the rhyme king
truth.com
it wasn't called a classic back in 96 back when the source actually meant something to hip hop so .............................
Old heads, is it true Reasonable Doubt...
- Thread starter Enchanted
- Start date
the rhyme king
truth.com
basically...................
STAN JONES
Fire John Harbaugh
MooseMouthMthafuga
Veteran
If you've watched basketball for the last 5-7 years, RD was the Atlanta Hawks.no Celtics, no Spurs, no Lakers, no Heat.
Lets call it what it is, a revisionist classic.
Lets call it what it is, a revisionist classic.
the rhyme king
truth.com
soul on ice
ridin dirty
firing squad
the other side of the law
speed of life
enigma
the wrath of the math
episodes ofa hustla
ill na na
Illadelph Halflife
stakes is high
ressurection
awakeing
basically these were the albums i bought that i bump more then rd.
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Homeboy Runny-Ray
From Around The Way
the only people that had to go back to big it up are commercial heads that stay out-the-loop and dudes that weren't off-the-porch yet.
reasonable doubt got a lot of the same treatment that most classic albums got when they were hot. it just wasn't a mass media crossover hit like volume 2. and that should be expected. RD was a str8 street album that was semi-independent(for the lack of a better term). and it went gold. that's why these commercial & suburban posters don't understand how big this album was. they base everything off charts and promotion.
but yea, back to RD; the album went gold. had a huge hit with foxy brown. another hit with mary j. and a couple rap city classics(feelin it & dead presidents) back when rap city was rap city. he wasn't a crossover superstar but he definitely blew up off that album. when the girls in the middle schools some of your joints, then youre well-known. plus, he was foxy brown's right-hand man at the time when foxy was HUGE. that alone made him an established name.
JuvenileHell
Veteran
It says a lot about 96 when an album as great as "Reasonable Doubt" wasn't a top pick then.
96 has to be the best year for rap.
96 has to be the best year for rap.
What? Somethings are instant classics, most things are not. People call GRODT classic, that shyt is trash. It wasn't that good to begin with and time hasn't been good to it and it's only been a decade.
Rapmastermind
Superstar
It wasn't that it wasn't poppin. It was just there was so much more popular in 96 at the time. Jay Z went "Gold" and had a "Gold" single on a independent label. Mobb Deep also went Gold that year too with "Hell on Earth". That's actually very good. But when you have competition like 2Pac, The Fugees and NaS selling multi-platinum, it outshinned Jay. But the album did do very well for a new emcee. It actually did better than "ILLmatic" commercially. But believe it or not, Lil Kim and Foxy Brown were both more popular than Jay in 96 and he was featured on both their Platinum Debut albums.
MooseMouthMthafuga
Veteran
I agree with your statement, but RD was still Atlanta Hawks back in '96.
I actually like the album.Jay at his best IMO.
I didn't say it wasn't a classic, just a revisionist classic.
Homeboy Runny-Ray
From Around The Way
the funny thing about these illmatic & reasonable doubt threads is that the same people that try to deny their status, are the same people that wont utter a world when an album like black moon's "enta da stage" is considered a classic(as it should be).
they just like to stress sales and such for jay & nas, I guess because they had big commercial success afterwards.
2 things for certain about reasonable doubt if jay never became a household name afterwards:
1.) nobody on these message boards would try to downplay its classic status.
2.) at the same time, one thing we can all agree on is that the media would prolly sweep reasonable doubt under the rug and not mention it anywhere near as much as they do. a lot of these commercial entities that give the album high rank wouldn't even know about the album, nor would they know about jay. so in that case, @Enchanted, yes the album does benefit from jay blowing up later and campaigning for it. it helps in that aspect.
but if you were into hip-hop for real-for real back then, you know reasonable doubt is a classic. also, some of these bigger name artists that keep getting mentioned in here, weren't getting as much props as jay within hip-hop. for example, the fugees dropped a great album and they were selling more records than everybody. but jay was getting more burn in the streets of the fugees own city/state than they were.
they just like to stress sales and such for jay & nas, I guess because they had big commercial success afterwards.
2 things for certain about reasonable doubt if jay never became a household name afterwards:
1.) nobody on these message boards would try to downplay its classic status.
2.) at the same time, one thing we can all agree on is that the media would prolly sweep reasonable doubt under the rug and not mention it anywhere near as much as they do. a lot of these commercial entities that give the album high rank wouldn't even know about the album, nor would they know about jay. so in that case, @Enchanted, yes the album does benefit from jay blowing up later and campaigning for it. it helps in that aspect.
but if you were into hip-hop for real-for real back then, you know reasonable doubt is a classic. also, some of these bigger name artists that keep getting mentioned in here, weren't getting as much props as jay within hip-hop. for example, the fugees dropped a great album and they were selling more records than everybody. but jay was getting more burn in the streets of the fugees own city/state than they were.
Not really plenty of new "emcees" sold better. It was also in the era of if you wanted an artists song sometimes you would buy another artists cd/tape just for that song. I had the Maxi -single of Dead Presidents. Heard "Brooklyn's Finest" asked dude were he got that new Biggie from, he said that's Jay-Z. Copped "Reasonable Doubt" was pleased with my purchase.
Homeboy Runny-Ray
From Around The Way
more like the OKC thunder.
the team that bball fans already held in high-regard a couple years before they hit the finals on primetime tv and were exposed to the casual viewers(ala hard knock life).
dam im good.
Expose myself?
What did I say that wasnt true
OG Talk
Archived
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..
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..
MooseMouthMthafuga
Veteran
more like the OKC thunder.
the team that bball fans already held in high-regard a couple years before they hit the finals on primetime tv and were exposed to the casual viewers(ala hard knock life).
dam im good.
