Mixtape: Jay-Z DOJ (DJ Ayres)

Continuing my hip hop posting (which means raver anthems will be coming soon), DJ Ayres drops this timely Jay-Z mixtape. Just under 80 minutes of beats from your youth, Ayres examines Hova’s early career:

Here are a bunch of my favorite Jay-Z songs, mostly album cuts with a few freestyles and secret joints thrown in for good measure. Since Jay “retired” and came back, his music hasn’t sounded as urgent or hungry to me. He sounds like he’s coasting along, so I wanted to go back and pull out a bunch of his music that made you bob your head, marvel at his flow, puff out your chest, or even raise the little hairs on the back of your neck. The feelings you got from songs like “Where I’m From,” “D’Evils,” “1-900-Hustler” and “You Don’t Know.” Not included: #1 singles you’ve heard a million times, lazy one-take flows, lyrics about inventing the button-down shirt, songs dissing rappers who would later be signed to Jay-Z’s label, and songs produced by Eminem.

Tracklist in the comments.