Jay Z was NEVER the hottest rapper!!!

[Vandelay]

Jay is my favorite rapper, but I have couple of takes on this. Jay technically was never the undisputed hottest rapper during his run. He was usually 1B/top 3 from 98-04. 98 was X, 99 was Cash Money/Aftermath, 00 was Nelly/Eminem, 01 was Ja Rule, 02 was Nelly, 03 was 50 Cent, 04 was Kanye.

I also realize there's a northeast bias and other regions hate towards Jay.

Only thing I'll say about Jay is, he's probably your favorite rappers favorite rapper.

There's a reason for that...

 

[Stick Up Kid]

This is True

 

[Diddly Drogba]

He was pretty hot when hard knock.life dropped

 

[Ahmen]

Perhaps not the 'hottest", but definitely the most relevant. He transcended rap.

 

[BmoreGorilla]

I’m trying to understand the point of this thread. You can debate he was the hottest in 98. But even if he wasn’t Jay was always top 3 as far as being hot goes. That doesn’t take away anything tho becuz he was more consistent than all of them. I hate to bring Nas up but imo him and Jay are the two best to ever do it. And Nas definitely was never the hottest in the game

 

[Metal Face]

He sold less than a posthumous 2pac album in 01. And DMX had the largest 1st week sales that year.

2001 in hip hop music - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

He was in 01

sold 420k the week of 9/11 and had the highest charting singles from a hip hop album released THAT year. (Izzo & Girls, Girls, Girls)

 

[Makavalli]

WTF you don't think puff and other acts were involved in this.

Come on lol

Jay-z had a partnership with def jam and is a boss.

Drake is not a boss

Jay-z is a boss now yes but im talking about an artist with full support of a machine. Drake has more success at this point in his career than Jay had as an artist. Roc a fella as a label roster wise was weak until Kanye became a hit. Everyone else was dope but no commercial success. To be fair to Jay the competition was that series with bangers dropping every month so albums had to hit with the first single in order to catch wind.

He benefitted the 2nd most from puff with Bigs death because now he was the top brooklyn borough rapper.

 

[KnowledgeOfSelf17]

Jay-z is a boss now yes but im talking about an artist with full support of a machine. Drake has more success at this point in his career than Jay had as an artist. Roc a fella as a label roster wise was weak until Kanye became a hit. Everyone else was dope but no commercial success. To be fair to Jay the competition was that series with bangers dropping every month so albums had to hit with the first single in order to catch wind.

He benefitted the 2nd most from puff with Bigs death because now he was the top brooklyn borough rapper.

Why do people compare the atmosphere of the late 90's and early 2000's to now.

bleek went gold
beans went gold

That was a success for them being sidemen at that time.

Oh yeah, you forgot

Dip set Gold
Cam'ron plat

Roc was more than a label

they had their own studio with producers like Kanye West and Just blaze for in house. fukking all stars

I wanna add that

in 98' which was pre eminem no one was doing 5mill like that

No one back then wasn't selling MEGA numbers when jay did that 5 million

not even DMX reached that much


What's annoying about the Biggie thing is that

jay went gold 96 and then plat in 97

Jay had, can i get a... and hardknock life and money ain't a thing, money cash hoes in 98

Those songs are fukking mainstream/hip hop hits

Had sold out tour in 99

Jay did the fukking work with Dame and Biggs

They were indie with a partnership

No one can't shyt on that

Now if Biggie was alive, would he stop that momentum of those 4 songs?

 

[havoc]

2001 would be my pick if I HAD to give him a year, and that would be a debatable because OutKast and Missy were both on fire …Nelly was on a run somewhere around that time too. So tbh I wouldn’t give him that either . If we talking about who released the best project that’s different

98/99 was X ,2000 was Em



Maybe if you’re a NY nikka you’d see it differently

Edit: just watched the video..forgot about Luda

shyt was different

Jay Hardknock Life Album outsold DMX debut album back in 98

 

[Amare's Right Hook]

Perhaps not the 'hottest", but definitely the most relevant. He transcended crack.