Jay-Z

When Jay-Z shouts, "I'm sorry, I'm back!" at the start of "Show Me What You Got" — a retirement-breaking single with the piano rolls and sax stabs to match his chest-puffing rhymes — it's easy to say, "Who you kidding, Hova?" Everyone knows the Brooklyn-bred rapper never left, what with his president/CEO position at Def Jam and chart-cracking collaborations with Beyoncé ("Crazy In Love"), Linkin Park (the GRAMMY®-winning "Numb/Encore"), and Kanye West ("Diamonds From Sierra Leone"). Not to mention the timeless status of singles like the Annie-channeling "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" and Jackson 5-sampling "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)." Of course, it doesn't hurt when rap's finest beat-makers are practically begging to work with you, constantly serving up the ingenious productions in our Next Steps.

One quick look at Jay-Z's revolving door of A-list producers is all it takes to understand just how crucial he's been to the rap game for more than a decade. "Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)" and "Never Change" feature the rich, Technicolor® soul textures of an about-to-break Kanye West; the unmistakable boom-bap stamp of DJ Premier propels a piano-laced "Intro: A Million and One Questions" and choppy, head-spinning "So Ghetto"; the bizarre handclap/light saber-wooshing combos of "It's Hot (Some Like It Hot)" is Timbaland at the top of his game; and the seriously twisted "Super Freak" sample is one of many Jay-Z tracks featuring Just Blaze. On a similar tip in the studio-gold department are our Deep Cuts, which feature more stellar Jay-Z singles and a serious stack of choice guest spots.

Oh, to be as in demand as Jay-Z. Aside from having enough skills to fill an entire double album — The Blueprint: The Gift and the Curse, boasting everything from the Timbaland-tweaked synths and Sean Paul toasts of "What They Gonna Do" to the tense, spy-groove soundtrack of the Dr. Dre sequel "The Watcher 2" — Jigga's verse-volleying rhymes have made him a must-have marquee name on so many major hip-hop singles. That includes the chipmunk soul of Roc-A-Fella cohort Kanye West ("Never Let Me Down"), a handful of cuts from Jay's protégée Memphis Bleek (the icy shuffle of "Is That Your Chick," the woo-hoo harmonies of "Dear Summer"), and Foxy Brown's club-conquering breakthrough, "I'll Be," which features one of Jay-Z's tightest choruses ever.

Considered by many to be the Muhammad Ali of MCs, Jay-Z has dominated the rap game for more than a decade, from the skewed pop leanings of In My Lifetime and Vol. 2…Hard Knock Life through his back-to-basics concept album American Gangster (inspired by Denzel Washington's portrayal of Harlem drug kingpin Frank Lucas). And it's easy to understand why: Commercially speaking, Jigga man's sold millions of albums and expanded his brand (now and then stakes in Roc-A-Fella Records/Rocawear, the New Jersey Nets, and the 40/40 Club) enough to make him the richest man in rap. As for his critical cache, it's only grown with time, from his six GRAMMY® wins to rave reviews that have continually praised Jay's incomparable mic skills and deft street poetry — gritty rhymes that provide a perfect counterpoint to the pristine pop hooks and brilliant samples in sync with every syllable.