before biggie died jayz was like lil cease

[Truality]

Pac
Nas
Big

all ruled

jay was that backup guy u get as a guest spot cuz u dont feel like writin 3 verses

he was cool with big and ny wanted a lyrical replacement do he started ridin bigs coat tails and bitin lines to force his way subconciously as a big replacement

 

[Sccit]

REAL SPIT THO

 

[LordTaskForce]

 

[vaudevillevillain]

where i'm from dropped in 97..

cease would never drop anything as hard as that track, nor did jay bite anyone on that track. this thread is now null and void

 

[King Biko]

nas wasnt as big as big and pac during that time

 

[Change]

Did you google this?

 

[Harry B]

Trying to stick Nas to Big/Pac .
BTNH, Fugees were there not Nas. He was with Method Man, Outkast and on tier-2.
Jay-z was an underground rapper with a gold classic under his belt, warming up for his first major label debut which dropped AFTER Big died, months after.

It's interesting that these haters can't even imagine that Jay-z once upon a time was an up and coming rapper.
They can't imagine that he wasn't born the king, so they make a thread about it about 20 times a year to remind themselves about it.

 

[Michael's Black Son]

Trying to stick Nas to Big/Pac .
BTNH, Fugees were there not Nas. He was with Method Man, Outkast and on tier-2.
Jay-z was an underground rapper with a gold classic under his belt, warming up for his first major label debut which dropped AFTER Big died, months after.

It's interesting that these haters can't even imagine that Jay-z once upon a time was an up and coming rapper.
They can't imagine that he wasn't born the king, so they make a thread about it about 20 times a year to remind themselves about it.

yeah, its crazy that people cant see him as an up and comer, but its not like it was sooooooooooo long ago. they see him getting major promo from shyt like the Samsung deal but i remember as a youngin one of my homies was on the street team for Rocafella trying to get Jay, Bleek, Rell, etc noticed by putting up posters and handing out promo tapes. BTNH were huge at the exact same time, people were on Fugees dikk off the strength of "Killing Me Softly" alone.

dont even know if I could put Jay in that tier-2 category with Meth and Outkast because Meth had a SMASH with that "All I Need" joint with Mary and Outkast videos were in heavy rotation on BET and they were that one "legit" southern group that MTV actually played back then. It just wasnt worth their while to show vids from 60 Boyz, Tag Team; and they mos def werent gonna play any Luke/2 Live Crew. back then the mainstream south was JD affiliates (i.e. Usher, TLC) and then you had outkast.

Jay just stayed on his grind, played up that drug/I make $$$ selling drugs and that shyt made him stand out from people like Mic Geronimo, Big L and even Fat Joe, who came into the game on some grimy/gutta shyt

 

[ajnapoleon]

Now jay was lil cease? Wow

 

[Harry B]

yeah, its crazy that people cant see him as an up and comer, but its not like it was sooooooooooo long ago. they see him getting major promo from shyt like the Samsung deal but i remember as a youngin one of my homies was on the street team for Rocafella trying to get Jay, Bleek, Rell, etc noticed by putting up posters and handing out promo tapes. BTNH were huge at the exact same time, people were on Fugees dikk off the strength of "Killing Me Softly" alone.

dont even know if I could put Jay in that tier-2 category with Meth and Outkast because Meth had a SMASH with that "All I Need" joint with Mary and Outkast videos were in heavy rotation on BET and they were that one "legit" southern group that MTV actually played back then. It just wasnt worth their while to show vids from 60 Boyz, Tag Team; and they mos def werent gonna play any Luke/2 Live Crew. back then the mainstream south was JD affiliates (i.e. Usher, TLC) and then you had outkast.

Jay just stayed on his grind, played up that drug/I make $$$ selling drugs and that shyt made him stand out from people like Mic Geronimo, Big L and even Fat Joe, who came into the game on some grimy/gutta shyt

Jay was definitely not tier-2, I'm saying that Nas was with Cast, Busta, Cube, Meth and them but not with Fugees, BTNH, Pac... Jay was underground just below Raekwon, Gza and them. Maybe on the same level.

 

[Turbulent]

Jay became "that dude" when we heard Takeover and people tought Nas was finished. when the blueprint dropped and you heard The Ruler's Back with that "lush" and "royal" production and right after you got Takeover...I would argue that this track sequence solidified Jay has part of the elite in people's minds. before that, he was that dude who was nice on the mic and would drop hits.

 

[Michael's Black Son]

Jay was definitely not tier-2, I'm saying that Nas was with Cast, Busta, Cube, Meth and them but not with Fugees, BTNH, Pac... Jay was underground just below Raekwon, Gza and them. Maybe on the same level.

exactly. I forgot all about Busta. Busta/Hype had the visual game on LOCK and this was when Busta was making shyt you wanted to hear, because it was interesting to see his personality shine. Cube was on a roll too because he was still spitting hard shyt and had legit movie rolls.

But you're right, Jay was where the other Wu cats were even tho Ghost/Rae/GZA had love in the street. ODB was extremely popular off the strength of one album and that limo shyt he did on MTV. He somehow turned himself into the hood version of The Most Interesting Man In The Wold because you always heard shyt about him (like picking that car up off of that kid).

 

[mortuus est]

 

[The_Third_Man]

Maybe Jay was like lil cease back then (to be honest I thought of him as foxy brown sidekick), but he has been one of the best rappers in the game since then. that what matters.

 

[the cac mamba]