REASONABLE DOUBT released in 96..didnt go PLATINUM till 2002

Still Benefited

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Nikkas don't remember a time before Internet buzz.

It took Illmatic 7 years to go platinum. Is anyone going to deny that Illmatic is a classic?

It's exactly the reason I dispute it's status...it had more hype and still flopped:mjlol:
 

KENNY DA COOKER

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can yall mofos discuss this subject without pulling ILLMATIC out yall azz

listen ILLMATIC was a critically acclaimed album....that by itself signified it's CLASSIC STATUS

jay z always been about sales..."men lie, women lie..numbers don't"

REASONABLE DOUBT FLOPPED, it only went to 426,000 at the end of 96...while NAS did 2 million with IT WAS WRITTEN

Not taken anyway from it's art..its a great album.....

but perfomance wise it flopped it didn't even go gold during it's initial release season

and it had guest features like Mary J. Blige and it was more radio friendly than ILLMATIC

so stop the comparisons.....i was there...it wasn't a GAME CHANGER WHEN IT CAME OUT

we had wayyy too much heat back then with RAE, NAS, MOBB DEEP, BIG..AND ALL THE MIXTAPES...

it got slept on....im just being honest
 

BXKingPin82

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one of my homeboys copped the cd off the strength of "Brooklyns Finest" when it dropped
i dont really remember anyone i knew checkin for his shyt like that but him until maybe "Money Cash Hoes"
i was always funny with MY music tho
if theres an album i like i play the hell out that shyt
i be having tunnel vision with hip hop
i let one of my crimeys hold my Infamous cd back when it came out so he could dub the shyt
gave my shyt back scratched the fukk UP! :mindblown:
we fought
 

hex

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Nikkas don't remember a time before Internet buzz.

It took Illmatic 7 years to go platinum. Is anyone going to deny that Illmatic is a classic?

Illmatic took even longer, going Platinum on December 11, 2001

Bet you won't try to downplay that one though.

These two posts, and the thread, is inaccurate. People are checking RIAA.com dates when that's when it was certified. Not necessarily when it shipped that. When the label or artist pays is when the RIAA posts it's certification. They aren't tracking every album shipped in existence in the off chance somebody pays for it's certification. Don't believe me? There is certification on RIAA.com going back to the 1960's....you seriously think they were tracking every album shipped in real time 30 years before the internet? No....you ship 500,000, you pay for your gold plaque. You don't pay, it never went gold. It's as simple as that.

Having said all that, I only knew one person with "Reasonable Doubt" when it came out. Jay was just another rapper in '96.

Fred.
 

Insensitive

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Some of the greatest albums of all time in a genre like Jazz have only sold 1/10th that, maybe less, I don't see how their classic status comes into question based on how many people bought it.

Reasonable doubt isn't a forced classic,, its fukking fantastic that's what it is.
 

bigbadbossup2012

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Nah breh i'm in the south and Nas name rang bells since 92 down here
Nikkas loved that nikka until that sellout 2nd album. We only bigged up RD for the same reason
lmao,yeaaaaaaaa. maybe to a few weirdos but not the masses
 

bigbadbossup2012

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Some of the greatest albums of all time in a genre like Jazz have only sold 1/10th that, maybe less, I don't see how their classic status comes into question based on how many people bought it.

Reasonable doubt isn't a forced classic,, its fukking fantastic that's what it is.
this aint jazz though. Name some non east coast or east coast catered albums this applies to
 

Chip Skylark

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Half brains and nitwits get forced to see things. Others have ears.

There isn't one throwaway track on Reasonable Doubt. That's how we know it's a classic.

As a matter of fact that's what I'm starting my cookout with today. :ehh:

Edit: lot of Drake stans responding in this thread. nikkas must be hurt by Jays not so subliminal subs.


I beg to differ. I'll pay money to go back in time put a pistol told Dame Biggs and Jay's head and force them to take Ain't no nikka off. I seriously cannot listen to that song. That hook is horrendous
 

Harry B

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I don't even know what this discussion is about.
The same nikkas always talking about sales being irrelevant are now trying to equate classic with sales, until someone brings up their favorite albums as examples :mjlol:.

Jay himself said shyt like

I gave you prophecy on my first joint, and y'all lamed out
Didn't really appreciate it, til the second one came out

Labels turned me down, couldn't foresee
Clark sought me out, Dame believed
Primo laced me, Ski did too
"Reasonable Doubt" - classic, shoulda went triple


It wasn't an instant classic, nearly no album was an instant classic back then unless you had backing of jewish media like The Source or moved mad units. And even then people were just calling shyt "dope".

And it took some time for the people to come to consensus without the internet. Same shyt with albums like Ridin Dirty and ATLiens, no one in NY was calling those classics. It took some time for ATLiens, Soul Food and Ridin Dirty might still be unknown to certain hiphop heads. But the ones that know, they know.

For fans of other genres, it's always interesting to go back and read rock and soul/rnb reviews from the 60s and 70s. When magazines were calling some of the "most classic" albums mediocre. Rolling stones Magazine even called Led Zeppelin a mediocre blues band when they dropped their first album, 40 years later they got the genre correct and had it as top 30 album in their top 500 albums of all times.
 
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Art Barr

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i always deny illmatic. It meant very little when it dropped and has been talked up


Speak on cultural permeation of an album and you are not apart of the actual culture of hiphop.

Some of y'all nikkaz would go to an Indian reservation and take the tom away from the chief during a rain dance ceremony and say he not bringing the rain right.

Yo son,...
Dis chief nikka ...
Yo it still ain't raining, son.
man dis chief nikka ain't chanting the fukk'n rain right yo, face ass.



Art Barr
 

Piff Perkins

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I'm a Nas stan but have nothing to say about this. The album was great but bombed in a year full of bigger, more impactful albums. That's how it goes. Illmatic also bombed when it first came out.

My problem is Hov acting like IWW wasn't hot. The album sold 4mil, and came out the same year RD did. Let's be real. And let's not forget Hov essentially used IWW as his blueprint for Vol 1, ie his own flashy "sell out" album. IWW>Vol 1.
 

tuckgod

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fukk the bullshyt accolades.

Reasonable Doubt is one of the most sonically cohesive, lyrically dense mainstream albums in hip hop history.

That's why it gets the respect that it does.

Armchair industry insiders :camby:
 
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