Hear the first song ever recorded by Jay-Z
Jay-Z is undeniably the most successful rapper of his generation. As an emcee of the late ‘90s and 2000s, he exploded unlike any other rapper and has become one of the most decorated artists of all time.
In the 1990s, before social media and widespread use of the Internet, getting signed and becoming a mainstream artist meant building up an extremely loyal local following and a demo that could give people a taste of you as an emcee.
Nowadays, young people can can turn a living room, into a studio, upload their music to SoundCloud and suddenly find themselves famous. However, this was not the case three decades ago. The barrier to entry was much higher, and akin to many lyricists who arrived before the millennium, Jay-Z had to overcome these hurdles.
Before him, Jay-Z’s Brooklyn counterpart, Biggie Smalls, scraped together enough money to record the iconic Microphone Murderer demo, which ultimately led to him becoming a star. Only a matter of years later, Jay-Z (real name Shawn Carter) did the same.
In his quest to attain exposure, during the 1980’s Jay-Z affiliated himself with Jaz-O. Jaz-O (real name Jonathan Burks) was a Brooklyn rapper, born and raised in the same housing scheme as Jay-Z, the Marcy Houses. Burks knew Jay-Z from his area, and in a bid to help a young Jay-Z, Jaz-O allowed him to become part of his entourage.
However, before joining Jaz-O’s entourage, Carter was a drug dealer, but that’s not to say he wasn’t dabbling in music. Much of Carter’s music was made with Sauce Money, a well-known underground Brooklyn emcee.
Sauce Money appeared on Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z’s 1996 debut, and worked extensively with Jay-Z’s idol Big Daddy Kane. Carter’s early songs hear him using his earlier, fast rapping style with its complex rhyme-schemes.
In his early demo, Jay-Z Carter’s early demo features little-known songs such as ‘Greatest MC’, ‘What’s In A Name?’ and ‘Broken English & Drug Sellin’ (Feat. Sauce Money). The latter built upon A sample of the Boogie Down Productions’s song ‘My Philosophy’ and is one of Jay’s earliest tracks.
You can hear Jay-Z’s demo below.