Jay-Z Reasonable Doubt Review

Reasonable Doubt was released on June 25, 1996 as Jay-Z’s first studio released album on behalf of his own label Roc-a-Fella Records. It is evident in this album that Jay-Z had an old money, mob family type of vibe. Kevin Liles of Warner Music Group and Def Jam Recordings said that “Jay was a very cultural rapper” with a “conversational style” in the Dalorsworld Documentary on Reasonable Doubt. Reasonable Doubt is the foundation of everything Jay-Z has done throughout his rap career including creating Roc-A-Fella Records from the ground up. In Reasonable Doubt his rhyme scheme is very intricate and also visual, seemingly coded for the environment which he was a part of during the 90s.

            The production on the album consisted of talented producers such as DJ Premier, Clark Kent, Ski Beatz, Big Jaz, Irv Gotti, Knobody, Sean Cane and more. According to the Dalorsworld Documentary the production on this album was “colorful”, “lush”, it was seemingly the “voice of the crack generation”, an “articulate voice of [a] bad guy” and was “very cinematic”. On the Billboard charts, Reasonable Doubt peaked at number 23 on the chart of 200 albums.

            “Can’t Knock The Hustle” featuring songstress Mary J. Blige was a single which was the first track on the album. It set the tone for the entire album. The skit at the beginning aludes to the movie Scarface and it exposes the mob-like aura the entire album will have.  Produced by Knobody and Sean Cane this song was noteworthy because the “drums were hard” and the “music was smooth”. Mary J. Blige stated that the song was about “never disrespecting people’s hustle”. Jay-Z said that the meaning of the song is you “can’t knock music, music is life”. The chorus is notable because it exposes what Jay-Z is expressing throughout the entire song in his rhymes.

“I'm takin' out this time/To give you a piece of my mind/'Cause you can't knock the hustle/Who do you think you are?/Baby, one day you'll be a star”

            

              “Politics As Usual” produced by Ski Beatz is a light, beautifully produced song showcasing Jay-Z’s intricate rapping skills. It contains samples of “Hurry Up This Way Again” by The Stylistics. He controls the beat and exposes the life he has as a crack dealer in New York. Jay-Z expresses his strength despite the harshness of the life he was born into. The material items he presents in this track expose how important it is to always have the freshest things while being a hard, jaded individual. The underground life of a crack dealer is exposed in this track and the hook “Politics as usual” allude to the relationship Jay-Z has with all of the people within his life as a dealer.

           

               “Brooklyn’s Finest” produced by Clark Kent is one of two of the only songs Jay-Z has with the iconic Biggie Smalls. This track is historic due to the ability for Jay-Z and Biggie to even have been on a track together. This track contains samples of “Ecstasy” by The Ohio Players, “Brooklyn Zoo” by Ol' Dirty Bastard and has dialogue from Carlito's Way, the film. The flows are arrogant, vicious and monumental. The hook is an ode to people from Brooklyn who to some are literally viewed as the titans of Hip Hop.

“Jay-Z and Biggie Smalls, n---- shit your drawers/(Where you from?) Brooklyn going out to all/(Flatbush...) You don't stop/(Redhook...) You won't stop, n----!

(Brooklyn... Brooklyn... Brooklyn...)”

            

             “Dead Presidents” was the first single released for the album. This track was produced by Ski Beatz yet it didn’t make it to the album, “Dead Presidents II”. Ski Beatz sampled “A Garden of Peace” by Lonnie Liston Smith and also Nas’ 1994 track “The World is Yours” Tip Mix . Ski said that his job as a producer was to “capture feelings and what he was saying, [like] a movie. I was scoring his life.”  The rapping in this song was a bit fast paced and showed the lyrical skills of Jay-Z. This track allows Jay-Z to lyrically express how he feels about the rap game and crack dealing. The hook epitomizes the meaning of all of Jay-Z’s lyrics as a whole.

“Presidents to represent me/I'm out for presidents to represent me/I'm out for dead f----- presidents to represent me”

The importance of money is prevalent in this track. It shows that Jay-Z uses money as a means to express his self-image. Money directly correlates with how he feels about himself as an individual and this leaves him feeling accomplished at times.

           

                    “Feelin’ It” is a track featuring Mecca produced by Ski Beatz it is a calming therapeutic track with lyrics laced with double entendres and instrinsic meanings. The consciousness of Jay-Z is probed in this track. He expresses his journey as well as trials and tribulations. Jay-Z also gives words of advice in this track which is interesting because it seems as though its’ knowledge he has gained over the years. The most notable to me are these bars:

“If every nigga in your clique is rich, your clique is rugged/Nobody will fall cause everyone will be each others crutches/I hope you fools choose to listen,

I drop jewels, bust it/These are the rules I follow in my life, you gotta love it”

In this track, Jay-Z also alludes to the superficial ways of women once a man gains money and material things.  

