https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3fif3OCYc4


-Jay, Dame and co dressed like corny old heads in the club
-lexus being viewed as some real shit to push
-Denim shorts
-pretty much everything

yet, I still love this shit.

south beach doesn't look like that anymore, in this video it almost looks like the scarface chi chi get the yayo scene

There's been a lot of revisionist history when it comes to Reasonable Doubt era Jay. Niggas weren't bumping the album like that when it dropped, and that whole big willie thing he was doing was widely perceived as lame.

The album aged well and stood the test of time. Whether or not it set the world on fire at the time is sort of immaterial to how it's viewed in retrospect.

some albums get more love after the fact.
it's not unusual.

ppl act like it's a death blow that reasonable doubt wasn't
viewed as a classic until years later.

so it was only 7 summers??

LOL.

i was there. in the 90s and 00s. i recall Jay-Z and Missy releasing hot tracks each summer for a few yrs. i used to look forward to it.

before then, he was one of many popular NY rappers.

you be sure to shout this from the back every time you hear or see a discussion about Jay Z. it's important that history be correct!

>before then, he was one of many popular NY rappers.

Or at least have been in NYC at the time Jay the song popped off. Club heads had to respect it, cause it wasn't a club song but it was so hot they had to play it. I guess the best comparison to this I can think of for the younger generation is Drake's "Successful".
Backpackers had to respect "Hard Knock Life", because it was simply the illest concept song out. Jay didn't have everyone's ear, until that joint dropped.

Let my love slide in and never slip out

The point is 'Ain't No Nigga' was a jam. Then. If some NYC folks didn't dig it that has NO bearing on our feeling about it now as it had none then.

So what?

And then yeah, starting with 'Money Ain't a Thang' or 'Hard Knock Life' (which ever) Jay had a string of hot summer singles. Again - no one cared or cares about what ppl in NYC thought of that single or any of the rest. They were hits. Lol

the club was out of control whenever this song came on and the rest is history

most heads were like "this is the triple fast rapper? the tung twista sounding dude?"

meanwhile girls in the club were rappin Foxy word for word

That's why I get baguettes, 5 carats and all that
From Dolce Gabana to H Bendel I'm ringing bells
So who the player, I still keep you in the illest gators
Tailor made so we can lay up in the shade reminiscing
On how I fuck the best and shit
Especially when I'm sipping Baileys
Don't give a fuck about how you move with them other mamis
I push the Z, eating shrimp scampi with rocks larger than life
Fuck them Reebok broads, you made it known who your wife was
I got you fronting in Armani sweaters, before this rap shit
When you was in leathers and bullshit berettas
And E classes with Mo in the glasses
Shows in Cali with all the flavor suede Bally's
Now all your mens is up in your Benz's

Crazy. Look up his recent interview with Forbez DVD Live about it.
---
http://i.imgur.com/LDctBHv.gif

Ma, your children are OK. 4.7.49-9.21.09

'Come to your house like a check from Columbia House.' "Give it Up Pt. 2" J Dilla

when he first dropped.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"One of the most important things in life is what Judge Learned Hand described as 'that ever-gnawing inner doubt as to whether you're r

I fucked with Biggie's early shit but when Life After Death first came out, I was like WTF is this shiny shit?! I was still spinning Hell On Earth, Ironman and Muddy Waters from the last quarter of 96. My ears weren't ready for LAD. Took me a while to appreciate it.

I'm still looking for the Party n Bullshit remix with that upright bass they used to play on WBLS and Stretch & Bobbito's show.

I really wish I could find that Source interview where Biggie said he really wished people took him seriously as a lyricist.

I know, I was one of them and traveled up and down the East Coast hating on anything that was popular.

http://www.egotripland.com/biggie_lastsource_interview/2/

"“I want people to buy album,” he states emphatically, “and just straight up say, ‘Yo, he’s the best. He’s the best ever. He’s the best that ever did it.’ That’s what I’m lookin’ for. I want my props. ’Cause they slept on me. I read and they give me my props as being that solo emcee that blew up from the East Coast: But they don’t give me my props like, ‘Yo, Big be straight dicin’ niggas on the mic! On the rhyme side, he’s nice!’ They don’t really look at me like that.”

The Lord Finesse remix?

I been looking for this shit for YEARS bruh...

gatdamn this shit was so funky. I wasn't even mad at the Puffy adlibs on this version.

I saw Biggie perform this (not the remix) at Jones Beach before he blew up... whole beach scattered during the fight skit. We lost it when they started jumping up and down.

I heard this before the the original and was pissed when it wasn't on the album.

I think that version is only available on vinyl http://youtu.be/7OmaZnmk3X8

that was years and years ago

Had Ready To Die like week one. Loved the album, disliked "Juicy" and HATED the remix to "One More Chance." By the time his 2nd album came out I wasn't fucking with Big any more. He started making that cornball materialistic shit.

"Ain't No Nigga" and "Can't Knock The Hustle" got heavy rotation.

Like, he was all over the radio in 1996. It's revisionist to say people weren't feelin' it.

At least in NYC anyway.

because they used to play a LOT of records in the mid-90s. It's not like today where the rotation was so small, that anything that got spins was a smash hit. Lords of the Underground, King Just and N9NE for crazy airplay too.

Nine and King Just had one song each and neither of their singles ("Whutchu Want" and "Warrior's Drum") or albums went gold. Those songs just got played on the radio.

