Jay-Z’s debut album, Reasonable Doubt, still remains his most popular among fans and critics despite being released 12 years ago. At the time is was released on his personal upstart label, Roc-A-Fella Records with cohorts Damon Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke, Jay was the only artist. The album didn’t fare well commercially until the b side “Ain’t No N***a” featuring a then unknown Foxy Brown took off at Hot 97.  The label slowly grew into one of the biggest hip hop album of the ‘90s.

Lyrically, Jay-Z touches on the hustle and grind of the streets of New York and his time as a drug dealer.  DJ Premier, Ski Beats, and Loud.com’s own Sean C provided the sonic landscape for Jay to rap his most personal album until The Blueprint.  Reasonable Doubt is also a unique album because Jay didn’t reach his mainstream commercial success until two albums laster so Reasonable Doubt was discovered by his millions of fans years after its release.

Tags: albums, all time top 10, drugs, East, Emcees, jay-z, new york, reasonable doubt, rocafella

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