As if Jay-Z’s 4:44 album hasn’t already sparked enough headlines, his entire catalog found itself at the center of a great debate as Trent Clark, Marcel Williams and Jake Rohn took it upon themselves to rank the legendary MC’s entire solo discography from start to finish.
Things Get Heated When #DXLive Ranks JAY-Z’s Albums
Rounding out the bottom of the list across the board were unsurprisingly 2013’s Samsung extravaganza, Magna Carta Holy Grail and the culmination of the self-proclaimed “worst retirement ever,” Kingdom Come.
And, of course, Hov’s debut opus Reasonable Doubt came in at number one for Jake and Marcel and number two for Trent. But in between the discussion, all hell broke loose as the three bickered over Jay’s mid-career efforts like The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, Hard Knock Life: Vol. 2 and American Gangster.
Jake (that’s me) caused the most controversy when he ranked The Blueprint (Trent’s number one pick) at number seven, citing the album’s repetitive tempo, lack of superior one-liners and one of Timbaland’s most underwhelming beats to date as his so-called rationale. 2003’s scene-stealing The Black Album (Marcel #5, Jake #2, Trent #7) was also another point of contention.
The debate remained intense throughout and although the three remain friends, no love is ever lost when it comes to ranking one of the greatest rappers of all time’s amaranthine body of work. (And that’s without including Jay’s collaborative albums.)
Tell us who got it right and who should be fired in the comments section and be sure to tune into #DXLive every Thursday from 6pm-8:30pm EST.
1. The Blueprint
2. The Black Album
3. Reasonable Doubt
4. American Gangstee
5. VOL 2
6. 4:44
7. VOL 1
8. BP2
9. VOL 3
10. Dynasty
11. BP3
12. Kingdom Come
13. Magna Carter
In my opinion, Marcel’s came closest.
1. ) Reasonable Doubt 2. ) Blueprint 3. ) Black Album 4. ) 4:44 5. ) Vol. 2 5. Dynasty 6.) the rest.
1.Vol.2
2.Blueprint
3.4:44(Regardless of rank this is the Album of his career)
4.The Black Album
5.The Dynasty
6.Vol.1
7.Reasonable Doubt
8.BP3
9.Vol.3
10.American Gangster
11.Magna Carta
12.Kingdom Come
13.BP2(Worst Double Album Ever, sorry Hov!)
Who cares, these morons don’t know anything about rap.
Agreed. All three of these dudes are
Lames! Handsome ass lames!
1. Reasonable Doubt 2. Black Album 3. American Gangster 4. 4:44 5. Blueprint 6. VOL 2 7. VOL 1 8. VOL 3 9. BP2 10. Dynasty 11. Kingdom Come 12. MCHG 13. BP3
1Reasonable doubt 2blue print 3black album 4American gangster 54:44 6hard knock life vol2 7watch the throne 8vol1 9dynasty 10vol3 11blueprint3 12blueprint2 13best of both worlds 14mchg 15kingdom come 16unfinish business
1. Reasonable Doubt
2. Blueprint
3. Volume 2
4. Blueprint 2
5. Dynasty
6. Black Album
7. Volume 3
8. American Gangsta
9. Best of Both Worlds
10. Watch The Throne
11. Vol. 1
12. Magna Carta
13. 4:44
4:44 the worst? Blueprint 2 in the top 5? C’mon man…
You guys wrote “MCHF” three times… where did you learn how to do acronyms???
Magna Carta Holy Fail
If you watch the video it’s explained pretty early on as “Magna Carta Holy Fail” ??
Dey ALL fuccin cumershial garbage real spit doe. Fucc da Least coast overraided rappers doe. Fucc gay z fucc NASimp fucc scruffy and fucc feminem doe. WEST CIZZOAST FA LIZZIFE!!!!
You wack
1.Reasonable Doubt
2.The Blueprint
3.The Black Album
4.The Dynasty
5.Vol.3
6.Vol.2
7.Vol.1
8.The Blueprint 3
9.Blueprint 2
10.American Gangster
11.4:44
11.Magna Carta
12.Kingdom Come
Nah. Your list lost credential ranking BP2 way up there like that.
So long as BP2 is among his top 3 worse and BP is in his top 3 best, y’all can fiddle around with the rankings.
