Why Did Reasonable Doubt Flop When It Came Out?
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Neva_Change
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I was just thinking about this ? . Why did this 4 mic album barely make it to gold? Was it because Jay was overshadowed by superior artists at the time? it could be. I mean Big was the king, Mobb Deep had a huge buzz, Busta was crazy, a couple wu tang members was doing well, it was written even came out the same week as reasonable doubt and that went double platinum pretty quickly. so why didn't jay blow up with this album?
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IntellectualViolence wrote: »ppl forget that nobody was checking for Jay Z back then...
This. The closest thing jigga had to a buzz was the fact that he had Biggie on a song -
IntellectualViolence wrote: »ppl forget that nobody was checking for Jay Z back then...
Pretty much. -
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A lot of east coast rappers was on that mafioso ? and "Reasonable Doubt" got caught up in the shuffle....the execution of that album was flawless, but back then Jay wasn't a household name so it slipped under the radar.
and Biggie wasn't the one that gave Jay a smidgen of buzz, it was Foxy..."Ain't no ? " was big in the Tri-State -
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A of lot people felt like Jay-Z was Like B.I.G's little man, Jaz-O little man , Big Daddy Kane little man . He didn't come into his own . He was like the sidekick. Kinda like Lil Wayne in Hot Boys.
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cause pac the goat
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mightve been overshadowed not to make the comparison but illmatic only sold like 300k in the first few years of its release, the imfamous, ironman were gold albums and ob4cl mightve scraped plat dont really see the issue here
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Same reason why Illmatic took forever to go gold and same reason why 2Pacalypse Now took forever to go gold.
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Yeah alot of Jigga fans swear that Jay was always the man that he is today. He wasn't even a platinum artist until vol. 2 came out. But then that goes to show that u never know who could blow.
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A lot of east coast rappers was on that mafioso ? and "Reasonable Doubt" got caught up in the shuffle....the execution of that album was flawless, but back then Jay wasn't a household name so it slipped under the radar.
and Biggie wasn't the one that gave Jay a smidgen of buzz, it was Foxy..."Ain't no ? " was big in the Tri-State
exactly. You got a lot of folks in here who are just typing ? to be typing and weren't even old enough to remember. -
96 east coast rap was still gritty..and jay's style was too laid back for that...dont forget redman went gold in 96 also
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Reasonable doubt went gold in 96. So jay wasn't totally a "nobody"
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If we are being honest too Illmatic didn't have that much of an impact compared to Ready to Die and Enter to the 36 Chambers since we are talking numbers.
Does commercial success determine the quality or impact of an album, i mean Boot Camp Click was putting out straight classics and ain't none of them ? ever had a gold album. -
I was 16 in the summer of 96, I brought that LP in June the day it dropped. "Reasonable Doubt" did not flop in 96. It went Gold in like 3 months and had a Gold single with "Dead Presidents". Jay wasn't known like that even with features from Biggie, Mary J and Foxy. Jay was a lower tier artist but still went Gold, far from a flop in 96. He was also on an independent label too. For NYC, only Biggie, LL, NaS, Lil Kim and Foxy were moving units past Platinum in 96. In 96, Mobb Deep "Hell on Earth" went GOLD was that a flop too?, NO. Also you didn't cop RD in 96 if it has "Can I live II" on it.
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Yo Gee, why you write like you're writing with your toes ? ?
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^ lol@ writing with your toez..u krazy thatz just how i write sumtimez i neva claim;d 2 have pretty handwrittin...
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rapmastermind wrote: »I was 16 in the summer of 96, I brought that LP in June the day it dropped. "Reasonable Doubt" did not flop in 96. It went Gold in like 3 months and had a Gold single with "Dead Presidents". Jay wasn't known like that even with features from Biggie, Mary J and Foxy. Jay was a lower tier artist but still went Gold, far from a flop in 96. He was also on an independent label too. For NYC, only Biggie, LL, NaS, Lil Kim and Foxy were moving units past Platinum in 96. In 96, Mobb Deep "Hell on Earth" went GOLD was that a flop too?, NO.
thats what i was getting at...i guess its only a flop for jay.....rd went gold before illmatic and was released over 2 years after it -
I didn't think the cd was that great then. Don't think It's that great now. I don't understand why people say they thought Jay was Big's sidekick.
