Jay Z ranked!
Great: Reasonable Doubt > The Blueprint > The Black Album
Good: Vol. 1 > 4.44 > American Gangster > Vol. 2.
OK: Watch the Throne > Vol. 3 > The Dynasty
: The Blueprint 2 > The Blueprint 3 > The Carters > Kingdom Come > Magna Carta Holy Grail > Best of Both Worlds > Unfinished Business
It did. Felt like he was catering to the old heads with that one. