Funny how child rappers are pretty much universally mocked, but adult rappers with small or young prefixes in their names (Young, Yung, Lil, Short, etc.) are often very successful. Maybe this is because if we saw our hip hop stars as kids we’d never be able to even pretend to believe their stories of hardship and horror. Looking back retroactively on YepYep’s listicle of 16 Hip Hop Stars When They Were Kids, for instance, who would ever have guessed that the cute, awkward kid at right would grow up to be…

Jay-Z (seen a few years later at right below)