Dead or alive: Jay-Z chooses his ultimate cypher
Throughout his career, Jay-Z has had the pleasure of working with several excellent rappers and producers. This has allowed the Brooklyn rapper to cement himself as one of the greatest MCs on the planet, with a stellar discography and a range that encapsulates the heart of East Coast rap and goes all the way to rock’ n roll. As such, the rapper has an excellent ear for flow, style, and cadence.
He has such a talent for how he performs that other rappers persistently cite Jay-Z as an influence. In an interview, Kendrick Lamar admitted he was so enamoured with Jay-Z’s cadence that he listened to the rapper repeatedly to pick up some tips.
“I got into Reasonable Doubt like 2002, 2001. I was super late,” said the Compton rapper, “On the West Coast, we weren’t really playing East Coast music like that just because of all the beef stuff that was going on – we was really influenced by that.” Kendrick admits he returned to Jay-Z once he started writing his own material, though. “I had to double back and listen to Jay-Z once I started writing. And one of my favourite tracks on there is ‘Politics As Usual’. Just the vibe of it and the flow. I really captured that flow and stole that cadence just being a student of the game.”
With a flow, cadence, and ability to use words that continue to inspire, it begs the question, who inspired Jay-Z? Having worked with so many people and with such an encyclopaedic knowledge of hip-hop, when he was asked which five rappers would make up his dream cypher, rap fans gathered around to find out who Jay considers some of the best to ever do it.
The first was fellow East Coast rapper Biggie Smalls. He talked about Biggie’s versatility and how he thinks that would contribute to the cypher nicely, “I would choose Big because of his ability to tell stories,” he said, “To be humorous, to be dead serious, he just had it all. And just his voice alone.”
Travelling to the other side of the country, Jay then admitted he would like Biggie’s counterpart, 2Pac, in the mix as well, more for his delivery as opposed to his technical ability. “I would choose Pac because what he doesn’t have in technical skills will be overcome by passion… His passion could put a lot of guys to sleep.”
Making up the last three names in the cypher, Jay-Z said he would want to be rapping alongside Kool G. Rap, Big Daddy Kane, and KRS-One. All of these rappers had something special about them, which undoubtedly influenced how Jay-Z wrote lyrics and made music as a whole. He finishes by saying that five MCs aren’t enough for his dream cypher and quickly gives a shout-out to Eminem and Nas, too.