Reasonable Doubt

Photo: DayandaDream

Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter was an ancient-by-rap-standards 26 years old when this album was released — and had been hustling on-and-off for the previous decade — so perhaps the wizened tone is more appropriate than it would be otherwise, for a “debut” album (Rap Genius). 

Had he released his debut at a Biggie-esque 22, he would have been a talented but trend-riding double-time rapper. The extra time without success gave him opportunity to live, as evidenced in the album. He deals with violence with jokes while remaining coldly merciless (Rap Genius).

Even in the midst of the baller lifestyle, Jay expresses minimal pleasure. Young Jay-Z was wise beyond his years, shunning decadence even as he partook. It’s notable that when he mentions having “a pleasant time,” it’s because he’s gambling in a spot where no wannabes are allowed. The pleasure is in the exclusion, not in his actions (Rap Genius).

Until writing this review, I had no idea what I had been missing out on. Throughout the years, i’ve heard all of the lead singles on this album and a few others that weren’t. However, giving it a full listen, it’s very understandable how and why this album has been applauded over the years and dubbed a classic.

Every record is special in it’s own way. Jay definitely knows how to choose a dope beat as all of them were certified. Even better is the lyrics that accompanied these beats. A lost art in today’s rap culture, Jay’s metaphors and double (sometimes triple) entendre’s makes you want to listen to these records on repeat – simply for clarification.

1. Can’t Knock The hustle

The intro is interpolated from the 1983 film Scarface. The voice over is done by “Pain 'n Da Ass.” The intro sets the tone for the content of the album – drug dealing and street life, coupled with lavish living: 

“Shopping sprees, cop in threes/Deuce fever IS's fully loaded, ah, yes”

In interviews, Jay claims the title was really aimed at the hustlers he knew, telling them not to knock his hustle as a rapper. The hustlers were his real audience, the ones he had to please with this record (Rap Genius). No matter if it’s legit, temporarily illegal, or un-glorified, Jay tells the listener to respect the hustle, don't knock it. 

He justifies his drug dealin’ days with lines like:

“At my arraignment screaming/All us blacks got is sports and entertainment, until we even/Thieving, as long as I'm breathing/Can't knock the way a nigga eating, f**k you even”

2. Politics As Usual

 A smooth record with a lot of slick talkin’ outlined with the theme “politics as usual” – a play on the motto “business as usual.” Overall Jay is suggesting that certain parts of life as a hustler are unavoidable, and it’s just politics as usual.

Highlighting the life of a hustler and the politics that go along with the game, good and bad: 

“Kids stop they greeting me, I'm talking sweet to keys”

Jay is explaining that within the hood, the dope man is the children’s role model. Whether that is good or not, that is the reality of Hov’s world. 

“Cursing the very God that brought this grief to be”

He hates the situation he’s in, forced to sell drugs to survive. Due to his choice to be a drug dealer, he has to live life alone, and often paranoid.

He later speaks on how deep into the game he’s fallen with the line:

“The price of leather's got me, deeper than ever” 

Here, Jay expresses his love for nice things, but these things are expensive. So he’s got to fall deeper into the drug game to support his expensive habits.

A bona fide genius with wordplay, Jay starts the second verse with these lines:

“I took my Frito to Tito in the district” 

He took his Frito (chips – also known as money) to Tito (the jeweler) in the diamond district in NY.

3. Brooklyn’s Finest

[Intro]

OKAY, I'm RELOADED!!!

You motherfuckers, think you big time?
Fuckin with Jay-Z, you gon' die, big time!
Here come the "Pain"!

Jay’s associate “Pain ‘n da Ass” shows up again on this intro, reciting these lines in his "Pacinoesque" voice.

One of the few collaborations of Jay-z and Biggie, it’s similar to a cypher as the two go toe for toe trying to outshine each other, while proving why they’re both “Brooklyn’s Finest.” 

Not only are they going tit for tat, they each begin their verses where the last rapper finishes theirs – keeping the flow of the record smooth. 

Outside of outshining each other and reppin’ Brooklyn, the passion and energy exuded on each verse make this record that much more incredible. 

Though both artists provided some dope lyrics for this record, i’m rocking with Biggie on this one.

Here’s a few notable lines:

Jay-Z

“Made a fortune off Peru, extradite, china white heron
Nigga please, like short sleeves I bear arms”

“Time to separate the pros from the cons
The platinum from the bronze
That butter soft shit from that leather on the Fonz”

Biggie

“Sprinkle coke on the floor, make it drug-related”

Reminds me of Dave Chappelle’s comedy special where he spoke about cops killing blacks, and doing just what Biggie said to justify and cover up their wrongdoing – sprinkling drugs on them. 

