Reasonable Doubt is the debut album of American rapper Jay-Z, released on June 25, 1996, by
Roc-A-Fella Records and Priority Records.
It features production by DJ Premier, Ski, Knobody and Clark Kent, and guest appearances
from Memphis Bleek, Mary J. Blige, and The Notorious B.I.G., among others.
Reasonable Doubt features Mafioso rap themes and gritty lyrics about the "hustler" lifestyle
and material obsessions.
The album peaked at number 23 on the US Billboard 200, on which it charted for 18 weeks.
It was promoted with four singles, including the Hot 100-charting "Ain't No Nigga" and
"Can't Knock the Hustle".
Reasonable Doubt has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America
and, as of 2006, has sold 1.5 million copies in the United States.
Well received by critics upon its release, the album has since been heralded by music
writers as Jay-Z's "crowning achievement", "a seminal work" and an "undisputed classic".
It appears on numerous best album lists by music publications, including The Source,
Blender, and Rolling Stone, which ranked it number 248 on their list of the 500 Greatest
Albums of All Time.
Background In 1989, aspiring rapper Jay-Z was recruited
by mentor Jaz-O to appear on his song "Hawaiian Sophie".
He appeared on two more Jaz-O songs in the next year, but after Jaz-O was dropped from
his record label, Jay-Z dealt drugs to support himself.
He continued to pursue a rap career and appeared on two songs from Original Flavor's 1993 album
Beyond Flavor.
Jay-Z then caught Big Daddy Kane's attention and toured with him; they collaborated on
Kane's 1994 posse cut "Show & Prove" along with Wu-Tang Clan's Ol' Dirty Bastard, Wu-Tang
affiliate Shyheim, Sauce Money, and Scoob Lover.
Despite the exposure he received from Kane, Jay-Z was still without a record deal.
He began selling tapes from his car with help from friend Damon Dash.
The success of his street-level marketing led to a deal with Payday Records, which released
his first solo single, "In My Lifetime" and its B-side "I Can't Get wid Dat".
In an unconventional move, Jay-Z then spurned the record contract he had long sought and
left Payday Records to form his own label, Roc-A-Fella Records, with Damon Dash and Kareem
"Biggs" Burke.
Jay-Z later explained that he thought he could do a better job of marketing his records on
his own:
[Payday] eventually signed me to a deal, but were acting shady the whole time, like they
didn't know how to work a record or something," says Jay.
"The things that they were setting up for me I could have done myself.
They had me traveling places to do instores, and my product wasn't even available in the
store.
We shot one video, but when the time came for me to do the video for the second single,
I had to be cut out.
They gave me the money and I started my own company.
There was a little arguing back and forth, but our conflict finally got resolved.
The bottom line was they wasn't doing their job, so I had to get out of there.
Jay-Z rented a small, cheap office for Roc-A-Fella Records on John Street in one of the "dreariest
parts of the busiest city in the world".
Jay-Z and his compatriots thought of their low-rent headquarters as a "starting point"
that would eventually lead them to Manhattan.
In 1995 and early 1996, Jay-Z appeared on records by Big L and Mic Geronimo, further
raising his profile.
At this point, he was still considered an "underground" rapper with a "new jack" style.
Roc-A-Fella released Reasonable Doubt with Priority Records.
Recording Reasonable Doubt was recorded at D&D Studios
and mixed at Platinum Island, however, its beats were formed elsewhere.
"Can't Knock the Hustle" was produced by Knobody at his mother's home in 1994, while the vocals
were recorded on tour at a studio in Tampa Florida named Progressive Music with Mary
J Blige.
Ski produced "Feelin' It" and "Politics as Usual" while recording with Camp Lo.
The recording sessions for the album were generally dominated by competition; Ski and
Clark Kent created similar beats for "Politics as Usual", but Ski submitted his to Jay-Z
first causing his to appear on the album.
"Brooklyn's Finest" was a competitive, though friendly battle between Jay-Z and The Notorious
B.I.G. in which Jay-Z tried proving that he is of Biggie's caliber, while Biggie tried
brushing his rhymes off as insignificant.
Although the rappers had already met on the set for the "Dead Presidents" music video,
they discovered that neither wrote down their rhymes while recording.
The recording of "Brooklyn's Finest" spanned two months and moved from D&D Studios to Giant
Studios where the Clark Kent-sung chorus was recorded.
The studio sessions affected Jay-Z mentally: as he told Rolling Stone, "The studio was
like a psychiatrist's couch for me".
Composition Reasonable Doubt has Mafioso rap themes.
David Drake of Stylus Magazine considers the lyrics to be characterized by "gritty realism".
Journalist Dream Hampton explains Jay-Z's lyrics saying: "MC's had definitely touched
[...] on hustling.
But Jay, talks about what it can do to a person's inner peace, and what it can do to their mind".
Allmusic's Steve Huey describes him as a "a street hustler from the projects who rapped
about what he knew—and he was very, very good at it...detailing his experiences on
the streets with disarming honesty".
