JAY-Z 13 Albums: Which is the Best and Which is the Worst?

6. Vol. 3 The Life and Times of Shawn Carter

This is when it started to get difficult. Jay-Z has good albums that really depend on your preference. I chose this because of the hits. Jigga my Nigga, Big Pimpin, and Do it Again are on this album

5. The Blueprint 3

This is one of my favorite albums from Jay-Z. In my opinion, this could be considered a classic album.  The only song that I may skip over is Real Is As Gets featuring Jeezy. And that is a slim possibility; this is a very underrated great album.

4. Vol. 2 Hard Knock Life

If you ask me, this is when Jay officially starts running the rap game. He was respected lyrically and was successful but when this album dropped, it started a string of hits that has been hard to duplicate by any other artist. Hard Knock Life, Money Cash Hoes, Nigga What, Nigga Who were some of the songs on this album. It wasn’t a classic, but the hits were so huge, that you can deny Jigga’s impact.

3. The Black Album

There was no debating what my top three Jay-Z albums were going to be. This is another classic album from Hov.

2. Reasonable Doubt

As I said, I’m not going to argue if you say this is Jay’s best album. Shit, I think he has been quoted as saying this is his best album. Nothing more can be said, but it is a masterpiece.

1. The Blueprint

If you say Reasonable Doubt is Jay-Z’s best album, I won’t argue. It is a classic album and one of the best Hip Hop albums of all time. However, The Blueprint was a revolutionary piece of art. It was a reinvention of Jay-Z as an artist. It was the first time that DJ Premier wasn’t on Jay’s album. It was the emergence of Kanye West as one of the best producers. It had the “Takeover” on there and kicked off a legendary battle that possibly saved Nas’s career.  It had a classic verse from Eminem and possibly established Jay-Z as one of the best if not the best rapper of all time.