FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
JAY-Z - Reasonable Doubt
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THIS is one of these album recommendations…
where the vinyl copies sell for quite a bit! That said, I think that JAY-Z’s Reasonable Doubt is definitely worth grabbing on vinyl, as it is a fantastic album that everyone should investigate. Released on 25th June, 1996, it is the debut studio album of JAY-Z. The album features production by DJ Premier, Ski, Knobody, and Clark Kent, and it also includes guest appearances from Memphis Bleek, Mary J. Blige, Jaz-O, and The Notorious B.I.G. Some might overlook the album because of its intense and gritty themes; songs about material wealth and hustling. Reasonable Doubt is a very honest and open album and, whilst some might feel JAY-Z is boasting and being cocky, there is plenty of wit and humour to be found. He is a rapper who has gone on to record some of the most influential Hip-Hop/Rap albums ever, and I think his debut is really promising. I have always been a big fan of JAY-Z’s delivery – so different to his peers at the time. In terms of transformation Hip-Hop, Reasonable Doubt is a major player. In 2016, Billboard wrote a track-by-track guide - and they highlighted the contrast between JAY-Z’s delivery and the potency and the importance of his lyrics:
“Jay was able to do so largely because of his delivery. On Reasonable Doubt, he slings denser, wordier rhymes than he would on subsequent albums, and yet his flow is remarkably casual -- confident with the faintest hints of sadness and stress. Even when he's rapping about moving product and really playing up the mafioso character he portrays on the LP's cover, Jay sounds like the world's most approachable godfather.
Which isn't to say he wasn't cutthroat about certain things. Jay was originally signed to Payday Records, but when the label didn't support him like he wanted, he teamed with friends Dame Dash and Kareem "Biggs" Burke to form his own company, Roc-a-Fella Records. This wasn’t your typical music-biz operation -- Mary J. Blige and other contributors were reportedly paid with bags full of cash -- but it suited Jay’s purposes. As he told Yahoo! Music in 1999, Payday "didn’t know how to work a record." He added: “The things that they were setting up for me I could have done myself. They had me traveling places to do in-stores, and my product wasn’t even available in the store."
If there's one thing Jay knew about, it was supplying product. In hustling, he’d found a way out of poverty, but throughout Reasonable Doubt, he hints at the remorse he feels flooding his community with crack. He also catalogs the spoils and thrills like someone who’s maybe not ready to give it up, though by his own admission, he was.
"I didn't want to sell drugs," he told Yahoo! “I wanted a better life. I wanted to perform and I didn't know where performing would take me exactly, but I knew it would take me far away from where I'd come from”.
If you want a taste of Reasonable Doubt, sample it on streaming platforms, but I think it is one of those albums even those who are not overly-keen on Hip-Hop will be able to appreciate. A lot of its themes and subjects will be relevant today, and whilst some have argued that Reasonable Doubt is more a success because of its army of producers than JAY-Z himself, it is evident that the album is hugely influential. I disagree that the production outstrips the weight and quality of JAY-Z’s music. JAY-Z would go on to make more radio-accessible albums in later years, but his debut remains this incredible direct and honest album that one cannot ignore. In their review of Reasonable Doubt, this is what AllMusic had to say:
“Before Jay-Z fashioned himself into hip-hop's most notorious capitalist, he was a street hustler from the projects who rapped about what he knew -- and was very, very good at it. Skeptics who've never cared for Jigga's crossover efforts should turn to his debut, Reasonable Doubt, as the deserving source of his legend. Reasonable Doubt is often compared to another New York landmark, Nas' Illmatic: A hungry young MC with a substantial underground buzz drops an instant classic of a debut, detailing his experiences on the streets with disarming honesty, and writing some of the most acrobatic rhymes heard in quite some time.
(Plus, neither artist has since approached the street cred of his debut, The Blueprint notwithstanding.) Parts of the persona that Jay-Z would ride to superstardom are already in place: He's cocky bordering on arrogant, but playful and witty, and exudes an effortless, unaffected cool throughout. And even if he's rapping about rising to the top instead of being there, his material obsessions are already apparent. Jay-Z the hustler isn't too different from Jay-Z the rapper: Hustling is about living the high life and getting everything you can, not violence or tortured glamour or cheap thrills. In that sense, the album's defining cut might not be one of the better-known singles -- "Can't Knock the Hustle," "Dead Presidents II," "Feelin' It," or the Foxy Brown duet, "Ain't No Nigga." It just might be the brief "22 Two's," which not only demonstrates Jay-Z's extraordinary talent as a pure freestyle rapper, but also preaches a subtle message through its club hostess: Bad behavior gets in the way of making money. Perhaps that's why Jay-Z waxes reflective, not enthusiastic, about the darker side of the streets; songs like "D'Evils" and "Regrets" are some of the most personal and philosophical he's ever recorded. It's that depth that helps Reasonable Doubt rank as one of the finest albums of New York's hip-hop renaissance of the '90s”.
Twenty-four years after its release, and Reasonable Doubt remains this immensely striking and accomplished debut – surely one of the best debuts of that decade. I think it will get a lot of love and new exposure on its twenty-fifth anniversary next year.
I am going to wrap up in a second, but I wanted to bring in a review from Pitchfork, who go into serious detail regarding the album – highlighting its many pluses and how impactful it is:
“In Jay’s mind at least, the album certainly marked the end of an era. At this point, by his own cold-eyed accounting on the song “Politics As Usual,” he had been selling drugs for “10 years.” Along a parallel track, he had been flirting furtively with being a rapper. He linked up with Big Jaz (later Jaz-O), doing a stint as the older man's baby-faced sidekick and kicking the triplet-time “figgity-figgity”-style flows that were sweeping New York at the time. He toured, briefly, with Big Daddy Kane, and spit some freestyles for New York hip-hop radio. He was an impressive local kid, but no one’s idea of a worldwide star.
In that murky time between his puppyish Jaz-O beginnings and his sober and assured reappearance on Reasonable Doubt, he figured some things out. First, nobody wanted to hear Jay Z excited. Composed, assured, jaded, deeply unimpressed—these were emotions he could radiate without even trying, and they were truer to his nature. Gone were the endearing attempts at dancing alongside Jaz, looking like a kid at his own bar mitzvah being coaxed onto the floor. His years selling drugs had presumably hardened him, and by the time he opened his mouth on Reasonable Doubt’s opening track, “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” he had mastered an unshakable godfather pose. It is hard to convincingly telegraph “above it all” from the bottom of the food chain, but Shawn Carter had a natural haughtiness that couldn’t be faked. “You ain’t havin’ it? Good, me either/Let’s get together and make this whole world believe us,” he barked”.
Go and grab a copy of a Hip-Hop classic, as it was the start of the career of one of the music world’s biggest artists. Reasonable Doubt is a masterful album, and one that I have been going back to time and time again over the past few weeks. Although it made a big impact back in 1996, I still think JAY-Z’s debut album sounds and feels relevant…
TO his very day.