This. Not to mention he helped put a lot of people on, which is the exact opposite of him latching on.
He really put his crew on. I mean The Dynasty album is not even really a Jay solo album. There are several songs Jay isn't even on, and only a couple Jay solo joints without features. He didn't fill that album up with a bunch of other big names to help beef up his crew.
And then as far as producers go, he could've just used whoever was hot at the time, but he built up a dope in-house crew of Kanye, Just Blaze, and Bink. And on top of that worked with the Neptunes early, and helped try to open the door for new producer like 9th Wonder when he was leaving the game.
Many of his big singles were just him.I never felt like Jay tried to ride other people's coat tails to get hot (with the exception of maybe Biggie right at the beginning
)