Hip-Hop Lyrics That Surprisingly Aged Well
Once rappers put something on wax, it’s forever in the ether, for better or worse. Sometimes this leads to artists spitting lines that do not age well as the years pass, at times making them look foolish. Oppositely, there are times when MCs have dropped bars that have aged like fine wine and been almost prophetic in nature.
In 1998, Jay-Z rapped about his theatrical lifestyle on the Vol 2…Hard Knock Life song “Money, Cash, H*es” with DMX. A few bars in particular have aged like Nia Long with their accuracy.
“Sh*t, I’ve lived a life you can write a book on,” Hov raps over the Swizz Beatz-produced track. “Sex, murder, mayhem, and romance for the streets/Man and I’ll tell ya, it’ll be a bestseller.”
Twelve years later, Jigga would indeed coauthor the 2010 memoir Decoded. The autobiographical book co-penned by author dream hampton, would indeed top The New York Times‘ best-seller list shortly after its release.
In 2022, Drake still seemed to be your favorite rapper’s favorite collaborator. That year, he linked with Jack Harlow on the single “Churchill Downs” and rapped, “Lucky me, people that don’t f**k with me/Are linkin’ up with people that don’t f**k with me to f**k with me/This sh*t is gettin’ ugly.”
Time would prove Aubrey’s lyrics to be correct as he spent the first half of 2024 in defense mode after being ganged up on by several rappers and a producer on the Future and Metro Boomin albums We Don’t Trust You and We Still Don’t Trust You.
From the broad to the strangely specific, see 11 times where rappers have spit lyrics that have aged well below.