I vote the thread creation rights of @OP's such as this one be revoked with immediate alacrity.

Sam, one can never really be too mean to Somalia. Besides, they're so arrogant that comments like mine probably wouldn't even faze them.

Also, deep down they know it's the truth.

ekt_bear: Lol. Post a link to some of this early Jay-Z.

http://www.12ozprophet.com/grotesk/entry/jay-z_as_a_fu-schnickens

There are other songs besides these two where he sounds like that.

Jay Z only got good around 1995. A year after having his mind blown. By 1996 he put out a classic album.

Now that's adaptability - going from rapping terribly to the top ranks in only 2 years.

Heh that is pretty interesting. Honestly, I thought the style he had whenever his first album came out was pretty much the way he always was.

I don't think those two songs suck though. Just a different style. 80s rap sounds quite different from 90s rap, which sounds different from 2000s rap.

That 1990 song you post sounds 80sish. But it isn't necessarily terrible.

Well compared to his later stuff, that early style sounds terrible in my opinion. If you actually like it there's a list of his old stuff here:

http://www.thewordisbond.com/28444/freeness-vintage-jay-z-1989-1994

If you compare that old stuff to 'Broken English' (1994) 'Understand Me' (1994) or 'Dead Presidents' (1995) I think there's a huge improvement in style in Dead Presidents.

Also I think there were many people rapping better and with a non-corny style in both the 80s and 90s, but I don't want to make this a rap thread so I won't go into that in detail.