Over the past couple decades Hov has been responsible for some of the best guest verses of all time . When he’s not working on his own album, he’s usually popping up on other artist’s albums to steal the show.
From trying to hustle his way into the rap game on Big L’s posse cut to collaborating with DMX when they were the two best rappers alive, to his iconic lines on Kanye’s “Diamonds” remix to his god-level verse on Meek Mill’s “What’s Free” – Jay-Z has consistently been delivering quality features since ’95.
So let’s get into it. Here are some of the best Jay-Z features over the years. Side note – we didn’t include “Dear Summer” because it’s basically a Hov solo track. If we were to include it, it would have been top five.
From DMX’s “Blackout” and Kanye’s “So Appalled” to Jeezy’s “Seen It All” and Khaled’s “God Did,” here are the 25 best Jay-Z guest verses of all time.
25. “Light Up”
Other rappers on the track: Drake
Album: Thank Me Later
Released: June 15, 2010
Producer: 40, Tone Mason
Best line: “I once was cool as the Fonz was / But these bright lights turned me to a monster”
24. “Free Mason”
Other rappers on the track: Rick Ross
Album: Teflon Don
Released: July 20, 2010
Producer: Lee Major
Best line: “It’s amazing, that I made it through the maze that I was in / Lord forgive me, I never would’ve made it without sin”
23. “All the Way Up (Remix)”
Other rappers on the track: Fat Joe, Remy Ma, French Montana, Infrared
Album: N/A
Released: March 2, 2016
Producer: Edsclusive, Cool & Dre
Best line: “The OG’s say, HOV, how high is high enough? / I said, Till we eye and eye with the higher-ups”
22. “I Do”
Other rappers on the track: Young Jeezy, Andre 3000
Album: TM:103 Hustlerz Ambition
Released: December 20, 2011
Producer: M16
Best line: “Honor the code, not bring drama to mama’s peephole / Life’s a bitch but she’s the only love that I know”
21. “Welcome to New York City”
Other rappers on the track: Cam’ron, Juelz Santana
Album: Come Home with Me
Released: May 14, 2002
Producer: Just Blaze
Best line: “I’m a BK brawler / Marcy projects hallway loiterer”
20. “Da Graveyard”
Other rappers on the track: Big L,
Album: Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous
Released: March 28, 1995
Producer: Lord Finesse, Microphone Nut, Party Arty, Grand Daddy I.U.
Best line: “Pound for p-p-pound the best around / No way you can get up when I get down”
19. “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe (Remix)”
Other rappers on the track: Kendrick Lamar
Album: N/A
Released: March 17, 2013
Producer: Sounwave
Best line: “It’s a million dollars in it, baby, Hilary Swank / Sittin’ next to Hillary smellin’ like dank”
18. “Clique”
Other rappers on the track: Kanye West, Big Sean
Album: Cruel Summer
Released: September 6, 2012
Producer: Hit-Boy, Kanye West, Anthony Kilhoffer, Noah Goldstein
Best line: “Yeah, I’m talkin’ LeBron, we ball in our family tree / G.O.O.D. Music drug-dealing cousin, ain’t nothin’ fuckin’ with we”
17. “Flux Capacitor”
Other rappers on the track: Jay Electronica
Album: A Written Testimony
Released: March 13, 2020
Producer: Jay Electronica, James Blake
Best line: “You backstabbers gon’ turn me back to the old Jay / He’s not who you wanna see, he’s not as sweet as the old Ye”
16. “The Devil Is A Lie”
Other rappers on the track: Rick Ross
Album: Mastermind
Released: December 19, 2013
Producer: Major Seven, K.E. on the Track
Best line: “Is Hova atheist? I never fuck with True Religion / Am I down with the devil ’cause my roof come up missin’? / Is that Lucifer juice in that two cup he sippin’?”
15. “Hustlin’ (Remix)”
Other rappers on the track: Rick Ross, Young Jeezy
Album: Port of Miami
Released: August 8, 2006
Producer: The Runners
Best line: “We don’t resort to violence, we on resorts and islands / With linen shorts and shades, ‘case they thought you was lyin'”
14. “Guess Who’s Back”
Other rappers on the track: Scarface, Beanie Sigel
Album: The Fix
Released: August 6, 2002
Producer: Kanye West
Best line: “You can blame my old earth / For the shit she instilled in me, still with me, pain plus work”
13. “Show & Prove”
Other rappers on the track: Big Daddy Kane, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Sauce Money, Shyheim, Scoob Lover
Album: Daddy’s Home
Released: August 13, 1994
Producer: DJ Premier
Best line: “I’m breaking MC’s up like EPMD / And these nuts if you rappers trying to see me”
12. “So Appalled”
Other rappers on the track: Kanye West, Pusha T, Cyhi the Prynce, Swizz Beatz, RZA
Album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Released: September 24, 2010
Producer: Kanye West, No I.D., Mike Dean
Best line: “Dark Knight feeling, die and be a hero / Or live long enough to see yourself become a villain / I went from the favorite to the most hated / But would you rather be underpaid or overrated?”
