Michael Barbaro

One of the things the writer, rapper behind arguably our great New York anthem of the 21st century, Empire State of Mind, among many other songs.

Beyond Billy Joel's, obviously, yeah.

Yeah, I think of him as sort of more of a bridge and tunnel bard.

But moving on.

So Jay-Z, of course, chronicled his life, his kind of hardscrabble upbringing in Brooklyn, in a lot of his music.

his kind of mythic journey from street corner hustler to famous rapper to now mogul, and yep.

Billionaire.

Jay-Z, of course, is a master storyteller, but also kind of a legendary technician.

just a true genius when it comes to writing rhymes, finding rhythmic pockets and flows.

just one of the great practitioners of his art form ever.

What was the most revealing thing he said to you about his songwriting process?

It was really fascinating speaking to him about sort of how songs start for him.

Jay-Z is famous for coming to the studio, hearing a beat, and kind of writing very quickly in the studio to that beat.

But it's a challenge as a writer that you relish and you want.

So if you listen to like a great early song of his, like Dead Presidents 2.

What you hear there is intricately rhymed lines with...

double entendres, triple entendres, puns, wordplay, all that.

So Jay-Z had to be on this list because he is just a master practitioner of this great art form, which maybe not enough people recognize as central to songwriting itself.

Now, from Jay-Z, you then veered into a kind of songwriting tradition that in my mind is kind of unheralded and to a certain degree unseen.

And that is a group of writers in Tennessee.