            “D’evils” is a track produced by DJ Premier. DJ Premier said the “wordplay” on this track and on Reasonable Doubt are makings of “a good MC”, he also stated that there’s “one thing about Hip Hop, you have to know how to listen to it”. “Go Back Home” by Allen Toussaint (as well as Snoop Dogg’s Murder Was the Case) is sampled for this track. This tracks sums up the actual evils of life and how it affects ones negatively. In this track Jay-Z testifies about the situations he has been in and relates them to a “Faustian deal” or deal with the devil. He sacrifices happiness and other ideals to be successful and strong in his life he wishes to live. He stated that he looked up to Gotti or John Gotti a NYC drug kingpin. This song also exposes the “crabs in the barrel mentality” which Jay-Z is a part of within his relationships in the environment he is a part of. An example of this ideal in this track is:

“We used to fight for building blocks/Now we fight for blocks with buildings that make a killing/The closest of friends when we first started/But grew apart as the money grew and soon grew black-hearted/Thinking back when we first learned to use rubbers/He never learned so in turn I'm kidnapping his baby's mother/My hand around her collar, feeding her cheese/She said the taste of dollars was shitty so I fed her fifties/About his whereabouts I wasn't convinced/I kept feeding her money 'til her shit started to make sense/Who could ever foresee, we used to stay up all night/At slumber parties, now I'm tryna rock this b--- to sleep/All the years we were real close, now I see his fears/Through her tears know she's wishing we were still close/Don't cry, it is to be, in time/I'll take away your miseries and make it mine, D'evils”

This intrinsic use of language lets the listener understand that he is in a troubled state of mind and yet he continues to commit immoral actions. Jay-Z alludes to feeling like one of the main characters in John Singleton’s film, Higher Learning, Remy (“But now this higher learning got the Remy in me”. Yet he used this as a double entendre to represent Remy Martin liquer. Individuals within the Dalorsworld documentary stated that this track alluded to the fact that “money, schooling, negative factor all contribute to Hip Hop”, “when people critique Hip Hop they have to look at the messages [behind it], and that “you can’t blame the poet or the person conveying the message.” This track according to individuals in the documentary also showed Jay-Z’s conversational type of flow which was an “intimate relationship with his listeners.”

           

               “22 Two’S” is a freestyle track produced by Ski Beatz. In this track Jay-Z raps about the West Coast, users in the industry, women and is full of double entendres. His style is swift and he uses the word too over 22 times within the first few bars before he hits the hook. In this track he speaks about how successful he is as a crack dealer and legitimizes why he is a talented rapper due to his word choice within this track.

            “Too much West coast d--- licking, and too many n---- on a mission

Doing your best Jay-Z rendition/Too many rough motherfuckers, I got my suspicions

That you're just fish in a pool of sharks nigga, listen/ Too many b---- wanna be ladies, so if you a h-/I'm a call you a h-, too many b---- are shady/

Too many ladies give these n----- too many chances”

“Can I Live” is a track produced by Irv Gotti and is one of the most notable tracks on this album. Gotti sampled Isaac Hayes's “The Look of Love” for this track. This track presents Jay-Z’s life and he expresses why their environment in terms of “schooling, roads and everything is the bottom of the totem pole and that living dormant is a part of the project lifestyle” in the Dalorsworld documentary. Adapting to crime and doing whatever it takes to get out of the project lifestyle is also what this track expresses. Jay-Z compares himself to an iconic drug dealer who introduced crack to the District of Colombia in the 80s. He made millions by the age of 22 off of the drug dealing which took place in D.C., he later was convicted, arrested and later became a government informant. Money and the issues surrounding it was one of the major motifs this track was about which was symbolic of the flashy Hip Hop culture of the 90s.

            “At the bar getting my thug on properly/My squad and me lack a respect for authority

Laughing hard, happy to be escaping poverty/However brief, I know this game got valleys and peaks/ Expectation for dips, for precipitation we stack chips, hardly

The youth I used to be, soon to see a mill'in”

“Ain’t No N----” is a song Jay-Z refers to as a playful track produced by Big Jaz featuring the then 16-year-old Foxy Brown. Big Jaz sampled Seven Minutes of Funk by The Whole Darm Family. The chorus alludes to the song “Ain’t No Woman (Like The One I’ve Got) by the Four Tops. This song is a “call and response” track in which Jay-Z and Foxy Brown playfully rhymed over an easygoing beat. Their delivery was quick, effective and noteworthy. This track elevated Foxy Brown and catapulted her into the 90s Hip Hop scene. Both artists express the importance of material items as well as the treatment of their significant others.

“Aint no n---- like the one I got/no one can fuck you betta/sleeps around but he gives me a lot/keeps you in diamonds and leathers/friends’ll tell me I should leave you alone”

“Friend or Foe” is a track produced by DJ Premier. DJ Premier samples “Hey, What’s That You Say” by Brother to Brother for this track. Jay-Z raps about an individual trying to take over his crack dealing turf. It is a conversational track in which he uses double entendres to speak to the individual who is threatening him.

