I just read this about the White Stripes and it mystified me

[Thug Bubbles]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Jay Z doesn't even write [censored] down!

[/ QUOTE ]

this was what came to mind when I started reading this thread. There was a pretty awesome thing that some hiphop magazine did, XXL probably, which was a 'making of' Notorious BIG's Life After Death, and there was a story about Jay-Z and Biggie in the studio pacing in the same room, crossing paths, both mumbling to themselves creating their verses for 'I Love The Dough'

[/ QUOTE ]

Their verses aren't exactly sophisticated, though. Very impressive either way, but there's a large difference between poetry rife with metaphor and symbolism and a rhyming about money.