Hip Hop Hubris: 'Forever' by Drake et al

Last name: Ever
First name: Greatest
Like a sprained ankle
Boy, I ain't nothin' to play with
-Drake, 'Forever'

Hmmm. Last name: Ever and first name: Greatest. Well, that makes the name... Greatest Ever. Now, Drake, I don't think that's actually your real name, not when Wikipedia tells me that it's actually Aubrey Drake Graham. So if that's not your actual name, I assume that you're using it as some kind of braggadocio for something. But what?

Greatest Ever Drake? Sorry son, but I'm pretty sure that title belongs to Sir Francis.

Greatest ever MC? Well, that's a very bold claim. Three MCs I would consider his superior off the top of my head would be Kanye West, L'il Wayne and Eminem... totally coincidentally, the three guest stars on this  track.

Well, I've run out of ideas. Maybe he makes a mean chilli.

Of course, it's interesting this video is make in conjunction with brand LeBron (this song was on the soundtrack to More Than a Game, the documentary about LeBron's last high-school season). There's a lot of posturing by the two of them, a lot of needing to be constantly reminded by their support groups about how awesome they are. LeBron and Drake are totally friends, by the way.

(In the interests of fairness, Drake is totally right about sprained ankles. You definitely don't want to play on one of those. Take it from the guy who sprained his ankle and thought it would be okay to go out that same night if he shoved a bag of ice down his sock. Not my smartest move).

Hip Hop Hubris: 'Empire State of Mind' by Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys

me i gotta plug Special Ed and i got it made,
If Jesus payin LeBron, I’m paying Dwyane Wade
 -Jay-Z, 'Empire State of Mind' 

Now this was quite a bold claim by Jay-Z when he first made it in 2009. I assume his meaning at the time was supposed to be that he was only slightly behind Jesus in terms of importance and ability to compensate NBA stars for their ability.

Then LeBron James decided to move to Miami and play with Dwyane Wade. Then they made the NBA Finals and Wade played significantly better than LeBron, who had an implosion on a scale rarely seen and rarely dissected by such media scrutiny (which admittedly was self-inflicted), and everybody had to re-evaluate the LeBron-Wade relationship. As Bill Simmons wrote on Grantland:

If you watched Games 3 and 4 in person, you knew Miami belonged to Dwyane Wade. That was the hardest thing to shake. We made so much fuss about LeBron these past two years and he's not even the most important dude on his own team.

Basically, what I'm trying to ask is this: did Jay-Z say he was better than Jesus?