How many Jay-Z songs are produced by Kanye West?
Longtime collaborators and at one point hip-hop’s favourite bromance, Kanye West and Jay-Z made a charge for the rap throne throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s, and charge they did. The duo laid siege to the genre and to the music industry in general, dominating the airwaves in equal parts together and individually to forever write their names into the history of rap royalty.
By the late noughties Jay, born Shawn Carter, had already become ‘El Presidente’. He remained one of the only ‘90s rap artists still atop the mountain, dominating the game for arguably the longest period of time. This was undoubtedly in large part due to his consistent and sustained production of acclaimed releases.
His The Blueprint trilogy of albums included The Blueprint, The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse and The Blueprint 3, and spanned the whole decade, each was critically and commercially successful. His 2003 release The Black Album is also still adored by fans as is his 1997 album In My Lifetime, Vol 1.
Hov has continued to be so successful because of his ability to adapt; a skill that left a lot of other rappers by the wayside as the genre went through its many different transitions. The maturity and awareness of this is signified in his 2017 record 4:44 which is much more revealing and politically charged.
The Brooklyn-born rapper’s adaptability wasn’t limited to his music, though. 2008 was probably Jay’s greatest year as he founded the entertainment company Roc Nation. The formation of this company was a driving force behind the rapper becoming the first hip-hop billionaire in 2019. He also wed megastar Beyonce in ’08; forming music’s most powerful couple and cementing himself as an immovable titan of the industry.
2008 was also a big year for another artist as Kanye debuted his fourth studio album, 808s & Heartbreak, atop the Billboard 200 for the third time in a row. West was following up the Mammoth successes of 2005’s Late Registration and 2007’s Graduation; two of rap’s most celebrated albums, and it seemed like nothing could slow him down.
Ye was brought into the industry and mentored by none other than Hov after the former dropped out of college to pursue a career in music. It was only right then that at the peak of their powers, they combined to make a monumental statement in 2011 with their collaborative album Watch the Throne.
This record was an amalgamation of rap history and rap present and included genre-defining tracks like ‘Otis’, ‘No Church in the Wild’ and ’N-ggas in Paris’. If you want to know the state of play of hip-hop in the 2010s, look no further than this record, this is a decade-measuring album.
Kanye had collaborated with Carter many times before though, even before he was a certified artist. When he was brought under the umbrella of Roc Nation, it was for his production ability and he went on to produce a lot of songs for his quote-on-quote big brother, even as early as for The Blueprint.
Ye has produced a whopping reported 14 tracks, that we know of, for Jay, including some of his biggest hits like ‘Izzo (H.O.V.A)’ and ‘A Star Is Born’. Included in these are also collaborative efforts that the Chitown native appears on like a handful of tracks for Watch the Throne, ‘Clique’ and ‘Run This Town’ to name a few.
West has always been a highly sought-after producer, and looking at his track record for just one artist, it’s easy to see why. As the duo remain in the spotlight, with Kanye accomplishing this task through unconventional means, they must be thankful for one another and their contributions to each other’s careers.