Old heads, is it true Reasonable Doubt...

[GoonbergScandal]

I remember hearing sunshine out here all the time on the radio, the video used to come on CMC (local channel that showed videos from like 2-6pm) after school damn near every day. "Who you wit" got burn also....As far as RD singles, i only remember "ain't no nikka" getting radio burn, but that was because of foxy. "Dead presidents" got played on the box a lot

Hell yeah I do remember Houston radio playing Who you wit on the radio also, but the song was never on regular radio rotation with the top 10 songs they used to play over and over again during the day. They would wait till late at night to play that song, and the radio dj would mix them jay-z songs in.

 

[bambinokino]

oh yeah and just so ya know....ima dropp a huge gem on ya (those that have ears to hear, let them hear) ...."frank white" and jay had beef...in brooklyns finest, big not only went at pac but he went and jay too in the first verse...open ya ears...jay went at big too on that track...towards the end they didnt like each other...in life after "somebody gotta die" (jayson) is actually jay-z, (c-rock) was "frank white"......also i know ya cant understand but it gets deeper......the greatest of all time (in my opinion other than bin olu dara) big pop had a ghostwriterlet that one sinkin....go listen to them tracks and listen closely

edit : i will drop one clue... look up camron freestyle over lyrical excercise beat...in the very beginning, beans quotes big pop from the track (somebody gotta die) (beans and jay had problems then-this was towards the end of the rock days obviously) if you notice, cam paused for a sec in shock that beans understood that bar and said "you already know"........

 

[little lizard]

IF YOU WERENT UP ON THIS IN 1996, THEN YOU DONT HAVE AN OPINION.

STR8 UP.

 

[comfortablynumbd]

reasonable doubt was thought to be a great album soon as it dropped but jay wasn't up there yet name wise. aint no nikka, dead presidents, and can't knock the hustle had good rotation. big was basically running shyt in ny and jay was basically under him. jay wasn't really known on the mainstream tip until that hard knock life track and big was gone. then nas and jay started going in to fill the void big left.

 

[Jack Trippa 3z company ho]

Somebody actually tried to say Jay was bigger than Busta in '96?

Woo Hah was a MAJOR hit....shyt was everywhere.Bus had wayyyyy more originality back then.


These Jr nikkaz got Jay burnt into their retinas.They keep imprinting 2013 Jay onto '96 Jay.

Frankly, Jay wasn't shyt in '96.He was Foxxy Brown's sidekick.


Jay and his marketing schemes.....He done pushed a whole matrix of propaganda into these nikkaz heads

This is not even debatable. Busta was one of the biggest acts at that time. Jay was all but completely unknown.

 

[Jack Trippa 3z company ho]

Yep....As I said in one of my earlier post, there was nothing "original" or groundbreaking about RD.It just blended in with the rest of that east coast centric/mafioso/drug dealing shyt that Big/Nas/Firm etc was doing back then.

Classics are born out of originality.The truly great classics always come with something new and fresh.They give you something you've never heard before.Have you feeling like you're a witness to musical evolution.

The Chronic...Illmatic etc.


RD seemed born out of a phase that was quickly approaching over- saturation.It came about 3 years too late.Had that shyt dropped in '93, it would've been


RD is a revised classic because of marketing(By Jay himself SMH)

Not because it was something original that the critics/masses just didn't "get" at the time.

He wasn't on no Van Gogh shyt.Artist like that had crazy originality.They went against the grain and seemed too "eccentric" for their time period.Them cats were juggernauts of originality.


Jay is the total opposite of that.He came out the gate doing what he always does in '96, hopping on whatever's hot at the time.

"No matter where you go, you are what you are player
And you can try to change but that's just the top layer
Man, you was who you was 'fore you got here"


A dog never changes it's spots....same hooves and humps

Truth. It's just Jay riding a bandwagon which is all he's done his whole career.

 

[Dr. Narcisse]

This is not even debatable. Busta was one of the biggest acts at that time. Jay was all but completely unknown.

I said it in the unpopular opinions thread.

But how did Jay go from (overshadowed in 96/97), not better than DMX in 98/99, outdone by Nas in the peak of his popularity, and yet called The GOAT by time of his "retirement album" in 2003

His longevity is makes him top 5 all time imo. To be in the game that long and remain relevant is a big deal

But back in 03 I didnt get the GOAT talks going on back then.

