A recently unearthed collection of demos show off Jay-Z's genius prior to his 1996 debut Reasonable Doubt. The 11 tracks are truly a special gift for any Hova fan since they show off his skills prior to becoming a multi-millionaire. Tracks like "What's in a Name?" and "Pass the Roc" were made by a 25-year-old lyrical mastermind hungry for a life beyond the streets.
Mass Appeal discovered the demos, which feature a few guest spots by Sauce Money. What is most upsetting about the collection is that tons of record labels passed on the rapper after hearing the tracks. Wow. Listen to the compilation below.
"Jay-Z was never really a coke rapper. He was also never really the club rat, the jeweler's best friend or the menacing kingpin," XXL wrote about the demo collection. "What he was was a carefully constructed latticework of all those things, borrowing bits and pieces of other archetypes and putting them over the day's most forward production."
In order to get his career going, Jay-Z — aka Shawn Carter — released his debut on his own Roc-A-Fella label. It hit No. 23 on the Billboard 200 behind "Dead Presidents" and "Feelin It" and scored the rapper a record deal with Def Jam. Reasonable Doubt is still considered one of the greatest rap albums of all time. Sauce Money appeared on the album alongside The Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige and Foxy Brown.
His follow-up, 1997's In My Lifetime, Vol. 1, made it all the way to No. 3 on the charts. By 1998, Hova was sitting on top of the rap world with Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life and has been there ever since.
Readers: Let us know what you thought of the rediscovered tracks in the comments sections below.
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