Jay was doing radio in London before he was doing radio in New York and people don't understand English in other countries?
I've met people from the hood in European countries that speak better English than people from the hood in the US
People have to travel more and assume less, nobody pays premium money to see the husband rapping about the opposite of what another famous person sings about. Just by looking at statistics Hard Knock Life peaked higher in many European countries than in the US.
But it wasn't until recently the past 10 years, when he dropped big pop joints like Run This Town, ESOM and those type of joints that he started selling out arenas quick.
And this 50 cent/Snoop Dogg thing is a myth too, the biggest rappers anywhere are Drake, J. Cole, Kendrick, Jay-z, Cardi B, Nicki, Travis Scott, Eminem, Post Malone and Kanye.
I mean just cause you undestand English don't mean you get the references, plus overseas people look for rap to dance to it and not to dissect the lyrics
Jay never really had a big club hit like all those you named and I named 50/snoop because they were of that era
Are those 2 washed up now? Yep but they still more popular than jay in Europe that's a fact