stop it.
reasonable doubt sounded like nothing else that came out at that time. and even then, jay stuck up camp lo for the feelin it beat.
next album, he's on some bad boy shyt. to the point the album literally bounces back and forth from street record(s) to pop record(s). same way puff sequenced the latter half of ready to die (from track 6 to about track 13). that goes beyond getting mary j. on a hook. and yeah, a lot of people started leaning into r&b hooks more after ready to die. but that didn't start with bad boy. what bad boy did was put street verses (aka.. it was still lyrical, even when it was for the ladies) on pop hooks with mainstream, accessible instrumentals. you're lying if you listen to vol. 1 and say jay didnt borrow the playbook.
then he went from the sunshine video to hard knock life. rounded up all the dudes who were about to take the game over (ja, X, lox) and put them on streets is watching soundtrack + his album. before that tho... it was jaz-o + sauce money + memph + bad boy. the end. also, you can't compare can i get a to ain't no... irv's point is that jay wasn't fukking with the sound they brought into the building, until they brought it into the building. professionally irv was damn-near with jay from day one. so why didn't he start grabbing shyt from ja until album three?
i can do this all day.