the-O-V/I used to move snowflakes by the O-Z/I guess even back then you can call me, CEO of the R-O-C, Hov’!/Fresh out the frying pan into the fire/I be the music biz number one supplier/Flyer than a piece of paper bearin my name/Got the hottest chick in the game wearing my chain, that’s right/Hov’, OH – not D.O.C/But similar to them letters, “No One Can Do it Better”/I check cheddar like a food inspector/My homey Strict told me, “Dude finish your breakfast”/So that’s what I’mma do, take you back to the dude/With the Lexus, fast-forward the jewels and the necklace/Let me tell you dudes what I do to protect this/I shoot at you actors like movie directors {*laughing*}/This ain’t a movie, dog (oh shit).” –Jay-Z “Public Service Announcement”
27. “Everybody’s like, “He’s no item! Please don’t like him/He don’t wife ’em, he one nights ’em!”/Now she don’t like him, she never met him/Groupies try to take advantage of him, he won’t let ’em/He don’t need ’em, so he treats ’em like he treats ’em/Better them than me, she don’t agree with him/She’s mad at that, he’s not havin that/So those opposites attract like mag-a-nets/She sees more than the Benz wagon, the friends taggin along/With a flashy nigga braggin on the song/She gets a glimpse of Shawn and she likes that/He 2-ways her, so she writes back/Smiley faces after all of her phrases/Either she the one or I’m caught in “The Matrix”/But fukkit, let the Fish-burn/Red or green pill, you live and you learn, c’mon!.” – Jay-Z “Excuse Me Miss”
28. “Inspired by Basquiat, my chariot’s on fire/Everybody took shots, hit my body up, I’m tired/Build me up, break me down to build me up again/They like “Hov we need you back so we can kill your ass again”/Hov got flow though he’s no Big and Pac, but he’s close/How I’m ‘posed to win? They got me fighting ghosts.” –Jay-Z “Most Kingz”
29. “I’m in a good mood, you lucky, I got a good groove/And I ain’t trying to fuck my thing up/But I will lay down a couple green bucks, get you cleaned up/Now I’m Pulp Fiction, Colt four-fifth and/Young niggas that blast for me, no religion, no religion.” – Jay-Z on Memphis Bleek’s “Dear Summer”
30. “Since you was a baby coward/We been sprinkling the world with baby powder/ So Fresh and So Clean/Been an outcast since I was a teen/But I outlast cuz I out blast anybody you bring.” – Jay-Z on Beanie’s Sigel’s “Once Again It’s On”
31.”Sisters tell the truth, bitches tell lies/Sisters drive cars, bitches wanna ride/Sisters give-up the ass, bitches give-up the ass/Sisters do it slow, bitches do it fast/Sisters do their dirt outside of where they live/Bitches have niggas all up in your crib/Sisters tell you quick “you better check your homie”/Bitches don’t give a fuck, they wanna check for your homie/Sisters love Jay cuz they know how ‘Hov is/I love my sisters, I don’t love no bitch.”- Jay-Z “Bitches & Sisters”
32.“And ma don’t give him nothin’, unless he’s treatin’ you special/Soon he’ll get desperate, and go down and bless you/And when he come up for air, with a mouth full of hair/Just grab your Coach bag and get the fuck outta there, yeah/I’LL SHOW YOU HOW TO DO THIS HON/Look, think big, fuck getting your nails done/Think cars, cribs, jewels, some shit for your son/Don’t let ’em give you, hard dick and bubble gum/Make him cop the Lex bubble, 2001 hon/I’LL SHOW YOU HOW TO DO THIS HON/And if your man got you baggin’ up, it could be worse/Just put a little in the baggy, put a little in the purse.” – Jay-Z “Show You How”
33. “I see I said, jealousy I said/Got the whole industry mad at me I said/Then B.I. said, Hov remind yourself/Nobody built like you, you designed yourself/I agree I said, my one of a kind self/Get stoned every day like Jesus did/What he said, I said, has been said before/Just keep doin your thing he said, say no more.” – Jay-Z “A Dream”
34. “Weather we dribble out this motherfucker/Rap metaphors and riddle out this motherfucker/Work second floors, hospital out this motherfucker/Some how we gotta get up out this motherfucker/Some day the cops will kill a motherfucker/I don’t always want to be this drug dealing/Motherfucker damn.” – Jay-Z “Some How Some way”