            “Friend or foe yo, state your biz/You tend to dough, ah, there it is

Me, I run the show, oh, and these kids/Don't like nobody coming around here fucking with they dough for shit/ You enterprising though, and I like 'ya/ But f--- with the big dogs yo, I gotta bite you/Look, it's out of my hands/And you getting money around here, it's not in the plans”

“Coming of Age” is a track produced by Clark Kent featuring rap titan Memphis Bleek a native of Brooklyn, NY. Clark Kent sampled “Inside You” by Eddie Henderson for “Coming of Age”. This track is a friendly, intricate conversation between the two rappers who admire the grind of each other from afar. Both rappers spit rhymes about material items and make references to a mob-like lifestyle in the way they speak about money, drugs and hustling in this track. This track shows how Jay-Z still shines even on a track with another talented Brooklyn MC. Michael Jordan and Scarface are referenced in this track proving that both symbolize pieces of what lies within Bleek’s and Jay-Z’s inner psyches.

“Hey fella I been watching you clocking (Jay-Z)

Who me? Holding down this block it ain't nothing (Memphis Bleek)

You the man n----, now stop fronting/Hahah I like your style (Jay-Z)

Nah, I like your style (Memphis Bleek)

Let's drive around awhile (Jay-Z)

Cool n---- (Memphis Bleek)

Here's a thou' (Jay-Z)

A G? I ride with you for free/I want the long-term riches and b----- (Memphis Bleek)

Have it all, now listen to me/You let them other n----- get the name, skip the fame

Ten thou' or a hundred G keep your shit the same (Jay-Z)

On the low? (Memphis Bleek)

Yeah, the only way to blow/You let your s---- bubble quietly (Jay-Z)

And then you blow (Memphis Bleek)”

“Cashmere Thoughts” is a track produced by Clark Kent he sampled “Save Their Souls” by Bohannan. In this track Jay-Z shows another persona who is smoother and seemingly calmer than the normal him. The flow in this track is a bit slower than the majority of the tracks on Reasonable Doubt. Its’ apparent that he is rhyming slower so that listener’s will understand and be able to decipher the lyrics better. The flow is easy to understand despite having a few terms that are a bit confusing similar to other tracks on Reasonable Doubt.

“Mink thoughts to think thoughts type similar/Might you remember, my shit is cold like December/Smoother than Persian rugs, the cashmere

Chromosomes make a nigga Jigga - Jay-Z, lethal drugs/18-carat gold pen, when it hits the sheets/Words worth a million like I'm rapping them through platinum teeth”

“Bring it On” is a track produced by DJ Premier featuring Sauce Money and Big Jaz. This track is basically three rappers spilling their hearts about their passion for Hip Hop. DJ Premier sampled “1, 2 Pass It” by D&D All-Stars for this track. The lyrics are laced with shots at the woes they experience as being artists in the 90s. Jay-Z alludes to Robert Deniro’s role in The Godfather II, this pushes the mob-like family vibe of the entire album. Another notable lyric is when Jay-Z references Tony Montana and Manolo’s relationship in Scarface (“had to turn away when Tony killed Manolo/That's real, mixed feelings like a mulatto”. This sums up how he feels about the drug game as a whole.

                        “Mannerisms of a young Bobby DeNiro, spent Spanish wisdoms

In a whip with dinero, crime organized like the Pharoah/I CREAM, I diamond gleam/High post like Hakeem, got a lot of things to drop/Brooklyn to Queens, I gotta keep my steam/N----- wanna try to hem my long jeans/Uptown fiend for Jay-Z to appear on the scene”

“Regrets” is a track produced by Peter Panic and it features a sample of “It’s So Easy Loving You” by Hubert Laws and Earl Klugh. This track is nostalgic in its appeal. The way that Jay-Z raps over the beat is artistic. This track legitimizes the entire album. By doing so, he presents how he feels about the negative aspects of his life. His wordplay in this track is calming yet it shows how emotional his tribulations have been within his life. In this track it is apparent that he has regrets yet he has learned from them. Overall this track is the last page in the conscience of Jay-Z which is what Reasonable Doubt was.

“You used to hold me, told me that I was the best/Anything in this world I want I could possess/All that made me want is all that I could get/

In order to survive, gotta learn to live with regrets (when I was young)”

This entire album track by track solidified Jay-Z’s initiation into New York Hip Hop. His connections, producers and associates were also helpful in getting him to where he is today in 2014. As one of the major voices of NY Hip Hop Jay-Z’s album Reasonable Doubt was iconic due to his excellent linguistic skills. His approach and ability to spit naturally was essential to why he gained respect and notability after this album was released. Reasonable Doubt was named one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by The Rolling Stone. “Dead Presidents”, “Ain't No N-----“, “Can't Knock the Hustle” and “Feelin' It” were singles which pushed Jay-Z into the public eye of Hip Hop and showed he was a force to be reckoned with. As a whole this album pushed the limits and proved that Jay-Z will forever be iconic to the NY rap game.