“Tryin to push 700's, they ain't made them yet”

Big references a car that doesn't even exist.

“My Bed-Stuy flow's malicious, delicious
Fuck three wishes, made my road to riches”

“Gotta go, Coolio mean it's getting “Too Hot”
If Fay' had twins, she'd probably have two Pacs
Get it? .. Tu-pac's”

These lines reference the Biggie and Pac beef and the jab that Pac took at Big, saying that he had sex with Big’s then wife, Faith Evans.

Photo: DesignYouTrust

4. Dead Presidents II

Sampling Nas’ Dead Presidents, Jay uses this record to talk about his fascination with money and his never-ending pursuit of it. Simply put, he’s out for “dead presidents to represent him.”

He speaks about how he’s made a lot of money drug dealing, way before he started rapping. So much so that rival drug dealers and cops alike want him dead. 

Though he’s getting money, he also understands and acknowledges the fact that there are downsides to it like the loss of his life, or the lives of his close friends and family:

“Hospital dazed, reflecting when my man laid up/On the uptown high block he got his side sprayed up/I saw his life slipping, this is a minor setback/Yo, still in all we living, just dream about the get-back/That made him smile, though his eyes said “pray for me”/I'll do you one better and slay these niggas faithfully/Murder is a tough thing to digest, it's a slow process/And I ain't got nothing but time/I had near brushes, not to mention/Three shots close range, never touched me: divine intervention/

5. Feelin It’

“Feelin' it” is a pleasure of language; the verses tell stories, flirt with stream-of-conscience, and tickle the ear with intricate phrasings (Rap Genius).

Being the guy who put Cristal on the map – and ironically took it off – Jay starts the verse off shouting out fine wine and other lavish things. 

“I keep it realer than most, I know you feeling it/Cristal on ice, I like to toast, I keep on spilling it/

Hook:

I'm feeling it, fill the glass to the top with Moet
Feeling it, feel the Lex' pushing up on the set
I'm feeling it, feel the high that you get from the la Feeling it, if you feel it raise your L in the sky

6 .D’Evils

An analysis of how the desire for money and power corrupts the ghetto and all of its inhabitants, leading to violence and betrayal. The song title means “the evils” but is spelled similar to “devils,” emphasizing that the temptation of money is similar to the temptations of Satan.

DJ Premier samples “Go Back Home” by Allen Toussaint on the beat. Jay says this is possibly his favorite song, and he likes how they sampled a gospel record on a song about devils and temptation, saying:

“I guess it’s fitting that it’s a gospel record, because it’s almost a religious experience”

[Hook]
"Dear God, I wonder can you save me"
"Illuminati want my mind, soul and my body"
"Dear God, I wonder can you save me"
"Secret society, tryna keep they eye on me"
"Dear God, I wonder can you save me"
"Illuminati want my mind, soul and my body"
"Dear God, I wonder can you save me"
"I can't die, I can't die, I can't die"

The whole song is about the evils of the game – the game of life, street life, drug dealing, and rap life. In the first verse, Jay speaks about the streets being wicked and how none of his friends speak anymore because they’re all out trying to get money. 

He later says that maybe their disconnect is for the best – because if they know too much, they’ll try and come after him. 

Jay expresses that he’s been metaphorically poisoned by life’s ills. He used to second-guess rapping because he looked up to drug dealers and aspired to be a drug dealer himself. However, he ends the first verse by saying that money and power is changing him and his affiliates and now they’re all infected with "d’evils."

Jay-Z in Decoded explains this line saying:

D'Evils — this obsession with getting paid — is something the narrator picks up after he “breaks bread with the late heads,” who school him in ruthlessness. The next two verses carry on in more detail about the separation of his friends for the love of money. He even kidnaps his friends baby’s mother as ransom and leverage all because of the evil that money has made him do (Rap Genius). 

The third verse is even more eery as he begins it with:

“My flesh, no nigga could test, my soul is possessed/ By D’evils in the form of diamonds and Lexuses”

He continues the rest of the verse with more evils that he’s plagued by because of his insatiable love and lust for more money. 

Photo: Blogger

7. 22 Twos

This record is simply just more word play from Jay. Jay uses the word “too” twenty times and the word “two,” two times throughout the first and second verses – equating to 22 twos/too's.

