Old heads, is it true Reasonable Doubt...

[JayBaldacci]

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.

Illmatic was gold before IWW even had a single.

 

[BamdaDon]

What nikkas need to know is jayz wasn't popular until 98. All this "jayz said it was a classic" is bs every nikka I know had Rd as thier favorite jay album until blueprint dropped.

Nerds ass hip hop heads and cacs ways trying to downplay jay but the reality is the nikkas influence on rap is undeniable at this point. I swear every rapper from kendrick to jeezy to drake to jay electronica done used a jay line. Which is also the reason he has worked with every popular artist in the last 15 years.

Let's not even mention the flow. So many nikkas bit that shyt it's crazy. But I'll be honest jayz is garbage now. nikka needs to put out a classic asap. He literally trying to compete with drakes at 50.


The funniest part about all this shyt is nikkas acting anybody outside of bone ,master p and pac was popular.

 

[avon barksdale]

In new york it probably was big but around the world no...people outside didn't no who jay z was until 2pac kept saying fucc him. then Pac/big died and he brought out hard knock life out and boom you have him today

 

[dappadonna]

96 the GOAT year in hip-hop ?

As far as albums go

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

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

exactly. I'm Cincinnati Born and raised here. In 96' jay was just some nikka pac didnt like. NOBODY was bumping RD. Master P and silkk were popping out here more than Jay in 1996,true story. FUx with the album now though.

 

[STAN JONES]

So it was a great album that not a lot of people knew about basically? But when Jay blew up after Vol. 2 people went back to it and started biggin it up more?

No people knew about the album and Jay

It was just alot of other artist and albums popping around that time and he didn't really stand out enough

The album was good though and people knew it was good

When Vol 2 dropped people started calling it(Vol 2) a classic and Jay always made it a point to tell people Reasonable Doubt was better and that was a classic

Nobody ever called it a classic until Jay did

 

[mobbinfms]

The Source didn't rate All Eyez On me?

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

The album had to be submitted to them before it was released for it to be reviewed.
I guess Death Row didn't do it.
Imagine the fukkery if they would have given it 3.5 mics

 

[Mr. Negative]

Jay was NOT "That Dude" when Reasonable Doubt dropped.

Folks were like "Is that Mary J Blige" when Cant Knock the Hustle came out.

He had a song with Biggie, which was a big deal cause of Biggie.

First verse of Cashmere Thoughts got Hip Hop Quotable in The Source, and they cut the last bar off it. "From my nikka Sauce, I hit you with this advice:"

Too much music was dropping all over. Its gonna make some folks mad to hear it, but Real Live was getting more plays on Rap City than Jigga was . And I'm not hating, that's just the way it was.



He didn't get to be a big deal until Pac called him out. Then he became "Biggie's Best Friend, Jay Z" after Biggie died.

Wasn't nobody feeling "The City is Mine".

"Sunshine" got WAAAY more love.

"Streets is Watching" made him hot.

"Money Ain't A Thang/Hard Knock Life" made him stupidly famous and "That Dude"

"Lookit all these OFF BRAND nikkaS..... runnin around acting like they holding figures as big as Jigga's! THATS THAT BULLshyt!" Made us all pay attention to the fact that he was loaded and the Bentley he was driving in the Hard Knock Life promo was prolly his.

And there you go.

 

[intilectual recipricol]

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

They got the pop-version of Hov fukked up

the general hip hop public simply is too dumb for the lyricism on RD... it was like 2013 when I had to hold that c00n @mobbinfms hand and explain to him the "Down 4 Whateva/Nuthin Nyce" line and he was amazed asking for more bars like that. I had to tell that lame to fall back and listen to the album. But its hard when the most profound lyrics you ever heard was "I'll throw a tv at you, crazy" or "I ran like a cheetah"

So, Hov had to fall back on the RD steez although he still provides some tracks like that, just not nearly as much. "I would spit it if yall would buy it, nikka thats good business"

 

[nieman]

the general hip hop public simply is too dumb for the lyricism on RD... it was like 2013 when I had to hold that c00n @mobbinfms hand and explain to him the "Down 4 Whateva/Nuthin Nyce" line and he was amazed asking for more bars like that. I had to tell that lame to fall back and listen to the album. But its hard when the most profound lyrics you ever heard was "I'll throw a tv at you, crazy" or "I ran like a cheetah"

So, Hov had to fall back on the RD steez although he still provides some tracks like that, just not nearly as much. "I would spit it if yall would buy it, nikka thats good business"

How is that when Wu were spittin hella more complex lyrics

 

[OaklandCertified]

I never heard anybody play RD on the West Coast at that time.

 

[Real N Quotes]

Wasn't poppin in 96? I keep seein nikkas sayin that no one was checkin for Hov and nikkas thought it was trash until Jay himself started sayin that it was classic later on. I was born in 95 so it doesn't sound right to me that the GOAT was considered wack

So is that true or is the booth just bullshyttin?

I wasnt checking for it all


I was into Wu Tang and Boot Camp Click

My brother copped it and played that shyt all summer

I really didn't start checking for dude again until Vol. 3 which is still my shyt

 

[intilectual recipricol]

How is that when Wu were spittin hella more complex lyrics

Wu was spittin lame shyt like, "as I ENTUH the CENTUH" (enter the center)
and "I bomb geometry and isosceles philosophies" nikkaz wasnt spittin lyrics... fukk you be listenin to

 

[mobbinfms]

This record was huge in the Bay...

But EPMD used that sample 6 years prior.

 

[Bad Newz]

Wasn't poppin in 96? I keep seein nikkas sayin that no one was checkin for Hov and nikkas thought it was trash until Jay himself started sayin that it was classic later on. I was born in 95 so it doesn't sound right to me that the GOAT was considered wack

So is that true or is the booth just bullshyttin?

The same can be said for Illmatic... People were checking for it but not with a lot of hype and fan fare as his later albums... But remember this was his solo debut and largely no one had really heard of Jay. Aint no nikka was a big single though.... It wasn't my favorite but I had a mixtape (DJ B Lord) and he had 22 2's, feeling it, and the original dead presidents which was my schit, so I knew I wanted to cop it....