#Reasonable doubt jay z album art poster series#

He was an impressive local kid, but no oneвЂ™s idea of a worldwide star.

He toured, briefly, with Big Daddy Kane, and spit some freestyles for New York hip-hop radio. He linked up with Big Jaz (later Jaz-O), doing a stint as the older man's baby-faced sidekick and kicking the triplet-time вЂњfiggity-figgityвЂќ-style flows that were sweeping New York at the time.

At this point, by his own cold-eyed accounting on the song вЂњPolitics As Usual,вЂќ he had been selling drugs for вЂњ10 years.вЂќ Along a parallel track, he had been flirting furtively with being a rapper. In JayвЂ™s mind at least, the album certainly marked the end of an era. He announced the album with a statement that he was retiring and henceforth вЂњwould only be about the business.вЂќ In some alternate universe, that mightвЂ™ve been it. The smaller but more influential world of hardcore rap intelligentsia paid attention to him, but in the shadow of Biggie and Pac, Jay felt like a lesser myth. The Source gave it 4 out of 5 mics-approving, not rapturous. Critics were impressed, but not overly so: Mainstream and non-hip-hop publications noted it was clever at times but mostly a rehash of Scarface and gangster-movie tropes. вЂњAinвЂ™t No NiggaвЂќ was a hit, for sure, and the album was certified Gold on its release solid, but hardly world-conquering in the dynastic era CD sales. Perhaps heвЂ™s never forgotten its relatively inauspicious release. He has curated its legacy so assiduously that Reasonable Doubt seems like the one part of his story about which he remains insecure, the piece of his legacy that might blink out if he didnвЂ™t take care of it.

#Reasonable doubt jay z album art poster series#

HeвЂ™s thrown it a series of lavish birthday parties, celebrating its 10th anniversary with a full-concert performance in 2006 and commissioning a documentary to air only on his TIDAL streaming service for its 20th. He keeps yanking it from streaming services, as if the album is a troubled prep-school kid. Shawn Carter has always been fiercely protective of his first full-length, to the degree that it sometimes feels like it belongs more to him than to us.