11. “I Love the Dough”
Other rappers on the track: Easy Mo Bee
Album: Life After Death
Released: March 25, 1997
Producer: Easy Mo Bee
Best line: “We push the hottest V’s, peel fast / Through the city, play Monopoly with real cash”
10. “Ha (Remix)”
Other rappers on the track: Juvenile
Album: 400 Degreez
Released: November 3, 1998
Producer: Mannie Fresh
Best line: “You done fucked around with some wild ni**as / You done fucked off the dough of Juvenile and Jigga’s”
9. “Blackout”
Other rappers on the track: DMX, Styles P, Jadakiss, Sheek Louch
Album: Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood
Released: December 22, 1998
Producer: Swizz Beatz
Best line: “I sleep whole winters, wake up and spit summers / Ghetto ni**a, putting up Will Smith numbers”
8. “God Did”
Other rappers on the track: Lil Wayne, Rick Ross
Album: GOD DID
Released: August 26, 2022
Producer: DJ Khaled, STREETRUNNER, Tarik Azzouz & Fridayy?
Best line: “Next time we have a discussion who the G.O.A.T., you donkeys know this / Forgive me, that’s my passion talkin’ / Sometimes I feel like Farrakhan (Haha) talkin’ to Mike Wallace”
7. “What’s Free”
Other rappers on the track: Meek Mill, Rick Ross
Album: Championships
Released: November 30, 2018
Producer: Streetrunner, Azzouz
Best line: “We started without food in our mouth / They gave us pork and pig intestines / Shit you discarded that we ingested, we made the project a wave / You came back, reinvested and gentrified it / Took ni**as’ sense of pride, now how that’s free?”
6. “Seen It All”
Other rappers on the track: Young Jeezy
Album: Seen It All: The Autobiography
Released: July 1, 2014
Producer: Cardo
Best line: “Parked ninety-two bricks in front of 560 State / Now the Nets a stone throw from where I used to throw bricks / So it’s only right I’m still tossin’ ’round Knicks”
5. “Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix)”
Other rappers on the track: Kanye West
Album: Late Registration
Released: August 30, 2005
Producer: Kanye West, Devo Springsteen, Jon Brion
Best line: “I’m not a businessman; I’m a business, man! / Let me handle my business, damn”
Quite possibly the most iconic Jay-Z guest verse of all time, if only for his businessman quote. Kanye would admit two years later on his ode to Hov that his big brother got him on this track – “On that “Diamonds” remix I swore I spazzed / Then my big brother came through and kicked my ass.”
4. “Drug Dealers Anonymous”
Other rappers on the track: Pusha T
Album: N/A
Released: May 31, 2016
Producer: DJ Dahi
Best line: “Tried to build a cell around me / Snatched my ni**a Emory up / Tried to get him to tell about me / He told 12, “Gimme 12” / He told them to go to hell about me”
Pusha T must really remind Hov of his earlier drug-dealing days because whenever the two link up, he always goes into a completely different zone. On “Drug Dealers Anonymous” Jay balances vivid rearview mirror imagery with modern day flexing as he and Push pull out this legendary dope boy anthem.
3. “Young G’s”
Other rappers on the track: Puff Daddy, The Notorious B.I.G.
Album: No Way Out
Released: July 22, 1997
Producer: Rashad Smith
Best line: “And I told my ni**a Big I’d be multi before I die / And it’s gon’ happen, whether rapping or clapping, have it your way / ‘Cause if that’s my dough you’re trapping, I’m clapping your way”
You only need to listen to their three collaborations – “Brooklyn’s Finest”, “I Love the Dough” and “Young G’s” – to understand how dope The Commission would have been if Big had survived . While Big steals the show on this track with an undeniable flow and his effortless wordplay, Hov’s verse was more low-key but still full of endless quotables.
2. “Go Crazy (Remix)”
Other rappers on the track: Young Jeezy
Album: Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101
Released: July 26, 2005
Producer: Don Cannon
Best line: “See I’mma ‘80s baby, master of Reaganomics / School of Hard Knocks, every day is college”
Jeezy and Young Hov have never missed in all these years collaborating with each other. When the ATL rapper signed to Def Jam in 2004, Jay-Z, the label’s president at the time, was one of his biggest champions and he made sure to show his support. Over a gorgeous sample of Curtis Mayfield’s “(Man, Oh Man) I Want To Go Back,” Hov and Jeezy create an iconic dope boy anthem that will live forever.
1. “Never Let Me Down”
Other rappers on the track: Kanye West
Album: The College Dropout
Released: February 10, 2004
Producer: Kanye West
Best line: “Hov’s a living legend and I’ll tell you why / Everybody wanna be Hov and Hov’s still alive”
On the debut album of the Roc’s newest signee, Hov showed up and blacked out with one of his finest verses post-2003 retirement. The Brooklyn legend took the first verse to remind hip hop who the fuck he was and all the achievements he’s accomplished in a relatively short timespan, then came back for a second verse to explain his living legend status. Kanye was spitting his heart out on this but he didn’t stand a chance on this track.
