Cormega Gives His Opinion on Jay Z's 'Reasonable Doubt' Album

[FunkDoc1112]

Facts, Mega was 1 of the dusty aggy old heads who couldn't wait to get out of jail and hate on the young star from his own hood.






of course he sukking jay'z dikk.

Dog, Nas and Mega BEEN squashed their shyt, what does this have to do with anything?

 

[Awesome Wells]

The whole "Jay-Z was a nobody in 1996" is always overblown

Was he the biggest star in the world? No. But he wasn't a complete nobody like people try to make it.

What they don’t realize is that Reasonable Doubt was an indie release. RD didn't have any major label backing, at all.

Dame and Jay paid for everything out of pocket, and signed with Freeze Records to press and distribute. And then Priority took over for distribution. So Jay was widely known enough as an indie artist to sell over 400,000 copies of RD, on his own. But if you listen to the losers online, he was a nobody and nobody cared about him, lol. They got the Def Jam deal a year later because they were killing sh*t on their own.

 

[Bugzbunny129]

The worse part of RD isnt jay. Its a dope album with dope production but its kinda tame production wise compared to albums like cuban linx and the infamous and biggie which is why it didnt pop more. Its beats are boring in comparison to other ish at the time. But, thats makes you focus on the lyrics more. With that said, still not a 5 micer

 

[Pop123]

Pardon my ignorance but are there any other debut albums that are pretty much entirely retrospective? Jayz was reflecting on his past dealings on his debut album, lol, think about that…most nigs debuts are full of shhit they’re doing and living…then the second album is kinda the reflective, how it is having money now and shhit type jawn. Jayz came in already full of stories about having money and living it and, as a relatively young man, looking back on it in hindsight. Shhit is a different type of album and he is/was a different type of cat in rap, even when I loathed this kid I knew he was official, on the hustling side

 

[NYC Rebel]

Is Reasonable Doubt the most divisive album of all-time?

The truth is that in real-time, it was an afterthought. I still can't understand how people debate that. However, it did speak to a certain type of hustler that were waiting for something like that. And people that bought it, also liked it. These are also truths. Chicks liked it because of Ain't No Ninja, a couple of other tracks the average hip-hop head liked - pretty much the same tracks that Mega mentioned. However, most people didn't think Jay-Z was anything special at that time as a lyricist, not in wittiness, stories, flow. This is said not only by the hip-hop listeners, but dudes in the industry as well. Listen to Clark Kent tell stories of how "such and such" weren't feeling Jay-Z, and how was one of the few believers.

And yes, Jay did go on a campaign to elevate the album's status. Who he became also helped elevate it. Hell, if he did the same for Vol 1, people would agree there as well.

This is that doing too much thing yall do on social media with history that I simply can't rock with.

 

[mson]

Facts, Mega was 1 of the dusty aggy old heads who couldn't wait to get out of jail and hate on the young star from his own hood.






of course he sukking jay'z dikk.

Mega didn’t hate on Nas when he came out of jail. You guys love to be stuck in the past.

 

[Pop123]

Mega didn’t hate on Nas when he came out of jail. You guys love to be stuck in the past.

Perhaps, but how could you know that for sure tho? You can say he never hated on him in front of a camera/microphone, at most. Those guys were comrades, way more behind the scenes dealings between them than what we the fans know about. Who knows what was taking place that really started the riff..they know. And do remember, Queensbridge is the epicenter of hating and back biting each other lol, I’m sure Nas and Cormega would even tell you that

 

[FreshAIG]

What they don’t realize is that Reasonable Doubt was an indie release. RD didn't have any major label backing, at all.

Dame and Jay paid for everything out of pocket, and signed with Freeze Records to press and distribute. And then Priority took over for distribution. So Jay was widely known enough as an indie artist to sell over 400,000 copies of RD, on his own. But if you listen to the losers online, he was a nobody and nobody cared about him, lol. They got the Def Jam deal a year later because they were killing sh*t on their own.

Exactly.

I talked about this before, but two very close family friends Omeyele and Dara were at Roc-A-Fella since the beginning, so I know firsthand how much work they all put in to get that label off the ground. By time "Ain't No" dropped, that shyt was played everywhere. By the end of 1996 Jay was very well known and respected.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Exactly.

I talked about this before, but two very close family friends Omeyele and Dara were at Roc-A-Fella since the beginning, so I know firsthand how much work they all put in to get that label off the ground. By time "Ain't No" dropped, that shyt was played everywhere. By the end of 1996 Jay was very well known and respected.

Yup!

