Jay-Z did not try to recreate Reasonable Doubt on his second LP, instead he inhabited an almost completely new sound on “In My Lifetime Vol.1” and it proves how elusive and rare an album like Reasonable Doubt is. There will never be another Reasonable Doubt, for a good reason. In conclusion, Reasonable Doubt is a benchmark in Hip-Hop history, Jay himself has dubbed the record as “the joint I took my whole life to make” and that passion and authenticity bleeds through the music. Classy, dusty, laid-back beat, stellar performance by Hov, what’s not to like. And there are more to this album than just heavy and meaningful songs about the workings of the underworld, there are also tracks like “Feelin’ It” that you can just listen to on any occasion. Many rappers have put their own spin on some of the lyrical gems on this record and more rappers have done remixes of “Dead Presidents” than I can count. The cultural significance of Reasonable Doubt continues to grow as the album ages. And it’s presented in the form of a brilliant piece of art. Reasonable Doubt is a complete and nuanced portrayal of the violence of the streets, the luxury you can achieve once you’re able to grow beyond it, how even the good life on the otherwise still has perils of its own, the whole nine yards basically. “D’evils” is a chilling track about how the pursuit of money and fame corrupts people and turn them against one another. Regardless, both versions are phenomenal. The first one had a raw edge to it whereas the sequel establishes Jay-Z as this incredibly smart and witty, work-hard-play-hard kind of businessman and worked better within the context of the album in my personal opinion. And Jay-Z delivers some incredible verses, still to this day, people argue over which version of Dead Presidents is superior.
Producer Ski Beatz’s sample of “A Garden of Peace” by Lonnie Liston Smith is spine-tinglingly beautiful. “Dead Presidents 2” has one of the greatest rap instrumentals ever made, period. The production on this album is quite significant too. And the track is packed with Godfather-esque, Mafioso-themed lyrics that the album has in droves. Right off the bat, Jay-Z’s bravado is unmatched, his flows are slick and refined and Jay already sounded like a veteran of the genre as opposed to a newcomer. The intro “Can’t Knock the Hustle” is a fantastic track where Jay-Z copes with the crime-ridden life he lived by simply stating that it was a necessary hustle you can’t ridicule. Reasonable Doubt explores every little nooks and crannies of the nature of the streets.
This all-thrills-no-frills record details the ins and outs of the life Jay-Z used to lead, the listeners get an eagle-eye perspective of the everyday-activities of a dealer in the cold and brutal streets of Brooklyn, New York. It’s blunt, to-the-point and simple, but extremely hard-hitting. Reasonable Doubt is the prime example of a Hip-Hop album whose qualities just boil down to the replay value, the production and the good rapping of each and every track. But before the multimillion-dollar business deals and his own Champagne brands, at the very beginning of Jay-Z’s glorious rags-to-riches story is his debut album “Reasonable Doubt” which was released on June 25, 1996, on Roc-A-Fella Records. In his nearly three-decade long career, Jay-Z has done and seen everything, in his own words, he has gone from “Grams to Grammys”.
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Since then, Jay-Z has gone on to release a series of some of the most influential, iconic and critically acclaimed albums and become one of the absolute greatest and most essential rappers ever in history. His career began all the way back in the 90s when he used to sell CDs out of his car. Jay-Z, Shawn Corey Carter, is a legendary rapper hailing from Brooklyn, New York. Bold and unforgettable, Reasonable Doubt works both as an epic debut that started the career of one of the greatest rappers ever and a classic Hip-Hop album that will be studied and appreciated for decades by every new generation.
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