RDAT Tournament – Game 7 – NYC Bracket

No. 1 – Jay-Z – Reasonable Doubt vs. No. 4 – Eric B. & Rakim – Paid In Full

I’ve already written about Paid in Full in its RDAT play-in victory over Big Pun’s Capital Punishment and the same complaints hold fast for this match-up. Arguably one of the greatest MC’s is missing from a third of the 12 tracks on the album. Nevertheless, Rakim’s overall influence is far-reaching and still apparent today.

But where Rakim was immediately acknowledged as one of the best upon the release of ‘Eric B. Is President’ in 1986, when Shawn Carter released Reasonable Doubt a decade later, he was applauded but not revered. It’s only been with time that his debut album has been lifted up into its proper place.

It’s not a humblebrag to say that I was on this album when it was released, but it wasn’t because after seeing the ‘Hawaiian Sophie’ video that I wanted to hear more of the hype man. I can remember seeing this video and being impressed with the featured artist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kcCcyPi-2A

But none of that prepared me for Reasonable Doubt. At the time, I was living next door to a DJ, so ‘Ain’t No Nigga’ wasn’t just on the radio, it was being bumped next door. The production by Ski was catchy, staying within the sound of the moment with a 70s loop, but it’s Jay’s voice and clarity that keeps everything together. Then Foxy Brown gets on and actually steals the song. While he kills it, at the time, her verse was more memorable and what launched the track into relevance.

It’s hard to explain the impact of female rappers in 1996. In the same year, Lil’ Kim released Hard Core, Queen Pen dropped a memorable verse on the Dr. Dre produced smash ‘No Diggity’ and Lauren Hill’s ability to both rap and sing took The Score to a completely different level.

At the time, having a female rapper on your track wasn’t just different for different’s sake; it made it immeasurably better. And it didn’t hurt that the aforementioned women were spitting hot fire at the time.

So it’s understandable how many hip-hop fans could forget about the rest of Reasonable Doubt. The next single, ‘Can’t Knock the Hustle’, charted well enough with a memorable hook by Mary J. Blige, but while a great track it didn’t stand out at the time. And by stand out, I mean become so memorable that the average listener would find the album and explore more.

For those, like myself, that did explore, we found a well-crafted album that stayed true to the vision and visual concept the artist was portraying. He was a street hustler who was pivoting to the music business, but remained strongly tied to the proverbial ‘Street’.

While that was the standard MO for countless other rappers both at that time and through to today, with Jigga, you believed him. That has to be attributed to his lyrical skills, showcasing the ability to not only share stories, but relay emotions to better explain what was happening.

We used to fight for building blocks
Now we fight for blocks with buildings that make a killing
The closest of friends when we first started
But grew apart as the money grew, and soon grew black-hearted
Thinking back when we first learned to use rubbers
He never learned so in turn I’m kidnapping his baby’s mother
My hand around her collar, feeding her cheese
She said the taste of dollars was shitty so I fed her fifties
About his whereabouts I wasn’t convinced
So I kept feeding her money ’til her shit started to make sense

‘D’evils’ was produced by DJ Premier, one of three done by the master beat maker. It’s another statement about the album – there are four different producers over 14 tracks, but there’s never a song that sounds out of place. It all fit snug, like a hand in a glove.

It’s not absolute perfection but it’s hard pressed to hear something better, especially when compared to Paid in Full. It can be seen as Michael Jordan’s time at the University of North Carolina, which birthed the saying that Coach Dean Smith was the only person that kept Jordan under 20 points.