I knew both of them! The sisters. LOL!! But like you said, they were renting office space and paying for shoots and videos with their own paper. Studio time at D&D, marketing, promotion, paying producers, etc. That all came from them. Even Priority told them they couldn't give them anything to travel in other than to share a van with mad other artists. So Jay paid for their own vehicles to travel for the promo tour. This is '95-'96. So for them to sell that many records, after doing all the work, speaks to how many people they touched on their own and without any major label help. Definitely not easy.

 

[Pop123]

Yup!

I knew both of them! The sisters. LOL!! But like you said, they were renting office space and paying for shoots and videos with their own paper. Studio time at D&D, marketing, promotion, paying producers, etc. That all came from them. Even Priority told them they couldn't give them anything to travel in other than to share a van with mad other artists. So Jay paid for their own vehicles to travel for the promo tour. This is '95-'96. So for them to sell that many records, after doing all the work, speaks to how many people they touched on their own and without any major label help. Definitely not easy.

Definitely not…but in the rap game, doors do tend to slowly creek open when you sliding DJ’s and A&R’s and on-air personalities 3-5 stacks in a paper bag to give you a look/do you a solid in the offices…which Rocafella was notoriously out there doing, lol. Salute to them nigs, money talks.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Definitely not…but in the rap game, doors do tend to slowly creek open when you sliding DJ’s and A&R’s and on-air personalities 3-5 stacks in a paper bag to give you a look/do you a solid in the offices…which Rocafella was notoriously out there doing, lol. Salute to them nigs, money talks.

True, but that's not always gonna make 450,000 people buy your album though, lol.

 

[Pop123]

True, but that's not always gonna make 450,000 people buy your album though, lol.

Facts

Back then albums was moving tho…Nas did like 300k in a week lol. Not to compare the two of course, Nas was a premium rap artist who had the street…Jay-z was bubbling but still in the shadows by comparison…just saying tho. I was only like 11 but I remember them times super vividly, great times.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Facts

Back then albums was moving tho…Nas did like 300k in a week lol. Not to compare the two of course, Nas was a premium rap artist who had the street…Jay-z was bubbling but still in the shadows by comparison…just saying tho. I was only like 11 but I remember them times super vividly, great times

They were.

But only like 5% of the indie game was able to actually sell anything. Nas did what he did because Columbia wasn't willing to invest more into the project. They did the same with Big L and Kurious. But they were just being cheap. They had the money, but didn't believe people would buy it. So they didn't market or promote anyone they had back then. So when you think about how much work Jay and Dame had to put in, to get on the radar on their own, and without a major label like other dudes had, that sh*t is kinda wild in retrospect.

I copped RD the first day it dropped, for like $15 from The Wiz. I was still a kid. That was my damn lunch money! But I knew I needed that album, lol. They had a lot of us out there going and picking that up. I still have my OG CD.

 

[FunkDoc1112]

Facts

Back then albums was moving tho…Nas did like 300k in a week lol. Not to compare the two of course, Nas was a premium rap artist who had the street…Jay-z was bubbling but still in the shadows by comparison…just saying tho. I was only like 11 but I remember them times super vividly, great times.

Eh, it was different then though - albums tended to be slow burners back then, only elstablished artists had big first weeks; most new guys, unless they had a big single, would just do modest numbers that would bubble steadily and it'd usually take a single taking off big for it to hit platinum. Then once you were established you could probably sell a lot without needing singles like a lot of regional cats a la Too Short did. You had shyt like No Doubt's album debuting at like #156, breaking past 100 when it was out for like 5 months already, and then hitting #1 an entire year after it's release because of Don't Speak

shyt, Illmatic and Ready to Die had the exact same first week sales...but one had Big Poppa and the other didn't lol

 

[FunkDoc1112]

They were.

But only like 5% of the indie game was able to actually sell anything. Nas did what he did because Columbia wasn't willing to invest more into the project. They did the same with Big L and Kurious. But they were just being cheap. They had the money, but didn't believe people would buy it. So they didn't market or promote anyone they had back then. So when you think about how much work Jay and Dame had to put in, to get on the radar on their own, and without a major label like other dudes had, that sh*t is kinda wild in retrospect.

I copped RD the first day it dropped, for like $15 from The Wiz. I was still a kid. That was my damn lunch money! But I knew I needed that album, lol. They had a lot of us out there going and picking that up. I still have my OG CD.

Yeah, Columbia treated rap like an afterthought back then...though it did have the nice side effect of Nas actually getting better splits than most artists back then and why he was able to get his own crib even with modest sales while a lot of other cats in the same bracket were still living in the projects. Nas moved out of QB while Redman with two gold albums moved to QB at the same time