A Young Jay Z Freestyles On TV In 1990!

Footage of a young Jay Z spitting some rhymes on a 1990 episode of Rap City has surfaced.

Jay Z is sometimes looked at as something of a late bloomer, and releasing his debut album at 26 certainly makes it seem that way. The truth is though, Jay was rapping for quite a while before that, and one of his first television appearances came in 1990.

Anyone who’s heard his feature on Jaz’s 1989 single, “The Originators” knows that Jigga started off with a drastically different style to the street-hardened lyricism of Reasonable Doubt, and this new unearthed footage of the young rapper kicking a freestyle in 1990 finds him operating with the same rapidfire flows. Check it out at GMinds!