How was Jay-Z before Reasonable Doubt came out?

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Did he have a buzz? Was it like Drake/50's buzz before they released their debut album?

Im only 19 so obviously I dont know too much about it but I have always been a fan of 90s Hip-Hop.

I know RD is claimed to be a classic now but what were the reviews/thoughts on it when it first came out?

I'll personally put BP1 first then RD but RD will always be one of my favorite albums (Can I live makes it top 5 automatically for me lol)

But yea, for all the older heads, what did you guys think of RD when it first released? What did you think of his music/stle at that time?

Someone like myself listening to RD for the first time right now wont be the same as someone listening to it when it first released since obviously I have an huge expectation for Jay.
 
RD was not album of the year or anything when it first dropped, but it was just so good that it lasted the test of time and was recognized as being ahead of its time.

In those days it wasn't like you drop a mixtape and build buzz and whatnot. You just had to put your all into making a song that could really take off, or take advantage of that shot you have at a feature and come up with the greatest verse you could possibly spit. That's why there was such an emphasis on quality back then, because the quantity simply wasn't feasible.

The availability of quality recording technology simply wasn't there. Think about what a laptop computer, or any computer for that matter in 1996 was like. In order to record you had to go to a studio, pay crazy money for time, pay an engineer, and anything that was recorded was recorded on tape reels that were heavy and big and cumbersome and had to be carried around.
 
It 96 he was still not better than Nas 
nerd.gif
 
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On a more serious note RD was and is a great album but at that time there was just so much fire

Just look at the year 1996 and what dropped.

Nas,It was written

Ghostface Killah, Ironman

Tupac All eyez on me and 7 day theory

De la sole , stakes is high

The Fugees, The Score

Outkast, ATLiens

Redman , Muddy Waters

UGK, Ridin Dirty

Mobb Depp, Hell on earth

I could possibly name another 5

 Its was great but got damn you see that up there. Thats in my opinion the best year hip hop ever had. I could see how it went unappreciated for a while.
 
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Pretty corny imo. He was Jazz-O's sidekick Memphis Bleek for the most part.

I know he thanks the Illumaniti 6 times a day for changing his flow and subject matter, being more ambitious, and coming up with a better plan to benefit from how fans at the time would react from trend to trend. All the deaths helped too.

RD wasn't regarded as a classic when it dropped or anything special. You'll hear a lot of history revisionists say otherwise. Just too many better classic rappers and albums that year and that decade really. I thought it was a classic after I heard it though.
 
But yea, for all the older heads, what did you guys think of RD when it first released?
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Well back then, like @knowledgebones72 stated there was no strong mixtape game, so you had to have strong or great reviews in magazine publications like The Source and others to really build your buzz or hype up.  For me personally, only 2 albums mattered to me in 96 for the most part with one of them being Muddy Waters and the other being Reasonable Doubt. 

When Reasonable Doubt dropped, it wasn't WIDELY regarded as the classic or great album back then like it is now, or by some now.  There's probably a number of reasons for that.  It was mostly viewed as a really solid debut and had songs like "Can't Knock the Hustle" ,"Dead Presidents", and "Aint No *****" that were being played.  Jay Z didn't shake up the world or rap game back then with Reasonable Doubt.  As you can see however, he did lap alot if not all of his competitors from back then.  One post down.............45 more to go
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. 
 
I didn't like him when he was rapping fast.

His buzz was on zero back then.

I heard him on Big Daddy Kane, Mic Geronimo and Big L's tapes and dismissed him.

That whole Fuschnickens/Treach flow period in time was done.

He had to totally reinvent himself.
 
aNYone said:
It 96 he was still not better than Nas :nerd:  :lol:

On a more serious note RD was and is a great album but at that time there was just so fire

Just look at the year 1996 and what dropped.

Nas,It was written
Ghostface Killah, Ironman
Tupac All eyez on me and 7 day theory
De la sole , stakes is high
The Fugees, The Score
Outkast, ATLiens
Redman , Muddy Waters
UGK, Ridin Dirty
Mobb Depp, Hell on earth


I could possibly name another 5

 Its was great but got damn you see that up there. Thats in my opinion the best year hip hop ever had. I could see how it went unappreciated for a while.
Click to expand...
[emoji]128591[/emoji]this brother speaks the truth. You just took me back! 97.....tru2dagame[emoji]128293[/emoji]. RD was dope[emoji]128137[/emoji]but over looked.
 
Jay had no buzz.

You got rappers droppin million dollar videos huge anticpated follow up albums. 2pac was alive. So much going on

He basically got drowned out. 

I got RD from the used section from The Wherehouse music probably a year after it dropped

I thought the album was solid but I was bumpin It was Written and All eyes on me pretty much everyday.

Plus Jay wasn't "the guy" until end 98,99 2000
 
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I think RD was one of those albums that wasn't truly appreciated until Jay REALLY blew up and people went back to his early catalogue of music. 1st week sales wasn't even all that for RD (43,000 according to Forbes). And this was at a time where there was no iTunes, or other computer file sharing technology. In my opinion, it became a situation where most fans were fully on Jay with Vol. 2 and Vol. 3, it was only natural for people to go back to that 1st album (RD) and copp it to complete most Jay-Z collections and truly understand that classic 1st album.
 
People talking about buzz and hype and first week sales make me laugh. Very few people had buzz before their debut back then because of how different media and the record industry was.

In '96 you saw a video on MTV or read about someone in the source then you go buy the album.

Can't knock the hustle was on repeat for months. The album had favourable reviews including 4/5 in the source. Biggie was on there who had a huge buzz at the time. It was a big album in an era of great music.
 
It's a reasonable doubt documentary out there somewhere.. Pretty much he wasn't signed to a label at first so him Dame and Biggs shot all the videos and was hitting clubs and popping bottles with their own money. It was a movement within its self. They promoted themselves, paid for studio time and beats themselves. Jay been about his business since day one, he came into the game as a hustler and took a gamble putting up his own money but it paid off
 
RD was a sleeper album when it dropped. I jammed the hell out of that tape back in '96 (freshman year of college) and ended up putting a lot of friends on to Jay. And these were dudes that lived and breathed hip-hop like most young dudes did back then. But they had no clue who he was.

That said, the only way I heard about Jay was from The Nutty Professor soundtrack. I happened to stumble on his album at a local record store, recognized the name and bought it not knowing what to expect.
 
Dont feel like typing an essay right now, so in the meantime....

sig check :smokin
 
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watching this on Video Music Box was my first look at Jay, thought his name was Jay-Ski

he was very forgettable.

Reasonable doubt was so overlooked, when it finally got love it sold out quickly.
I'm not sure if it was a running joke but hot97 used to claim that Dame Dash was desperate for anyone to sell him one of the original pressings back to him because they sold them all.

 
Nickpw61 said:
People talking about buzz and hype and first week sales make me laugh. Very few people had buzz before their debut back then because of how different media and the record industry was.

In '96 you saw a video on MTV or read about someone in the source then you go buy the album.

Can't knock the hustle was on repeat for months. The album had favourable reviews including 4/5 in the source. Biggie was on there who had a huge buzz at the time. It was a big album in an era of great music.
Click to expand...
Snoop Dogg had the BIGGEST BUZZ OF ALL TIME and this was in 1993. The most anticipated album of all time.
 
LOBCITY said:
Snoop Dogg had the BIGGEST BUZZ OF ALL TIME and this was in 1993. The most anticipated album of all time.
Click to expand...

That's a rare case though. The entire WORLD got to hear how good he was for almost an entire project...before his debut album.
 
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