Old heads, is it true Reasonable Doubt...

[Digga38]

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..

this about sums it up right here....close thread

 

[macadomusic]

out here in Cali, cats wasnt on to RD like that. "aint no nicca" was cool but around that time the west had it on lock and cats like Red and Meth and Big were the east coasy representatives imo.

 

[ucanthandlethetruth]

I knew about C Bo, Tela, and Celly Cel........Jay just wasn't cracking like that.He wasn't too far from being on them dudes level back in '96

nikka what nikka who?

 

[Big Mel]

According to that list Crucial Conflict's album was better than Hell On Earth and Iron Man...

I dont think thats a full list..

That album is actually good. Not better than the aforementioned albums but it had a hit single and went gold. this is also 1996, the year Hip Hop began to erode and the source was hell bent on disproving east coast bias'.


you may also be right about that not being the full list. i can't remember for sure. maybe those albums were late 96 and thus carried over into 1997? kinda like Gza in late 95.

 

[Rekkapryde]

He's right. There are lots of albums that are classics that aren't 5 mic material.

 

[THE K-MAN]

 

[mobbinfms]

According to that list Crucial Conflict's album was better than Hell On Earth and Iron Man...

I dont think thats a full list..

List says its October 95 to October 96 (or something like that) - so Mobb and Red hadn't dropped yet.

 

[Big Mel]

example being 2pac not having a single 5 mic effort under his belt. oh now i done did it.

 

[Big Mel]

List says its October 95 to October 96 (or something like that) - so Mobb and Red hadn't dropped yet.

that was my hunch.

 

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

nikka did I say that??............there is a reason why Reasonable Doubt is Jay's lowest selling album......that is because there was too much heat in '96........it took 6 years for that album to reach platinum status.......it was definitely well received when it dropped......but not like some of you are making it out to be though.......

its his least-selling album because it had the least amount of promotion and commercial appeal.

has nothing to do with how much heat was droppin. it dropped in the summer, which was the least busiest part of that year by far.

You definitely have me mixed up with somebody else

I rarely ever post in the booth

it wasn't a booth beef tho. its an sohh "feud".

my bad tho.

 

[West Coast Avenger]

but i've always maintained that NYC really is the only thing that matters in the most crude, base sense of it all. i know that upsets people. at least you're from BK


and yeah, the west WAS NOT dominant at all in NYC in 1996. Albums that sold zillions barely made it to walkmen. And vice versa i'm sure.

Oh I beg to differ........nikkaz out there was bumping Pac. The B.U.M.S, The Pharcyde and other groups and rappers of that sort.....you nikkaz out there werent to big on that gangsta rap though......

 

[R.E.N. Spells Ren]

He's right. There are lots of albums that are classics that aren't 5 mic material.

Um, no. A classic album is 5 mics.

 

[Big Mel]

The BUMS were very exclusive to a niche, college radio type crowd. i bought that album and hated it. traded it. years later bought it again. now i like it.


i was a big gansta rap fan but getting the casual, gem star in the mouth, 40 below tims wearing chew stick havin' dude to appreciate a Spice 1 album was a chore. But it was waaaaaay easier than selling them an RBL Posse or Daytona Family record. lol.

 

[West Coast Avenger]

its his least-selling album because it had the least amount of promotion and commercial appeal.

has nothing to do with how much heat was droppin. it dropped in the summer, which was the least busiest part of that year by far.


it wasn't a booth beef tho. its an sohh "feud".

my bad tho.

again......that is bullshyt........Aint No nikka was featured on the Nutty Professor Sdtk bruh....which was released several weeks before Reasonable Doubt......nikka had like four singles from that album........like I said there was too much heat in '96......

 

[THE K-MAN]

example being 2pac not having a single 5 mic effort under his belt. oh now i done did it.

i know they didnt didnt even rate all eyez on me

did they rate Makavelli???