Listen to an Unreleased Jay Z Freestyle From 1999

In honor of Throwback Thursday, Tim Westwood digs in the crates and liberates an unreleased freestyle from Jay Z. The four-minute track was recorded circa Vol. 3…Life and Times of S. Carter in 1999, nine years before he married Beyoncé and launched his Roc Nation empire.

A young Hov spits lyrics from “Come and Get Me,” “NYMP,” and “Do It Again (Put Ya Hands Up)” over a variety of old school beats. He calls himself the “Jordan of rap” and declares himself “cold as fuck before ice, not before Christ.”

He even does some reflecting. “Have I truly arrived or am I somewhere between?” asks Jay. “I’m just coming to term with the night they killed Biggie and I sold 5 million records—damn, I’m pretty.”

And he silences his critics, who are few and far between these days. “No one has to wonder, has he lost his hunger? But ni**as rest assured I’m even rawer than before.”

Hear Jiggaman before he became a husband, father, and Forbes Cash King.