Ignoring the passing of time is a luxury afforded to the grapes that refuse to be raisins. Another way of saying, not every man accepts his wrinkles. Some hold on, swearing against their age, fighting to keep a foot in the current and a foot out of the senior centers.

JAY-Z was 26 when his first album, Reasonable Doubt, was given 4 out of 5 mics in The Source Magazine. The review opens with, “I remember Jay-Z from back in the days, say 88’ or so,” a reference to Jay’s cameo in Jaz-O’s music video “Hawaiian Sophie.” 

Reasonable Doubt came out in ‘96, nearly eight years after his silent appearance. Over the next ten years, Jay released eight LPs following his debut, the last being Kingdom Come, marking his return to rap after a three-year “retirement.” 

I was a sophomore in high school when Kingdom Come’s lead single, “Show Me What You Got,” was a mainstay on the 106 & Park stage. Nothing about the song seemed cool to me and those I spoke rap with. Just a cigar-smoking, Danica Patrick-racing, Ace of spade-sipping dinosaur attempting to prove that he wasn’t extinct. We yawned. Young and unamused by our father’s favorite rapper. 

It wasn’t until Lil Wayne’s rendition on the Lil Weezy Ana, Vol. 1 mixtape did the Just Blaze-produced instrumental receive a second life in our ears. Wayne made the beat jacking sound, at best, like torch-taking, crown-snatching, and at worst, it sounded like a warning. He wanted the seat that Jay sat in and now everyone knew.  

Lord knows if Twitter existed we would’ve been the NBA Youngboy fans under every tweet, taunting old heads and scolding Roc-A-Fella fan pages. All this to say, by 2016, ten years after Kingdom Come, Jay had won me over. Whatever youthful defiance was replaced with mature respect and admiration for a vampire that didn’t age. He persisted both in the booth and as a business man. Mogul and mastermind. Timely and timeless. 

This recollection was inspired by the recent mania around “GOD DID,” the first track this decade to feature four minutes of JAY-Z rapping. It’s going to be kids who hear him, thinking, cut this old man off. Their older brothers, cousins, aunties and uncles will think of them as swines too uncultured to appreciate how astounding it is to hear the  “Hawaiian Sophie” kid still going. 

Ironically, before you hear Jay, Lil Wayne raps:

“Before they overrate me, they gon' underestimate me

Funeral and wake me, bury me and excavate me

But I'm so cultivating, everybody replicate me, nigga, face facts

Dreadlocks, face tats, I'm the apex.”

High school me would be proud that he’s still fighting for the seat Hov will never let him have. Alas, I write this as an introduction for our new Vision Board Playlist because it was in high school, between arguing about who the best rapper alive was, that I used to burn blank CDs for classmates. They would bring me lists, requesting songs, new and old to download. 
Every month, when posting the Album Cover Vision Boards, I’m reminded of that time. Moving forward Rap Portraits will be updating the playlist based on the monthly submissions. Curated to keep up with the timely and timeless songs that shape our lives. Be sure to submit your new boards my classmates, September is upon us.

-Yoh