Reasonable Doubt is released

Why it matters

Reasonable Doubt came out June 25, 1996, on Roc-A-Fella Records, distributed by Priority. It is Jay-Z's debut LP. He was 26. He had been hustling between Brooklyn and Trenton for the better part of a decade and had been making rap demos that the major labels had passed on for almost as long. He, Damon Dash, and Biggs put the album out themselves because nobody else would. The album did not chart particularly well in 1996. It went gold over the following year, then platinum, then the reputation kept growing for the next decade until most serious-people lists of the great rap debuts now put Reasonable Doubt in the top ten and sometimes in the top five. The album is technically immaculate. "Can't Knock the Hustle" (with Mary J. Blige). "Brooklyn's Finest" (with Notorious B.I.G., his only collaboration with Jay on a studio LP). "Dead Presidents II." "Feelin' It." "D'Evils." Jay-Z at 26 is already, on this album, the writer he would be for the next thirty years: dense, deceptively casual, financially literate, allergic to wasted bars. You should listen to it before any other Jay album. The career starts here. The blueprint is already drawn.