We Reminisce: Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt

Dime Magazine

There was a time when your grandmother didn’t know the name Jay-Z. Think back to the mid’90s, years before Beyonce was even close to legal, when the recently named president of Def Jam was just another hungry, street-hustling MC from Brooklyn’s (infamous) Marcy Projects. Teaming with Damon Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke to get their fledging Roc-a-Fella Records off the ground, they dropped Jigga’s debut LP, “Reasonable Doubt” in 1996. The Takeover had begun and the rap game was never the same again. As the 10th anniversary of Jay’s debut approaches, we take a look back at one of hip-hop’s greatest albums…

“In My Lifetime, Vol.2” LP, “The Blueprint,” and “The Black Album” vaulted Jay-Z into pop stardom but before he bowed to the conventions of commercialism Jigga kept it ultra-real on his first cut – rhyming without apology about what he knew and saw growing up drug-dealing and street hustling in the BK – and we connected to his honesty. On “Reasonable Doubt,” Jay paints a self-portrait filled with raw emotion, not with private jets. As a result, the album stands as his most lyrical and artistic recording.

The stories on “Reasonable Doubt” bring us inside the soul of Shawn Carter. “Well we hustle out of a sense of hopelessness sort of desperation/Through that desperation we come addicted/Sorta like the fiends/we accustomed to serving/But we feel we have nothin’ to lose/so we offer you well we offer our lives right/What do you bring to the table?” he preaches on the classic “Can I Live?”

From the very beginning, Jay invited his peers to help spread his message. Who can forget the hook on “Can’t Knock the Hustler” with Mary J. Blidge? Or the combination of Biggie and Jigga on “Brooklyn’s Finest”?

On tracks like “Ain’t No N**a (Like the One I Got),” laced with a sample from the Four Tops’ “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I Got),” J kills us with lines like, “I got more black chicks between my sheets than Essence/they say sex is a weapon, so when I shoot/meet your death in less than 8 seconds/still poundin’ in my after life,” an shores up the track with the debut of the sultry Foxxy Brown.

Looking back, “Reasonable Doubt” was more than just the debut of Jay-Z; it was a landmark for so much of what we know about the game today. It was the seed of the Roc family tree. With “Reasonable Doubt” laying the foundation, it paved the way for the rest of the Roc Family and their endeavors. The ablum was the first building block in an empire that today features a dynamic lineup of artists (including Beanie Sigel, Cam’Ron, DJ Clue, Memphis Bleek and the wildly successful Kanye West), the RocaWear clothing label, Roc Films and the Roc’s own vodka, Armadale.

Not only did “Reasonable Doubt” launch Jay and the Roc-a-fella family, but it also set forth a New York rap renaissance in the ‘90s. Much in the same way Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic” established the West Coast and set the stage for characters like Snoop and Tupac, “Reasonable Doubt” together with Nas’ “Illmatic” and the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Ready to Die” brought hip-hop back to its roots – the Big Apple.

“The Chronic,” Snoop’s “Doggy-Style” and Pac’s “Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.” detailed the gang warfare in the roughest areas of Calif. Their East Coast counterparts chronicled a different kind of gang life – the Mafioso mentality that runs through the streets of New York City. The “Reasonable Doubt” album cover captured mob noir – a black and white photo of Jay wearing a fedora, cigar, in hand, looking like Elliot Ness was right behind him. And the songs of “Reasonable Doubt” echo the photo. They are raw, bullet-riddled portraits of money and power in the inner cities of America. And in their own way, much like Cagney and Bogart gangster movies of old, Jay-Z’s violent verses are beautiful.

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