Jay Z Lyrics Reasonable Doubt
Reasonable Doubt, which sold a mere 43,000 units in its first week. The album would eventually reach platinum status, but not before Jay Z fine-tuned a business model that has made him one of the most successful independent hip-hop artists to date. 
Features Song Lyrics for Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt album. Includes Album Cover, Release Year, and User Reviews.
In the mid-1990s, Jay Z was relatively unknown as a rapper. At the time, the only way to build a career as an emcee was to win neighborhood rap battles, record colorless demo tapes, and hopefully get lucky enough to find a record executive who saw potential.
DJ Clark Kent was doubling as an A&R at Atlantic Records and a record producer in the mid-1990s. After hearing the vocals that Jay Z layed over his instrumentals, Kent immediately brought the budding wordsmith to Atlantic's table. Be it Jay Z’s illicit lyrics that were borderline incriminating, or the fact that his style was less melodically pleasing than The Notorious B.I.G., the company passed. Nonetheless, when the suits at the record company didn’t bite, Jay Z partnered with Damon Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke to create their own record label, Roc-A-Fella Records.
Dead Presidents Jay Z Lyrics Reasonable Doubt
In the days before he would be able to get Samsung to distribute a million copies of his album on their devices before it was officially released, Jay Z and his retinue had to take a slightly less glamorous approach to get his music heard. He was often seen selling CDs out of the trunk of his white Lexus and performing at near-empty college shows to build his fan base. Malare song download. The grassroots approach of face-to-face marketing laid a foundation for him to build an empire around his intellectual property, and opened the door for ancillary revenue.
Jay Z would often reference Iceberg Clothing in his songs. The company saw a surge in sales, but when Jay and Dash went to try to negotiate an endorsement deal, Iceberg wasn’t enthused. Accustomed to opposition, the Roc-A-Fella trio created Rocawear in 1999, which quickly began to show up in Jay Z’s music videos, lyrics and on the trendiest people in hip-hop culture. Eight years later, Jay sold the clothing line for $204 million, making him more than just a rap star.
Amidst rumblings of Roc-A-Fella’s CEOs beginning to drift apart in 2004, Jay Z had plans of taking over as Def Jam's president. While going over the details of the split with Dash, Jay admitted that he was willing to forgo his seat as president if he could have the rights to one special asset. In the meeting with Dash, “I was like, let me get Reasonable Doubt and I’ll give up [the rest of] my masters,” he told XXL in an interview in 2005. “I’ll give up Roc-A-Fella, I’ll give up president and CEO of Def Jam Records—everything. Just give me my baby to hold onto so 10 years down the line, I can look back and I got something—I’m not empty-handed..And when that was turned down, I had to make a choice.”
Jay ultimately took the job at Def Jam and recruited artists such as Ne-Yo, Rihanna and Rick Ross to the label. With the partnership between Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella still ongoing through his presidency, Jay would release two albums as president from 2005 to 2007.
He eventually left his seat after feeling that his creativity an executive was stifled, but still owed Def Jam one more album as an artist. Rather than recording and releasing his 11th studio album, Blueprint 3, as only an artist on Def Jam’s roster, he bought back the right to his last album for $5 million and then sold it to Live Nation for $10 million. In the same multi-right deal with Live Nation, Jay Z was given an advance of $150 million that allowed him to create yet another record label, Roc Nation.
Reasonable Doubt has been listed one of the 500 greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone. However, value in the now 20-year-old record came from its creator's tenacity to expose it to the world and build a dynasty, Roc La Familia style, in the process.