Huey summarizes the album's subject matter saying:
He's cocky bordering on arrogant, but playful and witty, and exudes an effortless, unaffected
cool throughout.
And even if he's rapping about rising to the top instead of being there, his material obsessions
are already apparent [...] the album's defining cut might [...] be the brief "22 Two's," which
not only demonstrates Jay-Z's extraordinary talent as a pure freestyle rapper, but also
preaches a subtle message through its club hostess: Bad behavior gets in the way of making
money.
Perhaps that's why Jay-Z waxes reflective, not enthusiastic, about the darker side of
the streets.
Allmusic's Steve Birchmeier writes that the album's production exhibits characteristics
of "the pre-gangsta era, a foregone era when samples fueled the beats and turntablism supplied
the hooks", which "sets Reasonable Doubt apart from Jay-Z's later work".
"Can't Knock the Hustle" features a smooth beat.
"Politics as Usual" has an R&B sound and a sample of "Hurry Up This Way Again" by The
Stylistics.
"Dead Presidents" samples Nas' voice from "The World Is Yours" in its chorus.
According to IGN's Spence D., "Ski brings back the stripped down piano fill style lending
the track a late night jazz vibe" on "Feelin' It", and "22 Two's" has a "mournful jazz inclined
groove" that prominently features string instruments.
"Coming of Age" contains a Clark Kent-produced beat that samples the melody and drums from
"Inside You" by Eddie Henderson.
Reception Commercial performance
After its release on June 25, 1996, the album peaked at number 23 on the Billboard 200.
It spent 18 weeks on the chart, and 55 weeks on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, on
which it reached number three.
By the end of 1996, it had sold 420,000 copies in the United States.
On February 7, 2002, Reasonable Doubt was certified platinum by the Recording Industry
Association of America, for shipments of one million copies in the US.
Four singles—"Dead Presidents", "Ain't No Nigga", "Can't Knock the Hustle" and "Feelin'
It"—were released in promotion of Reasonable Doubt.
"Dead Presidents" is the only single that did not chart, though it was certified gold
by the Recording Industry Association of America.
The second single, "Ain't No Nigga", featuring Foxy Brown, was the most commercially successful
single, reaching #50 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles
Sales.
"Can't Knock the Hustle", the third single, features guest vocals by Mary J. Blige and
reached #73 on the Billboard Hot 100 making it the second most successful single on the
album, and #30 on the UK Singles Chart making it the most successful single in the United
Kingdom.
The fourth and final single was "Feelin' It", which reached #79 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Critical response The album was well received by music critics
upon its release.
Entertainment Weekly gave it a B+ rating, while Charlie Braxton of The Source gave it
four out of five mics.
The magazine later revised it to its "classic" five mic rating, and in 1998, it was listed
one of The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums.
Allmusic's Steve Huey noted that its lyrical appeal lies within Jay's "effortless, unaffected
cool" flow, "disarming honesty", and his knack for "writing some of the most acrobatic rhymes
heard in quite some time".
Huey writes that this lyrical depth "helps Reasonable Doubt rank as one of the finest
albums of New York's hip-hop renaissance of the '90s".
Fellow Allmusic writer Jason Birchmeier claims that Jay-Z's lyrics are "candidly professional,
but it's the producers more so than Jay-Z himself that make this album so untouchable".
Birchmeier remarks that the album "boasts an amazing roster of producers", and Steve
Juon agrees describing Ski, Clark Kent and DJ Premier as "the best beatmakers in rap".
Juon also recognizes the album's lyrical strength and describes the album's reception saying:
This is not only the definitive album from H to the Izzo's catalogue, it's one of the
ten most important rap records of the entire 1990's.
It's possible to live without having heard it - but after you do, you'll wonder how you
ever managed without it.
Even nearly six years later, this album stands up to the best production and strongest lyricism
coming out of any rap around the globe.
If an album could be said to have made corny MC's into Jay-Z haters, this is the one.
In his consumer guide for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau gave the album a one-star
honorable mention.() rating, In a 2011 review, he revised it to an A- rating.
He wrote in retrospect, "Designed for the hip-hop cognoscenti and street aesthetes who
still swear he never topped it, his self-financed debut album is richer than any outsider could
have known, and benefits from everything we've since learned about the minor crack baron
who put his money where his mouth was.
You can hear him marshalling a discipline known to few rappers and many crack barons,
and that asceticism undercuts the intrinsic delight of his rhymes".
Accolades Reasonable Doubt ranks on top of albums lists
by Rolling Stone, Vibe, and Hip Hop Connection.
Legacy and influence Hip hop music
The album's success helped popularized Mafioso rap and its associated imagery of high class
and expensive lifestyles, including drinking Cristal, driving Lexus automobiles, and living
out the plots of films such as Scarface and Carlito's Way.
This in turn displaced gangsta rap as the dominant style of hip hop at the time.
Stylus Magazine writer Evan McGarvey claims that hustler rap group The Clipse try emulating
Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt sound on their 2006 song "We Got It for Cheap".