In 1996 Hot 97 had "Dead Presidents", "Ain't No Nigga", "Can't Knock The Hustle" and "Brooklyn's Finest" in their regular rotation playlist. Plus, Jay was also featured on R&B songs (Horace Brown's "Things We Do For Love (Remix)" and Shai's "I Don't Want To Be Alone (Remix)") that got regular rotation.

You're trying to act like he was Smoothe Da Hustler or Blahzay Blahzay. I mean, Roc-A-Fella Records got their deal with Def Jam because Reasonable Doubt was so popular.

Artists who released albums in 1995 that charted higher on both the Hot-100 and RnB/Rap charts:

E-40
Pac
Ol Dirty
Mobb Deep
Kool G Rap
The Dogg Pound
Bone Thugs in Harmony
Gza
Goodie Mobb
LL Cool J

This doesn't include the 1994 releases that were still ruling the airwaves.

During that period:

Black Moon didn't go gold.
Smif-N-Wessun didn't go gold.
Kool G Rap has never gone gold in his entire career.
Jeru The Damaja didn't go gold.
Gang Starr didn't go gold.
Lords of the Underground never went gold.
Nine never went gold.
King Just never went gold.
M.O.P never went gold.
O.C. never went gold.
Fat Joe never went gold.
Pete Rock & CL Smooth never went gold.
AZ's album didn't go gold (single did though).
Big L didn't go gold.
DAS EFX didn't go gold.
Grand Puba didn't go gold.
Mic Geronimo didn't go gold.
De La Soul didn't go gold.

And many others.

Are you going to act like people weren't bumping their albums?

what gives?

at the time.

Thats because Puff and Big was still running things and Jay wasnt out of their shadow yet. He was still considered just a local rapper back then.

Funny enough, I liked most of the album EXCEPT for "Ain't No Nigga." I hated that fucking song. It was what we called a "girl song" back in the day. Only broads used to like shit like that. The rest of the album was solid. Jay actually got cornier after this album, with more and more girl tracks on each album.

w/o regard for the rest of the album, this song got major burn in Chicago. it was on radio regularly and i heard it at parties often too.

OC came out in a party shirt spinning in circles..

Black Moon perfomed and Buckshot was jumping on the speakers..

Jay came out and stood right next to his DJ and spit this shit so hard and effortlessly. No dancing or rah rah shit, just spit the lyrics and played off the DJ cutting the beat.

it was the B side to Dead Presidents. It took a while for people to flip the record over because everyone was on that Nas sample. but once they found it every DJ in Richmond played it more than Dead Presidents.

Oh yeah, and Jay was only corny in that Hawaiian Sophie shirt. He ripped that Original flava Can I Get Open track.

concert freshman year in college. I thought it was so corny.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"One of the most important things in life is what Judge Learned Hand described as 'that ever-gnawing inner doubt as to whether you're r

Presidents because the piano sample was lovely.

Backpackers hated on everything that wasn't gritty or rappity rap tho

i was wildin out like it was 95

talkin' about that aint real shit to push. man, i liked it when hip hop was more realistic.

Foxy was holding aces and had a mean ass walk on her. I KNOW she was getting ran down back then.

I love cool Big and Jay were back then. Big was already platinum and would always shout out Jay back then. Their egos were never to a point were they couldn't coexist and support one another even being from the same burrough.

I remember Big being in here but forgot about Jaz. Go figure.

Jada Pinkett was skinny as hell in an unsexy way back then. She looks better with meat on them bones.

dope she was at one point.

How they decided to go with it as the single on THAT album...


Beyond me

Some cornball shit that chicks at the party/club could sing along too. Sad enough, pretty much everything became chick tracks over time. No dude I know cared one bit about Dolce & Gobanna or Burberry or fancy champagne or any of that other stupid shit.

Because it was a single for the soundtrack, which dropped "Touch Me Tease Me" as a single and that Monica feat Treach joint "Ain't Nobody" (that didnt get much airplay but the video was on tv a lot). And that Montel joint "I like" was a single.

What other song on the album could have been a single.

It was also the lead single for that album

So many East Coast rappers had songs similar to Reasonable Doubt, Dead Presidents, and the rest of that album...even if Jay's were dope, for him to be a new artist commercially, he HAD TO have something like "Ain't no nigga" to break through.

Now the commercial singles on Vol. 1 didn't really do much to push him to the next level, but he was able to hold ground through them.

Oh wait, this is Okayplayer...

kind of how acura is a nicer honda, lexus is a nicer toyota

post some digable planets links STAT so these folks can calm down

and that shit was bumpin in the club

it's like Biggie stole they lunch money or som'n.

i don't get it.

retreading a war they lost 20 years ago

we're simply saying, shit didn't actually go down like you remember it:

http://www.egotripland.com/biggie_lastsource_interview/2/

"“I want people to buy album,” he states emphatically, “and just straight up say, ‘Yo, he’s the best. He’s the best ever. He’s the best that ever did it.’ That’s what I’m lookin’ for. I want my props. ’Cause they slept on me. I read and they give me my props as being that solo emcee that blew up from the East Coast: But they don’t give me my props like, ‘Yo, Big be straight dicin’ niggas on the mic! On the rhyme side, he’s nice!’ They don’t really look at me like that.”

it's very important.

even though he was lyricist of the year.

still is