Common wisdom holds that Jay-Z has only been “outrapped†a handful of times. Most notable is The Blueprint’s “Renegade†(as Nas puts it on “Ether,†“Eminem murdered you on your own shit.†Not very nice, Nas!); to a lesser extent, there’s also “Big Pimpin’â€, where Bun B really goes in while Jay just kind of lazily talks about how many girls he noncommittally sleeps with. To this list we hesitantly add “Light Up,†one of the more anticipated tracks off Drake’s Thank Me Later, which leaked earlier today. “Hesitantly†because no one really expects 2010 Jay-Z to turn in incredible verses (how many amazing ones were on all of Blueprint 3?), it’s not like we want to admit Drake came out on top, and Jay’s verse is really more bland than atrocious (except for “I don’t do too much blogging/I just run the town, I don’t do too much joggin’.†That is atrocious). But maybe inspired by getting the “chorus-only†snub the last time these two got together, Drizzy turns in a sterling sixteen about — what else? — how it’s weird that he’s rich and famous now, which manages to reference both the 1996 Rhea Perlman vehicle Sunset Park and the fact that Kelsey Grammer was the executive producer on UPN sitcom Girlfriends. Now that’s the mark of a winner.
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