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REASONABLE DOUBT JUNE 01, 1996 SEPTEMBER 18, 1996 ROC-A-FELLA/PRIORITY STANDARD GOLD ALBUM SOLO
3 and a half months to go Gold for a basically unknown new artist is a flop?
JAY-Z DEAD PRESIDENTS FEBRUARY 01, 1996 JUNE 14, 1996 PRIORITY STANDARD GOLD SINGLE SOLO
"Dead Presidents" was from a Pop Culture hit, it barely hit the charts yet off the strength of it's quality, it sold Gold. The single had "DP1" on it and that's my favorite version of the song cause it was the song that put me onto Jay Z, I copped that single that year also.
Now yes sales slowed down after that, taking another 6 years go Platinum but going Gold for a rapper in 96 was far from a flop. Sure you had Pac and Fugees breaking records for sales in 96 but they were anomalies, not the norm. Gold was the norm for a NYC artist in 96 if you were lucky. -
rapmastermind wrote: »REASONABLE DOUBT JUNE 01, 1996 SEPTEMBER 18, 1996 ROC-A-FELLA/PRIORITY STANDARD GOLD ALBUM SOLO
3 and a half months to go Gold for a basically unknown new artist is a flop?
JAY-Z DEAD PRESIDENTS FEBRUARY 01, 1996 JUNE 14, 1996 PRIORITY STANDARD GOLD SINGLE SOLO
"Dead Presidents" was from a Pop Culture hit, it barely hit the charts yet off the strength of it's quality, it sold Gold. The single had "DP1" on it and that's my favorite version of the song cause it was the song that put me onto Jay Z, I copped that single that year also.
Now yes sales slowed down after that, taking another 6 years go Platinum but going Gold for a rapper in 96 was far from a flop. Sure you had Pac and Fugees breaking records for sales in 96 but they were anomalies, not the norm. Gold was the norm for a NYC artist in 96 if you were lucky.
give up homie folks would rather find something to hate on Jay about then worry about reality. Not to mention Pac's album sales weren't that great til all the controversy with the arrests. -
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^ yeah dmt i just break up budz of xo on that ? now...give up homie folks would rather find something to hate on Jay about then worry about reality. Not to mention Pac's album sales weren't that great til all the controversy with the arrests.
i think alot of folkz say j flop;d compared 2 pac n 96 even tho it wasnt even a fair fight cuz rd was jiggaz 1st album i know thatz y i say that lol..& even tho pacz sellz didnt blow up until after all da controversy jigga will neva do aeom numberz n his lifetime off of just 1 album -
give up homie folks would rather find something to hate on Jay about then worry about reality. Not to mention Pac's album sales weren't that great til all the controversy with the arrests.
Also the fact is most rappers don't blow out the gate. LL Did, Biggie did as far as NYC artist, Rakim did but most did not. Pac didn't really blow until "I get around" on his 2nd LP. Fugees 1st LP flopped. Not everyone was an instant success. Jay was underground and unknown for the 1st 7 years of his career. "RD" was a success cause during a time when Biggie and NaS as well as LL were crushing buildings with sales and success. Jay came out and had a little impact and was able to have a Gold LP and Single. It took 2 years for "ILLmatic" to go Gold, it took a year and a half for "36 Chambers" to go Platinum:
NAS ILLMATIC APRIL 19, 1994 JANUARY 17, 1996 COLUMBIA STANDARD GOLD ALBUM SOLO
WU-TANG CLAN ENTER THE WU-TANG (36 CHAMBERS) NOVEMBER 09, 1993 MAY 15, 1995 RCA STANDARD PLATINUM ALBUM GROUP
http://youtu.be/RAsyFA_xcYQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEA-EBzAmak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_DLD7OMUns