Reasonable Doubt is often "considered one of hip-hop's landmark albums", according to
Pitchfork Media's Ryan Schreiber.
It is compared to The Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die and Nas' Illmatic as a classic hip
hop album.
Subsequent work by Jay-Z Despite being the lowest charting Jay-Z album,
it is often considered his best record.
Carter himself lists it as number one on a list of his albums from best to worst.
It differs from his future albums in its lack of "pop-crossover" songs and chart topping
hits.
Jay-Z's follow-up to Reasonable Doubt, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 was primarily produced
by Sean "Diddy" Combs and his team of producers, The Hit Men.
Future Jay-Z albums included production by Combs, The Neptunes, Timbaland and Swizz Beatz
and later Kanye West.
Shaheem Reid of MTV explains, "Reasonable Doubt might not have the radio hits or club
bangers of many of his other albums, but it may be Jay at his most lyrical—and certainly
at his most honest, according to him".
Jay-Z has said that recreating Reasonable Doubt would be challenging, as he was living
a different lifestyle with a completely different state of mind when he wrote the album.
Ian Cohen of Stylus Magazine writes of its significance in context of Jay-Z's catalogue,
"Reasonable Doubt was the come-up, The Blueprint was the comeback, and The Black Album may
not have found him at his strongest lyrically, but it gained gravitas from meta-awareness
and introspection".
Tenth anniversary concert In 2006, Jay-Z performed the songs from Reasonable
Doubt at the Radio City Music Hall to celebrate its tenth anniversary.
The concert's band included The Roots' drummer Questlove, the Illadelphonics, a 50-piece
orchestra dubbed The Hustla's Symphony and Just Blaze, the performance's disc jockey.
On "Can't Knock the Hustle", Beyoncé Knowles replaced Mary J. Blige, who was preparing
for her Breakthrough Tour at the time.
Jay-Z rapped The Notorious B.I.G.'s verses on "Brooklyn's Finest", and Jaz-O's verse
was left out of "Bring It On".
Jay-Z added a verse to "22 Two's" in which he says variations of the words "for/four"
44 times over the beat of "Can I Kick It?" by A Tribe Called Quest.
Other alterations include Jay-Z changing a lyrical mention of Cristal to Dom Pérignon
and Jay-Z's band "spruc[ing] up tracks like 'Regrets' to add more energy".
Celebrities such as Alicia Keys, Young Jeezy, Jadakiss, Chris Tucker, LeBron James and Carmelo
Anthony attended the concert.
3,000 tickets were put on sale; all were sold within two minutes according to Roc-A-Fella
Records' website.
Track listing Notes
"Can't Knock the Hustle" contains additional vocals from Pain in Da Ass.
"Brooklyn's Finest" contains additional vocals from Pain in Da Ass, and DJ Clark Kent.
"Feelin' It" contains additional vocals from Mecca.
"22 Two's" contains dialogue from Mary Davis.
"Ain't No Nigga" contains additional vocals from Khadijah Bass, and Big Jaz.
Sample credits "Can't Knock the Hustle" contains samples
of "Much Too Much" by Marcus Miller, "I Know You Got Soul" by Eric B. & Rakim and interpolations
of "Fool's Paradise" by Meli'sa Morgan, and dialogue from the film Scarface.
"Politics as Usual" contains a sample of "Hurry Up This Way Again" by The Stylistics.
"Brooklyn's Finest" contains samples of "Ecstasy" by The Ohio Players, "Brooklyn Zoo" by Ol'
Dirty Bastard and interpolates dialogue from the film Carlito's Way.
"Dead Presidents II" contains samples of "A Garden of Peace" by Lonnie Liston Smith and
"The World Is Yours" by Nas.
"Feelin' It" contains a sample of "Pastures" by Ahmad Jamal.
"D'evils" contains samples of "Go Back Home" by Allen Toussaint, "I Shot Ya" by LL Cool
J and "Murder Was the Case" by Snoop Dogg. "22 Two's" contains an interpolation of "Can
I Kick It?" by A Tribe Called Quest.
"Can I Live" contains a sample of "The Look of Love" by Isaac Hayes.
"Ain't No Nigga" contains a sample of "Seven Minutes of Funk" by The Whole Darn Family
and an interpolation of "Ain't No Woman" by The Four Tops.
"Friend or Foe" contains a sample of "Hey What's That You Say" by Brother to Brother.
"Coming of Age" contains a sample of "Inside You" by Eddie Henderson.
"Cashmere Thoughts" contains a sample of "Save Their Souls" by Bohannon.
"Bring It On" contains a sample of "1, 2 Pass It" by D&D All-Stars.
"Regrets" contains a sample of "It's So Easy Loving You" by Earl Klugh and Hubert Laws.
"Can I Live II" contains a sample of "Mother's Day" by 24 Carat Black.
Personnel Charts
See also It Was Written
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...
References
External links Reasonable Doubt at Discogs
The Making of Reasonable Doubt — XXL Jay-Z Marks Anniversary of Debut Album at
Radio City Music Hall — The New York Times