>and you can't complain about people not judging him on his
>music, when at least 80% of his GOAT candidacy is based on a
>combo of his girl, his money, sales and famous friends. so
>y'all and him made it about shit other than music. can't be
>mad at us.

Everybody I know who considers Jay an elite MC (myself included), who thought so well before this '01 threshold you are using, do so because we grew up driving around in cars banging Jay-Z albums start to finish and reciting every word..

Where you're wrong is that its not him and his fans who make it about shit other than the music. I mean I just saw him last night rip on stage for 2 hours doing mostly album cuts that go hard with a full band, with 10,000 people knowing all the words to "U Don't Know" and "Public Service Announcement" and "Allure" and "Can I Live" and etc. In other words, he's still making music at this point in his career strictly FOR the music. The money he makes off music now is a drop in the bucket. What I saw last night was a guy who is in love with his craft, and performs it at a higher level than the vast majority of his peers.

Its you and the people who don't like him who use the shit other than the music, since it certainly exists, to try to say that its the only reason for his success.