Through early exposure to artists such as Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye and Smokey Robinson, Jay-Z knows the value of soul music (highlighted to brilliant effect on Otis, from last year???s Jay-Z/Kanye West album, Watch the Throne), and he aligns this with a rapping technique that fuses fluidity with something known as ???partial linking???, which can add more rhymes to a verse.