Old heads, is it true Reasonable Doubt...

[Teko]

But yet sales numbers always comes out of his fans lips when talking about his greatness. A large proportion of his clientele are "casual listeners".

How do you even figure this out? I realise that you are part of the dumb Coli coalition but fyi, casual listeners don't buy albums with no radio hit. They also don't care enough to consistently buy albums.

 

[JCalli]

How do you even figure this out? I realise that you are part of the dumb Coli coalition but fyi, casual listeners don't buy albums with no radio hit. They also don't care enough to consistently consistently buy albums.

First off, i ain't part of anything.

If you are going to try and tell me Jay fans don't always bring up album sales you are deluded. Casual fans indeed by albums with a crossover or radio hit record, which Jay has for the most part. Hence, my point.

Its really not rocket science.

 

[Cloud McFly]

If you are going to try and tell me Jay fans don't always bring up album sales you are deluded.

Jay-Z is the GOAT to me, but I have never brought up his sales to support my opinion because it is irrelevant.

 

[Yayo Toure]

You hit the nail on the head. Everyone ignores all the other classics from that time that are not commercially successful. It's as simple as this. If you didn't know about Jay or Reasonable Doubt before 98, you were not a real rap fan and just a product of what the music labels were pushing to you at the time.

B...B....But Reasonable Doubt was being pushed at the time...by Def Jam.

just that nobody gave a fukk about the awkward camel looking dude who would stand up like a statue in his videos. Reasonable Doubt became a classic when Jay-Z became a mainstream artist just like how Degrassi became an award winning TV show when Drake got big.

 

[Cloud McFly]

B...B....But Reasonable Doubt was being pushed at the time...by Def Jam.

just that nobody gave a fukk about the awkward camel looking dude who would stand up like a statue in his videos. Reasonable Doubt became a classic when Jay-Z became a mainstream artist just like how Degrassi became an award winning TV show when Drake got big.

Def Jam didn't start promoting it until 1999, when they re-released it.

 

[Yayo Toure]

Def Jam didn't start promoting it until 1999, when they re-released it.

He had a video with Foxy Brown, ads in the Source and on BET....what do you think promotion was back in '96? You think he was gonna partner up with Motorola and give out free copies of his CD everytime a person bought one of these?

 

[JCalli]

Jay-Z is the GOAT to me, but I have never brought up his sales to support my opinion because it is irrelevant.

That's fair enough bruh. Sales are irrelevant to me and it sticks in the back of my throat when its used to measure how good an artist is.

 

[Still Benefited]

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.

Bucks like me were more liable to ignorantly think "who's this nikka on this fake azz Pimp Of The Year beat?"...ignorant about the beat not about the fact Ain't No nikka is an abomination

RD is a classic though,but nah...and I pointed out the same revisionist shyt dudes call out RD for,are some of the same things you could say about Illmatic when it comes to revisionist in that other thread....you'd think both these albums stopped time and impacted the nation the way people talk about them NOW,bcuz of who Nas and Jay became.

 

[head shots101]

I'm not a old head p*ssy

J/k

Album wasn't considered trash but nikkaz wasn't really checking for it....there was too much dope shyt out at the time.....had a dub copy on tape tho at the time tho

 

[Rapmastermind]

Illmatic debuted at number 12 while Reasonable Doubt debuted at 23. Both took two years to go Gold and 7 years to go Platinum so no, RD did not do "better" commercially than Illmatic

Interesting fact but "ILLmatic" actually charted higher than "Ready To Die" also but was it more commercially successful? No. It charted high but fell from the charts quickly where as "Reasonable Doubt" was certified Gold quicker and had a Gold Single with "Dead Presidents/Ain't no nikka". "ILLmatic" did not go gold for 2 years and did not have any hit singles. "Ain't No nikka" and "Dead Presidents" were bigger than any "ILLmatic" song commercially. Actually Every "Reasonable Doubt" single charted higher than any of "ILLmatic's" singles.

 

[duckbutta]

You hit the nail on the head. Everyone ignores all the other classics from that time that are not commercially successful. It's as simple as this. If you didn't know about Jay or Reasonable Doubt before 98, you were not a real rap fan and just a product of what the music labels were pushing to you at the time.

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

 

[Homeboy Runny-Ray]

But yet sales numbers always comes out of his fans lips when talking about his greatness. A large proportion of his clientele are "casual listeners".

im not a jay fan tho.

but yea, on one hand, im glad that his chit is coming back to bite him in the ass. sales are always coming off of his lips as well, even tho he knows hes full of chit when he talks about that.

B...B....But Reasonable Doubt was being pushed at the time...by Def Jam.
just that nobody gave a fukk about the awkward camel looking dude who would stand up like a statue in his videos. Reasonable Doubt became a classic when Jay-Z became a mainstream artist just like how Degrassi became an award winning TV show when Drake got big.

my man said reasonable doubt was promoted by def jam.

Bucks like me were more liable to ignorantly think "who's this nikka on this fake azz Pimp Of The Year beat?"...ignorant about the beat not about the fact Ain't No nikka is an abomination
RD is a classic though,but nah...and I pointed out the same revisionist shyt dudes call out RD for,are some of the same things you could say about Illmatic when it comes to revisionist in that other thread....you'd think both these albums stopped time and impacted the nation the way people talk about them NOW,bcuz of who Nas and Jay became.

you basically DQ'ed yourself with the bolded.

youre admitting that you were ignorant to what was going on at the time(at least concerning certain matters like the topic), yet you want to call out something as revisionist history?

DOG.

 

[Luke Cage]

hip hop considers it a classic who gives a fukk whether or not some white kids on thecoli think so or not?

 

[MooseMouthMthafuga]

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.......

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

 

[MooseMouthMthafuga]

LIE!!

The Coming went Platinum and had huge hits like "woo hah" and "party" ft Zhane .

Don't fall for the retrospective hype from Jay breh. Busta was DEF a bigger star than Jay at the time.

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