Starting around the The Black Album and the accompanying phony retirement hype, Jay's verses became increasingly shallow as the subtext, the casual arrogance in his voice and effortless flow, the supreme confidence that comes with being the greatest rapper alive, became the text and suddenly Jay was just calling himself 'the greatest,' often in a grating, theatrical, I-really-mean-it delivery, (which, thank God, is gone here) without demonstrating any of the flair that earned him the crown. As Brandon Soderberg pointed out, Jay has become a habitual violator of the old Creative Writing maxim of showing instead of telling. Like MJ, Hov, through the lens of essentialism, presents his past championships as a defining and undying personal quality and tries to keep that image of himself in the spotlight through sheer force of will.Lyrically, Jay-Z is still on the obsessive self-congratulating tip of Kingdom Come. or cold-blooded competitor or in referencing their parallel retirements on The Blueprint 3, Jay-Z has his own podium moment. Jay-Z has compared himself to Jordan throughout his career, whether as a fellow G.O.A.T. Jordan delivered a rambling twenty five minute speech that glossed over the influence of his mentors and teammates and instead returned again and again to his rivals, from stars he battled for championships to ordinary people who served him the pettiest of slights, to recount his grudges against them and the vengeance he unfailingly won over them.

In front of an audience of basketball legends and fans who had paid $1,000 a ticket, all of whom seemed eager to celebrate his career and share a rare unguarded personal moment with a man they idolize.

On the same day that Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 was released last week, Michael Jordan was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

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