V1:
Too much West coast dick licking, and too many niggas 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 bitches wanna be ladies, so if you a ho
I'm a call you a ho, too many bitches are shady
Too many ladies give these niggas too many chances
Too many brothers wannabe lovers don't know what romance is
Too many bitches stuck up from too many sexual advances
No question; Jay-Z got too many answers
I been around this block too many times
Rocked too many rhymes, cocked too many nines, too
To all my brothers it ain't too late to come together
Cause too much black and too much love, equal forever
I don't follow any guidelines cause too many niggas ride mine
So I change styles every two rhymes

Hah, what the f**k
That's 22 two's for y'all motherfuckers out there, nahmean?
Shall I continue? Check it out, what?

[Lyrics: Rap Genius]

V2:
Copped to reach my quota, push rock, roll up smooth like on ya
Whole groove like hold-up, swoll up
Too many faggot niggas clocking my spending
Exercising your gay-like minds like Richard Simmons
If you could catch Jay right, on the late night
Without the eight, right, maybe you could test my weight, right
I dip, spit quicker than you ever seen
Adminster pain, next the minister's screaming your name
At your wake as I peek in, look in your casket
Feeling sarcastic, "Look at him, still sleeping"
You never ready, forever petty minds stay petty
Mine's thinking longevity until I'm seventy
Living heavenly, fuck, felony after felony, what?
Nigga you broke, what the fuck you going to tell me?

[Lyrics: Rap Genius]

8. Can I Live

Jay asks a simple yet resonant question, “Can I Live?”  

Throughout his whole life, Jay has been hustling to make the money he needs to get out of the hood. He’s wondering if he can continue to live (peacefully) despite all of the stresses of life now that he's finally attained what he's worked so hard to get.

Furthermore, all the money that he’s made in the drug game is threatened to be taken away as cops and rivals are also after him. 

In the first verse, Jay speaks on his anxieties as he notices those around him watching closely because of all that he has attained. He duly notes however, that he keeps his head, “both of them, where they supposed to be” –  meaning sexually and mentally. Further explaining that women will only sidetrack and distract him from his goals, or even worse get him caught up enough to have him killed. 

He speaks about how at the time he was selling drugs it never bothered him, but looking back on it now, it does. But, to him it was a necessary evil at the time: 

“Easily, explain why we adapt to crime/I'd rather die enormous than live dormant, that's how we on it/

This line resonates deeply with my listeners. It’s a take on the “Live Free or Die Trying,” “Liberty or Death” spirit that’s woven into the fabric of what it means to be American. But its also about great ambition, and the alternative, which is stagnation. The risk is death, so the reward should have equal gravity, a life lived to the fullest.

Jay in Decoded.

In verse two, Jay further examines his anxiety by starting off with the lines:

"My mind is infested with sick thoughts that circle"

This is about the the interior of my mind. Constantly checking thoughts, separating what’s real from what’s fear and paranoia, what’s a part of the plan and what’s reckless. Before I learned the Law of Attraction I was aware of the power of my thoughts, staying focused, weeding out thoughts that sabotage.

Jay’s own explanation in Decoded.

9. Ain’t No Nigga

The second single off of Reasonable Doubt. The clean version is “Ain’t No Playa.” The song got Jay-Z his earliest taste of national recognition when Irv Gotti and Lyor Cohen got it used in The Nutty Professor. Foxy Brown was just 16 years old at the time. This is also the song that caught Def Jam’s attention and led them invest in Roc-A-Fella (Rap Genius).

Jay spits his two verses – which can be considered the predecessors to today’s “main chick/side chick” era. He talks about him respecting his main chick, but still indulging with various promiscuous women who seduce him and “make him weak.” 

He starts feelin’ himself in the bridge before Foxy’s verse, where she comes in to share her side and set the record straight. She reminds Jay of who was there for him before the new money and women. At the same time, she also makes it known that she’s cool with him having other women, as long as he knows and they know that she comes first: 

“So when you flip that coke/Remember the days you was dead broke/But now you style and I raised you/Basically made you into a don/Don't give a f**k about how you move with them other mamis/I push the Z, eating shrimp scampi with rocks larger than life/F**k them Reebok broads, you made it known who your wife was/

Photo: FactMag

10. Friend or Foe

The intro sets the vibe for the record with the conversation of men who are plotting to take Jay down because they can no longer move their drugs because Jay – ”some rapper n***a” – is taking away all of their customers. 

They don’t take kindly to it and immediately set out to go see him. In the first line to his unnamed adversary, Jay asserts his alpha-male status and demands to know the business of this new face:

“Friend or foe yo, state your biz”

In this short track, Jay plays a drug kingpin and condescendingly dismisses an outsider that he believes is planning to take over his market. The verse is structured as a one sided conversation with the outsider.