Shouldn’t be that debatable. RD, Blueprint, Black Album and AG are his best albums in whatever order you want. Vol.1, minus a few songs, would’ve been better than all 4. Dynasty and Vol.2 right behind that. Kingdom, Vol.3 and Magna are probably the “worst”, but it’s only in comparison to 4 classics, on their own they all got some shit on there. Everything else is around the same level…
Aww jake and marcel musta just got done holding hands and tugging eachother off in the broom closet and agreed to make 4:44 #4 cause its already all 4’s awww you guys color coordinate outfits and purses daily too? And call eachother the night before and wear the same outfits? Man fucking sheep i tell you
I’m ashamed to admit this but DX doesn’t have a broom closet. They keep cleaning supplies in the kitchen. Thanks for reading though ??
1*the blueprint/2*reasonable doubt/3*vol1/4*the black album/5*the dynasty/6*american gangster/7*vol 2/8*bp2/9*4.44/10*vol 3/11*bp 3/12*kingdom come*13*mchg*…this is the list*
MCHG is better then KINGDOM COME
Reasonable doubt, the blueprint, black album, 444, vol 2 that’s his top 5.
444 is not in his top 5*yall living in the moment*
If dynasty was 10 songs only then it could arguably be his best album. So many classic joints. But there are a lot of fillers on that disc. I’d put it at 6 or 7.
444 is definitely his best album since black album. And arguably his most consistent album. Maybe cos the low amount of songs on it. I hate to use the word classic. But it’s looking that way.
American gangster*…dude u don’t know jays music*fall back newbie*
how no one gonna consider the 2 joints he did with R. Kelly and Watch the Throne?!
Blueprint
Reasonable Doubt
Dynasty
Vol. 1
Black Album
Vol. 2
American Gangster
Vol. 3
Best of Both Worlds
BP2
Watch the Throne
Kingdom Come
BP3
4:44
Unfinished Business
MCHF
1.The BluePrint is def his best album, he was at his peek at that time and you could see it especially on mtv unplugged show. 2. Reasonable doubt 3. The Black album 4. American Gangsta 5. Vol.2
The BluePrint doesnt have a wack song on it and might be a perfect album
I actually think the dynasty is 5
Reasonable Doubt can be argued for number one because u can listen to it like forever and it will never be played oit but the blueprint is a better album just got more played out then reasonable doubt
Oh ok so now i realise why DX has gone sooooo downhill the last few years its because they have fucking kids working for them or at least write like kids…. that hand writing is fucking embarrassing!!! Lol
I took another look at the board and starting laughing my ass off. Haha!
Am I missing something, why is it listed MGHF?
Magna Carta Holy Fail?
1. reasonable doubt
2. blueprint
3. black album
4. american gangster
5. vol.1
6. blueprint 2
7. dynasty
8. 4:44
9. blueprint 3
10. vol.3
11. vol.2
12. kingdom come
13. MCHG
…now thats facts for u people
Everybody overrates The Black Album with no logical explanation as to why.
what about the 2 r kelly joints, the uncut joint and the linkin park joint??
R Kelly collabos were weak. It seemed like 02 was Jay’s lowest point in his career, as far as quality music goes.
Black Album at #7? Trent is tripping fr
Blueprint is the most overrated piece of rubbish. If another rapper did some of the pop garbage hooks that are on the first half of the album they would’ve been laughed out of town.
RD, Tha Black Album, The Dyn, WTT, BP2, AG, BP, KC, Vol1, BP3, Vol3, MCHG, Vol2
Get off the nostalgia ‘old bul’. You probably think Hard Knock life is a good song, right? lol. Go and listen to Hammer. Vol 2 has some of his worst songs on it.
MCHF = Magna Carter Holy Fail ?
Lol.
lol at the dumb idiot that has the BP2 and BP3 way over the Blueprint. Yeah buddy… the peak of Jay-Z’s career is certainly his 7th best album. what a moron. Also, go back and listen to vol 3. Very underrated. Yeah there were some misses and you need to fast forward anything that Amil was on. But Beans and Timbo were on one on that album… the Premo cut was underrated.
Why though? For the embarrassing poppy shit that most of the first half of the album contains? People who rate BP1 must dig Flo Rida, BEP and 50 Cent. There is some incredibly wack songs on it.
There is only one Jay-Z album without a bad song on it and it’z american gangster. I like all of his albums except MCHG and B3 which were both a pile of garbage from start to finish. RD no.1 no discussion.
