When neverending debates of the greatest of all time in rap commence, Jay-Z's name reigns as mandatory in these conversations. The longevity that Jay-Z has adored over the course of almost 30 years is unprecedented and unheard of in any profession. Success that lasts that long only comes from an artist who excels at Jay-Z's level, but does his discography excel enough to warrant his GOAT status?

To best assess Jay-Z's GOAT status, one must assess all 13 of his solo rap albums. Without including collaborative albums with the likes of Beyoncé and Kanye West, seeing how Hov presents himself without consistent assistance throughout the project is the best way to review his worthiness as the all-time best rapper ever. By the same accord, in assessing all of his albums in unison, it allows readers to understand which of his albums rank unremarkably as the worst and which ones rank highly as the undisputed best.

Three years after promoting The Black Album as his last album, Kingdom Come arrived as his comeback album. With those expectations, the project is already underwhelming. It's telling that Jay himself isn't a fan of Kingdom Come. In 2013 for Life and Times, he celebrated his 44th birthday by ranking all of his albums, placing Kingdom Come dead last and defending himself by saying, "First game back, don't shoot me." No one should shoot the messenger, but Kingdom Come is weak enough to shoot off the record player.