Jay Z celebrated his 44th birthday yesterday, naturally sparking many to question or assemble lists of his best albums. With over two decades worth of material, a dozen platinum plaques hanging on his walls, ranking his work is a tough job for fans and critics alike. However, is it harder to do when you are the one who created the art that caused all this ruckus. Apparently, Hov already knows where he would place each of his albums and he was gracious enough to share them with his fans. Reasonable Doubt takes the top spot, while Kingdom Come, sadly falls to the bottom of the barrel. He didn’t just rank them, but he also gave some commentary, check out what he had to say below.

1. Reasonable Doubt (Classic)
2. The Blueprint (Classic)
3. The Black Album (Classic)
4. Vol. 2 (Classic)
5. American Gangster (4 1/2, cohesive)
6. Magna Carta (Fuckwit, Tom Ford, Oceans, Beach, On the Run, Grail)
7. Vol. 1 (Sunshine kills this album…fuck… Streets, Where I’m from, You Must Love Me…)
8. BP3 (Sorry critics, it’s good. Empire (Gave Frank a run for his money))
9. Dynasty (Intro alone…)
10. Vol. 3 (Pimp C verse alone… oh, So Ghetto)
11. BP2 (Too many songs. Fucking Guru and Hip Hop, ha)
12. Kingdom Come (First game back, don’t shoot me)

via Life+Times

Do you agree with Jay’s assessment? Let us know.

Jimi (@Nativejimi)