11. Coming of Age

This track from Jay-Z’s first album Reasonable Doubt presents Memphis Bleek to the world as Jay-Z’s protege.

The whole record is about Jay noticing a young dude – Memphis Bleek – on the block hustling. Jay sees the ambition in Bleek's eyes and decides take him under his wing as his protege. 

On the flipside, Bleek has also been watching Jay and waiting for him to approach him opposed to “acting like a groupie.” When Jay finally does, Bleek is all in. He likes the way Jay does business and the way he handles himself. 

Jay suspects that he wants to be just like him. He also notices that Bleek is money hungry and full ambition, so he takes him for a ride and details what he would expect from him if he were to join his crew:

“I see myself in his eyes, I moved from Levi's/To Guess to Versace, now it's diamonds like Liberace/That's just the natural cycle..../I can help shorty blow out like Afro-Sheen/Plus I can relive my days of youth which is gone/That little nigga's peeps, it's time to put him on"

In the last verse where Bleek and Jay go bar for bar, Jay takes this time to school Bleek:

  “Have it all, now listen to me/You let them other niggas get the name, skip the fam/Ten thou' or a hundred G keep your shit the same (Jay-Z)/Yeah, the only way to blow/You let your shit bubble quietly (Jay-Z)/And then you blow (Memphis Bleek)/The only way to peep a fool is let him show his hand/Then you play your cards (Jay-Z)/Don't blow your dough on hotties (Jay-Z)/Hah, I like your resume, pick a day, you can start (Jay-Z)/From now until death do us part, nigga (Memphis Bleek)”

Jay Z says in his book “Decoded” that “The word ‘resume’ makes it sound like the end of any other job interview, but then Bleek ends with a blood vow, ‘until death do us part,’ which reminds us that the stakes are higher than a nine to five.” (Decoded, Jay Z).

12. Cashmere Thoughts

A record about his financial goals, supported by impeccable wordplay and an incredible, eclectic flow to match.

Jay-Z uses this record to flex and brag about how fly he is, how sick his flow is, and how many women he bags. With bars like:

“Caviar and silk dreams, my voice is linen/Spitting venom up in the minds of young women”

Ultimately, Jay takes this time to “talk his shit.”

Photo: HackSkeptic

13. Bring it On

This record provides the feeling of a cypher. It features rappers Jaz-O and Sauce Money who all come on and spit their respective verses. This record also features a Fat Joe sample on the hook.

14. Regrets

This record details the moral compromises a hustler has to make.

The hook for this song outlines the concept of the record perfectly: 

“This is the number one rule for your set
In order to survive got to learn to live with regrets
On the rise to the top many drop, don't forget
In order to survive got to learn to live with regrets
This is the number one rule for your set
In order to survive got to learn to live with regrets
And through our travels we get separated, never forget
In order to survive got to learn to live with regrets”

While the verses provide deeper depth to Jay’s “Regrets”:

“I sold it all from crack to opium, in third person/I don't wanna see them, so I'm rehearsing/With my peoples how to G them/How can I ease the stress and learn to live with these regrets/This time, stress, giving this shit up, f**k/

In the first verse, Jay regrets what is about to become his drug dealing past. Selling drugs was one of the few options that he had growing up, considering his environment. However, the consequences of it all are beginning to weigh heavily on his brain.

Jay is also stressing over a drug deal that he set up that might have resulted in the death of some of his associates.

The second verse speaks on Jay’s regrets in regard to his mother. He understands that his wild, unpredictable, and dangerous lifestyle has kept her worried many nights:

“My moms crying because her insides are dying/Her son trying her patience, keep her heart racing/A million beats a minute, I know I push you to your limit/But it's this game love, I'm caught up all in it/They make it so you can't prevent it/Never give it, you gotta take it/

Jay spends the third and last verse talking to the spirit of a friend who has passed away: 

“I miss him, long as I'm living he's living through memories/He's there to kill all my suicidal tendencies/In heaven looking over me, or in hell, keeping it cozy/I'm coming, life on these streets ain't what it's supposed to be/

Jay came into hustling thinking that he was going to only experience all the perks. But as he became more experienced in the game, he realized it wasn’t all he expected it to be. 

Jay continues speaking to his friend about life since he’s been gone. He explains how he no longer does certain things or deals with certain people anymore. After talking for a while and getting a little caught up in it, he ends the verse with these lines: 

“You was right niggas want you to be miserable with them/Anyway, I ain't trying to hear it, I think I'm touched/This whole verse I been talking to your spirit, a little too much/

Photo: Tumblr