Old heads, is it true Reasonable Doubt...

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

Like i said, 96 dude, Aint No nikka is what got the radio spins...Dead Pres got a few video hits, but wasn't played on the radio out here. I'll Be Good and Who You Wit count as Vol 1 era Jay which is why I shorthand it to say Vol 1 is when he became a mainstream rapper, 97 was a big year for him and of course 98/99 was that next level shyt

how are "i'll be good" and "who you wit" volume one era?

they dropped right after reasonable doubt.
volume one didn't drop until MONTHS later. completely different school year and the whole nine.

volume one/streets is watching were "money aint a thing" era.

 

[West Coast Avenger]

and youre still deflecting. I said what I said for a reason. if youre legitimately not deflecting, then the comment just went over your head.

I was 11 actually. and in the hood. you suburban cats wouldn't understand.

nikka get the fukk outta here!!!..............Jay Z had 4 singles from that album bruh.......that is plenty of promotion.......LOL @ trying to call me a suburban cat.....I was a senior in HS @ Long Beach Poly.......SMH at this nikka trying to bring up the past when you were fukking 11 years old at the time......exit the thread.....

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

how are "i'll be good" and "who you wit" volume one era?

they dropped right after reasonable doubt.
volume one didn't drop until MONTHS later. completely different school year and the whole nine.

volume one/streets is watching were "money aint a thing" era.

Who you wit was on volume one even tho it dropped on a sdtk. WYW and IBG got Jay some looks that led more people to check for him with vol 1 coming up, those songs didn't make people move backward and cop RD. Same thing with a lot of these mixtape rappers who drop a first album that's a dud, follow up with mixtapes & appearances, then drop an album, the hype is pro-active, not retroactive.

By the end of '96 & top of 97, if you didn't really know jay, it wasn't some huge abomination, but mid 97 on, then, unless you were 10 and under, i'd be like

 

[Big Mel]

Who you wit 2 was on volume 1. The first version was on a soundtrack.

 

[Teko]

Illmatic had a lot of buzz in hip hop and was heralded as a lyrical masterpiece, yet nas simply didn't sell and wasn't a household name. RD didn't have that hype/response when it dropped in addition to not selling like that nor did jay have a household name (ain't not nikka actually got him the most notice)

Think of it like section.80 which had critical acclaim yet the masses didn't really know Kendrick and didn't buy the album compared to nipsey hussle who is dope, but also relatively unknown, doesnt sell, and doesn't get the critical acclaim. (sorry I couldn't think of a better analogy).

Illmatic's buzz started and ended on the Source Magazine. RD was on an independent distributor and label and sold more in 6 weeks than Illmatics did in 2 years.

Truth is, as much as people don't like to admit , you either needed the radio hit or a big personality to stay on the radars of most consumers- purists or not. Affiliation, radio exposure and singles were the most important factors in determining how your album sold in a given area. The internet has totally changed the landscape but some of these things are still true.

Name any artist/album that did very well in that era and you can find the hit single/party song/ affiliation - Lost Boyz, ODB, Red Man, Method Man, Ghostface, UGK, Outkast, Coolio, Fugees, BIG, Snoop, Skee-Lo, De La Soul, Mobb Deep, Nas, Snoop and Pac.

 

[Big Mel]

De La haven't had a gold album since De la soul is dead.

 

[Big Mel]

I believe it was the 'sprung' soundtrack.

 

[CrimsonTider]

Nobody considered it wack. If you were a rap fan in '96 you most likely knew who Jay-Z was. I'm not saying you ran out and copped the album, but you'd probably know who he is, and maybe a couple songs.

The problem was there was too much shyt coming out back in the day, and Jay kinda fell through the cracks. So it's not as simple as "was it wack or a classic?". Nobody thought in such binary terms back then. That's some internet shyt. Most people were just due to the sheer amount of music coming out at the time.

Fred.

Finally a good post from you

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

Illmatic's buzz started and ended on the Source Magazine. RD was on an independent distributor and label and sold more in 6 weeks than Illmatics did in 2 years.

Truth is, as much as people don't like to admit , you either needed the radio hit or a big personality to stay on the radars of most consumers- purists or not. Affiliation, radio exposure and singles were the most important factors in determining how your album sold in a given area. The internet has totally changed the landscape but some of these things are still true.

