![]() ![]() Drake collaborated with both Jay and ’Ye early on, but there was competitive tension from the start.ĭrake and the Throne were on a collision course in 2013 when all three released albums within months of one another. The lyric referred to Jay-Z and Kanye West, collectively known as the Throne, both widely considered hip-hop’s rulers at the time. “I’m just feeling like the throne is for the taking, watch me take it,” he raps on Khaled’s “I’m on One” in 2011. Any rapper with a claim to the throne must also be battle-tested or inspire fear.ĭrake quickly rose to superstardom on the heels of his breakthrough mixtape So Far Gone in 2009 and prophesied himself as the king of hip-hop a couple of years later. Hov, however, over-indexes in all other parts of the criteria. Jay-Z, for instance, wore the crown for significant parts of his career, but has only had the best-selling rap album of the year once: Vol.2… Hard Knock Life in 1998. Record sales help, as they reflect popularity on some level, but they don’t supersede other qualifications. The criteria to be on top comes from an intangible mix of credibility, skill, popularity, impact, influence, and cultural relevance. ![]() The throne has always been somewhat of an abstract concept. The music thrives off ego and competition like no other genre, and almost every artist who lives by hip-hop’s foundational ethos aspires to be the Best Rapper Alive, which leads to tension, subliminal sparring, rivalries or feuds. Rap has been a game of thrones since the beginning. And in the process, he changed the criteria for the throne that any heir will need to live up to in the future. “More slaps than the Beatles” wasn’t hyperbole after all. Drake has managed to put together a record book comparable to Jay in less than half the time. He secured his eighth No.1 on the Hot 100 (fifth as a solo artist) with “Toosie Slide” in April, and he broke the record for the most top 10 hits in the history of the Hot 100 with “Popstar” and “Greece,” the pair of singles he released with DJ Khaled in July. He passed the cast of Glee for most entries (208) on the Billboard Hot 100 with his appearance on Lil Yachty’s “Oprah’s Bank Account” in March. ![]() The Boy is at the 11-year mark of a record-breaking run, and he’s showing no signs of slowing down. ![]() Jay’s lyrics, as it turns out, also apply to Drake. He’s since released seven more albums, including collaborative works with Kanye West ( Watch the Throne) and Beyoncé ( Everything Is Love). Kelly ( Unfinished Business) and Linkin Park ( Collision Course). Of course, he’d return to rap after a three-year break, making guest appearances and releasing joint projects with R. whispers when Jay momentarily called it quits in 2003. A late bloomer by rap standards, releasing his first album at 26, Hov still rhymed at a God level seven years removed from his debut, Reasonable Doubt, in 1996. But perhaps most importantly, he pledged an unwavering commitment to lyricism, released critically-acclaimed and commercially successful bodies of work, and emerged as arguably the most influential rapper since 2Pac. Jay was in the midst of closing an unprecedented run where he released eight solo albums in seven years. “There’s never been a nigga this good for this long,” Jay-Z raps to open “What More Can I Say” from his then-retirement LP, The Black Album, in 2003. ![]()
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