35. “MANG! Lemme get ’em Free/Hov never slackin mang, zippin in the black Range/Faster than the red ghost, gettin’ ghost wit’ Pac-Man/One-time know I got a knack to get that change/Leader of the black gang, R-O-C mang/Bang like T-Mac, ski mask air it out/Gotta kill witnesses cause Free’s beard’s sticking out/Y’all don’t want no witness shit, we squeeze hammers mang/Bullets breeze by you, like Lousiana mang/But I gotta feed Tianna mang/So I move keys you can call me the Piano Man/Rain…sleet, hail…snow man/Slang dope, E, hydro man.” – Jay-Z on Freeway’s “What We Do”
36. “I heard motherfuckers saying they made Hov/Made Hov say, “Ok so, make another Hov”/Niggas wasn’t playing they day role/So we parted ways like Ben and J-Lo/I shoulda been did it but I been in a daze though/I put friends over business end of the day though/But when friends, business interests they go/Ain’t nothing left to say though/I guess we forgot what we came fo’.” – Jay-Z “Lost Ones”
37. “I missed the part when it stopped bein ’bout Imus/What do my lyrics got to do with this shit!/ Scarface the movie did more than Scarface the rapper to me/Still that ain’t to blame for all the shit that’s happened to me/Are you saying what I’m spittin’/Is worse than these celebrattantes showing they kitten, you kiddin’!/Let’s stop the bullshittin/’Til we all without sin, let’s quit the pulpittin.” -Jay-Z “Ignorant Shit”
38. “VVS boulders oh they’re visibly set/Head and shoulders, my invisible neck/You see Hova wasn’t digital yet/Befo’ Steve Jobs made the iPod/Was gettin’ head jobs, we call that intimate/Back when rappers wouldn’t dare play lyrical roulette/With a automatic weapon I was rappin’ with a Tec/Fresh like Mannie be, chain like anti-freeze/Shoebox full of cash, dealer man hand me ki’s/Pantries full of Arm & Hammer, don’t take Nancy Drew to see/What it do, I’m a damn G/Just sent a million dollars through a hands free/That’s big money talk, can you answer me?” – Jay-Z “The Prelude”
39. “Life is a gift, love, open it up/You’re a child of destiny/You’re the child of my destiny/You’re my child with the child from Destiny’s Child/That’s a hell of a recipe.” – Jay-Z “Glory”
40. “Post Postatono, Hov’ hangin with Bono/You too can live like Salvatore Ferragamo/And you too can cool out poolside after Delano/And you too flow like you was out of your mind yo/cos who knew dude who loved apple pies from McDonalds/Would soon be the boss of the Big Apple, ya know/And who knew dude would play ball for the NBA/Would make a mistake on the ‘Who Knew’ Estates, throw it away/Who knew that would be his last shot, who drew up that play/They giveth and they taketh, life is cruel that way/But even a broken clock is right at least two times a day/You could have turned Guns into Roses like two times today/Now there’s something you gotta say, two times to Jay/I got my shades on, waiting for the sun to shine my way/Got my boom box, suntan lotion waiting for action/They say when you play with skills, good luck will happen/Let’s go.” – Jay-Z “Gun ‘N Roses”
41. “From Marcy to Madison Square/To the only thing that matters in just a matter of years/As fate would have it, Jay’s status appears/To be at an all-time high, perfect time to say goodbye/When I come back like Jordan, wearing the 4-5/It ain’t to play games with you, it’s to aim at you, probably maim you/If I owe you I’m blowin’ you to smithereens/Cocksucker, take one for your team/And I need you to remember one thing, I came, I saw, I conquered/From record sales to sold out concert/So motherfucker if you want this encore/I need you to scream til your lungs get sore.” -Jay-Z “Encore”
42.“I talk jewels and spit diamonds: all cherry/Like a hymen, when I’m rhyming with remarkable timing/Caviar and silk dreams, my voice is linen/Spitting venom up in the minds of young women.” – Jay-Z “Cashmere Thoughts”
43. “I dumbed down for my audience to double my dollars/They criticized me for it, yet they all yell “holla”/If skills sold, truth be told, I’d probably be/Lyrically Talib Kweli/Truthfully I wanna rhyme like Common Sense/But I did 5 mill’ – I ain’t been rhyming like Common since.” -Jay-Z “Moment Of Clarity”