Name any artist/album that did very well in that era and you can find the hit single/party song/ affiliation - Lost Boyz, ODB, Red Man, Method Man, Ghostface, UGK, Outkast, Coolio, Fugees, BIG, Snoop, Skee-Lo, De La Soul, Mobb Deep, Nas, Snoop and Pac.

Not really sure what you're trying to say? Did you need a crew or a radio hit/party song? If so, I dont think the latter is true, Wu had plenty of West Coast fans and they for a fact were not getting played at parties or on the radio. Groups like Pharcyde, The Liks, Souls all had big followings coast to coast back then and they weren't getting played on the radio like that. Back then, video stations really helped to push artists that would otherwise be ragional names only, Secondly, the sales climate in 96 was not that of 93/94, 96, IMO was a marked uptick in the popularity of rap and 97-99 really catapulted it's sales

 

[hex]

This is just a side note, but RIAA awards certs when the label pays for them. Not when the album ships that amount. So the time line on when shyt went gold or plat according to the RIAA isn't accurate. You could sell 5 mill in '95, if your label doesn't pay the fee to certify your album until '05 RIAA will say you went 5x plat in 2005, because that's when you were certified. And you only have to pay one fee for multiple certs (for example $350 once for 1x plat or 5x plat) so labels will let shyt lapse until they're sure it isn't selling any more, to avoid paying more than once. If an album sells well and you run out the gate and certify each time it's eligible, yeah the time line on when you actually went gold/plat would be more accurate but they would spend thousands of dollars in the process.

Fred.

 

[JCalli]

Man some of the shyt I'm reading though

nikkaz knew who jay was, he wasn't some best kept secret or some shyt. Ain't no nikka was all over MTV, albeit it was more about foxy than jay. EVERYONE knew that track, not just some hood dudes.

Dead presidents was on MTV raps and I bought the album off the strength of that

The fact is reasonable doubt was an afterthought such was the quality and anticipation of the releases that year. nikkaz were not fukking with jay like that, even though people purchased that album it wasn't getting burn like that, certainly in comparison with other releases....

...it took a backseat. There were several better albums that year. Its as simple as that.

 

[Big Mel]

^^^false

 

[Black Ball]

My perspective from the West. In '96 as an album, it was nonexistant. Jay-Z was known from the Aint No nikka video. But even then, it was all about Foxy, but seeing Biggie in the video was like oh he knows Big.

East coast albums that the west was fukking with in '96 was. Busta Rhymes, Redman, Tribe, Fugees, and Nas. Wu always had a few nikkas that fukked with them also.

 

[Nomad1]

Had zero buzz in the west coast (at least where im from). I didn't even hear of Jay till Pac mentioned him in Makaveli 7 Day Theory. RD was just a regional hit with no type of special impact.

 

[Abstract83]

I bought it in the summer of '96 just off of the strength of seeing the Dead Presidents video on Rap City.. I figured if AZ and Biggie cosigned him (by being in the video), and he was smart enough to sample Nas he must be decent... I bought it on the same day as I bought IWW (cassette days)....I opened IWW first and it was so dope I swear I didn't even break the plastic off of RD till like 3 weeks later...It was good but I only listened to it sparingly...You gotta remember this was '96 so we had Outkast, Redman, Tupac and Ghostface all dropping classic albums later that fall... RD got lost in the shuffle and was pretty much forgotten in my circle..


Then I heard him say on BP1 "Reasonable Doubt classic, should have went triple"



Since that point on I've witnessed the revisionist history on the impact of this album be overstated...

But back in '96 it was only really a regional hit....NY dudes tell me it was the hottest most quoted album of the summer up there...I was in Atlanta at the time and it came and went without most n1ggas paying it any mind....The biggest discussion surrounding it was Biggie saying the line about Faith having Tupacs twins...Jay was Big Sean status and Biggie played the Kendrick role on his album..


The reason I feel he went on a marketing push to inflate the importance of the album was because he was beefing with Nas at the time and he needed an Illmatic...The critics and fans hadn't given it to him so he attempted to create it himself.. I won't even say he attempted, because it actually worked..It was the first time I witnessed marketing rewrite history..

Gotta admit that was a smart move by Jay. At the time he put himself on the same level as nas by saying it was a classic. He was so popular that the people just ran with it.