 

[KravenMorehead™]

Not a lot of people were checking for it. Like another poster said, there was just so much quality music out that year that RD didn't really stand out. Jay hadn't become a well known artist yet so most people who were checking for it were the people who were "in the know".

...and this is why cats miss the 90s.

 

[Teko]

Wrong, if you didn't know about Jay Z at that time, it is because he was a local new york guy who's music wasn't good enough at the time to reach the masses, it has nothing to do with not being a "real rap fan". fukk outta here with that bullshyt

And that is why Reasonable Doubt is not a classic...because...who outside of New York was listening to it? Man I remember when illmatic dropped... that shyt was everywhere...when my friends from the east coast came down south...we talked about it and listened to it and everyone felt it was a classic...and when my friends from the west coast came down we talked about it and played it and everyone knew it was a classic...and when my canadian friends came down...same thing...

Not even my east coast friends were listening to Reasonable Doubt like that...outside of that single with Foxy no one was even checking for it like that...

Just own up to the fact that Jay told you something was a classic and you said to yourself " yeah jay is right this is a classic"...

Music labels were pushing to me at the time? Huh...what? We didn't even listen to the radio...we used to hit up the sam goody in the next town over and listen to at least 1 / 3 of an album in the back before we would buy it...fukk outta here with that bullshyt

Illmatic, released on a major label, was everywhere and no one knew about RD, independent label, yet RD was more commercially successful as a standalone album?

RD went Gold in 3 months vs Illmatic which went Gold in 2 years. Illmatic's gold in 1996 was actually aided by IWW's commercial success that same year(trickle effect) - thanks to Lauren Hill and the classic sample that white people recognised and loved.

You don't make sense b.

 

[mobbinfms]

Bay classic? Isn't Ain't No Nikka the same shyt as EPMD It's My Thing? What Bay song used the beat?

This record was huge in the Bay...

But EPMD used that sample 6 years prior.

 

[MooseMouthMthafuga]

i know they didnt didnt even rate all eyez on me

did they rate Makavelli???

The Source didn't rate All Eyez On me?

That has to be some of the most arrogant/pompous/unprofessional/butt hurt NY shyt ever


DJ Quik 1:44-1:49


That was basically how the west coast felt at the time.


If you read through this thread, you'd notice that it's 95% nikkaz from NY saying Reasonable Doubt was hot in the streets back in '96.

RD was a regional hit.Out west, where I was at, never heard a single person bump RD.

I don't even remember Jay being mentioned...It was "Oh that's the nikka who was on that one track with Foxy Brown?"

There was too much of that east coast centric/mafioso/drug dealing/materialistic rap @ the time.....Biggie/The Firm had that lane sewed up.

Jay dropped RD and was like the Splinter Cell to their Metal Gear Solid...Sorta seemed like a knock off...especially to those outside of NY.

That style was becoming redundant at the time.Technically, it's a dope album.Jay's best IMO---It just got lost in the shuffle back in '96

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

It was considered a great album when it dropped, its just that Jay wasn't very popular at the time and there were other artist like Pac, Nas, Wu, and the Fugees, etc. that were really popular during that time so the album wasn't given the same type of love, but the people who did have it and the people that heard it all knew it was dope.

It got 4 mics in the Source (same as IWW)
Classic reviews : Reasonable Doubt in The Source (1996)

And the Source also listed it as one of the best albums of 1996 in their '96 Year In Review issue (Jan. '97)

The fukkin' 90s man

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

It was a very popular album.

The only revisionist history is people acting like it wasn't a popular album. Jay was widely known right off the bat. Ain't No was HUGE hit.

Dude had videos for damn near every song...lets not overlook this

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

nikkaz was not checkin for RD when it came out. But the lyricism in it was unmatched... when I finally got put on

its a much better production than that other bullshyt album people hype up that took 7 years to go plat... RD sold with less of a push from media and labels

to this day I feel like Jay's lyricism still isn't truly appreciated

They got the pop-version of Hov fukked up

 

[kevthesureshot]

It was considered a great album when it dropped, its just that Jay wasn't very popular at the time and there were other artist like Pac, Nas, Wu, and the Fugees, etc. that were really popular during that time so the album wasn't given the same type of love, but the people who did have it and the people that heard it all knew it was dope.

It got 4 mics in the Source (same as IWW)
Classic reviews : Reasonable Doubt in The Source (1996)

And the Source also listed it as one of the best albums of 1996 in their '96 Year In Review issue (Jan. '97)

good grief, fans was straight that year. That's a lot to compete with.