Back in 1999, Tim Westwood’s radio show was the go-to hip hop radio show in the UK. All the biggest US rap stars passed through his BBC Radio 1 Studio late on a Friday, seemingly unconcerned with Westwood’s bizarre patois and preference for calling everyone “baby.” And as with all of the guests, Jay-Z laid down multiple freestyles on the show over the years, one of which has surfaced Thursday on Westwood’s Soundcloud.
The 1999 recording feels like it’s come out of a time capsule. It’s pre-Jay/Beyoncé era, for one thing (they had met during these years but only confirmed they were a couple in 2004), but as he raps about a “beauty with a perfect booty,” perhaps he already has his eyes on the queen of R&B. In these life-before-Blue Ivy days, Hov also raps, “No kids, but trust me, I know how to raise a gun” and talks at length about the “steel” in his waistline.
1999 is also a time when Jiggaman is still bragging about “popping Crissy” champagne – a full seven years before he decided to boycott the brand he loved (after he heard remarks from Frederic Rouzaud that he considered racist) and 15 years before he decided to buy his own brand of bubbly, Armand de Brignac.
Jay-Z calls himself “the Jordan of rap” and taunts other rappers with these sweet little bars:
You got a flow, that’s cool with me
You got a little dough that’s cool with me
You got a little car, little jewel-leries
But none of y’all rappers can fool with me
The freestyle comes only two years after Notorious BIG was murdered, and things are still pretty raw for Jay, although he does swiftly turn that reference into a personal brag:
I just come to terms with the night they killed Biggie
And I sold 5 million records, damn I’m pretty.
Credits
Text Stuart Brumfitt
Photography via Flicker user Whittlz via Creative Commons