Jay Z Curates a Rap Songwriting Hall of Fame With New Playlist

Jay Z showcases music from other rappers that deserves to be in the Songwriting Hall of Fame.

Jay Z hasn't released a new project in over three years and yet he's still taking hip-hop to new heights and achieving new accomplishments. Yesterday he became the first rapper ever to be entered into the Songwriting Hall of Fame, a major moment for him and rap overall that many felt was long overdue. With all of the congrats and salutes pouring in, Hov hopped on Twitter towards the end of the day to share his own brief thoughts:

While appearing on CBS This Morning to reveal the new inductees, Hall of Famer Nile Rodgers intimated that Jay Z had long been considered but the voting board was hesitant to include rap among the applicable genres. Jay's tweet seemed to echo the sentiments of everyone else on the internet yesterday that he, and plenty of his peers, should've been inducted ages ago.

In true Jay Z fashion, he's decided to just do it himself. Jigga's latest playlist for his streaming service Tidal basically nominates the rappers for whom he thinks an induction should follow suit, essentially creating his own Hall of Fame for rappers that Nile and his buddies haven't warmed up to honoring yet. It features two songs from Eminem (the rapper many Complex commenters were caping for the most in the mentions yesterday), two from OutKast, as well as one song each from the likes of Nas, Kanye, Biggie, 2Pac, Public Enemy, Lauryn Hill, N.W.A., and more (and none of his own). One would assume that each song picked is, in Jay's opinion, the best example of the respective artist's pop songwriting talent. Let's hope next year's inductees continue to put some respect on rap's pen game.

In the meantime, hopefully Jay Z is gearing up to drop a new album that just furthers the case for his recent honor. His rumored 13th solo was our No. 2 pick for most anticipated albums of 2017. Recently, intriguing collab comments from producers like Zaytoven, and sightings of Jay leaving studios with longtime engineer Young Guru have sparked rumblings that Hova's gearing up for a grand return.

Bump the playlist above and hit the comments with your own song picks from these artists that you think best showcase their superior writing skills.

Latest in Music