I second the American Gangster comment but what would be the bad song on Reasonable Doubt?
That one with Foxy is horrible.
Horrible? It started his commercial success!
Be honest though. It was the weakest song on RD.
Yes I was thinking the Foxy Brown featured song. Even though I kinda liked the video, it does not mix well with the overall sound of the album. It was not THAT bad as a standalome single but as I listened to RD i skipped it in 96 and I skip it today. Same goes for “hola hovito” and “jigga that”. Oh and btw The B3 is not bad as i stated. It has “Run This Town” and “NY state of mind”. Both great songs…
Reasonable Doubt, Blueprint and Black Album are Jay’s top 3. MCHG, BP2 (how you gonna follow up Blueprint with this) and Kingdom Come are his worst 3.
Y’all are way off, first of all Jay-Z has 16 albums and here’s the reality of how there ranked for I know Jay-Z better then anyone guarantee what’s wrong with you people need to listen to Magna Carta and Blueprint 3 again get a refresher those are both great classic albums not even close to worse are you people even listen to music or do you just skimp through it here’s reality
1) Reasonable Doubt
2) Blue Print
3) Hard Knock life
4) Black Album
5) The Dynasty
6) Magna Carta HG
7) Life and Times of SC
8) American Gangster
9) Blue Print 3
10) Watch the Throne
11) In My Lifetime
12) 4:44
13) Blue Print 2
14) Kingdom Come
15) Best of both Worlds
16) Unfinished Business
THINK ABOUT IT, THINK ABOUT IT, THINK ABOUT IT
Dude, it’s okay to say a Jay-Z album is terrible. It’s not like he’s gonna kill you in your sleep if you say Magna Carta or BP3 are bad albums.
diddnt realize so many people disliked mchg.. bp3 on the other hand was trash
All 16 albums are good
Marcel, Jake,Trent, are all way off no disrespect, I imagine you guys are young and probably haven’t listened to Jay-Z like someone like me, I’ve listened to Jay -Z since ’95 your all so far off I can’t pick a winner, they all lose, rap assignment is go back and listen to all Jay-Z’s albums over and over and over and over and over until you realize your mistakes that’s your rap assignment
I guess the young comment is a compliment on our looks? We’re all over 30 and have been doing this for years. Check the credentials. And ranking BP3 at No. 2 kinda makes me not want to read anything else you wrote. No disrespect of course.
He doesn’t have Blueprint 3 at #2 He has Blue Print at #2 and then the 3 of his next ranked album is next to it. Blue Print 3 is #9
All of King HOV’s albums are classics, period! Broke ass Nas only has overrated Illmatic.
Volume I, Reasonable Doubt, Blueprint, 4:44, Volume 2 makes the top 5. 4:44 is sick
1. The Black Album
2. Reasonable Doubt
3. The Blueprint
4. 4:44
5. Vol.1
6. American Gangster
7. Vol. 2
8. Vol.3
9. Blueprint 3
10. Blueprint 2
11. Magna Carta Holy Grail
12. Kingdom Come
13. The Dynasty
Marcel, I can mess with your list – although I like Blueprint 3! lol – I also love when Kanye says “pew pewmm” LOL!
Ryan, you have BP3 at #2 and #9?
imo, all the records are worth the listen. BP (the original) is classic, RD is classic. I read an article where someone was dissing RD, I forget which site. It’s ez to look back over someone’s catalogue and say this album or that album is overrated (@DX i.e. TICAL). However at the time that joint dropped, it was dope and different.
Trent-
I realize this is your opinion, but Black Album 7th and AG at 3???? Lost me bro
Not only is this album not “overrated” but it’s a classic. SMH..
CLASSIC ALBUMS IN ORDER. REASONABLE DOUBT, BLUEPRINT, BLACK ALBUM, 444, VOL 2, ROC LA FAMILIA – DYNASTY, AMERICAN GANGSTER, BLUEPRINT 2.5 LOL – EVERYTHING ELSE IS GOOD OR AVERAGE.
So everything in 10 years ya’ll just automatically rank low? Come on. Talk about fans who don’t want an artist to grow. That ish is so dated. Plus, he makes grown man music. ADAPT
1. Black 2. 4:44 3. Blueprint 3 (made me a fan) 4. Holy Grail. 5. In My Lifetime 6. Blueprint for the first half. Rest.. 7. Kingdom Come.
Everything else especially American Gangster.. Ha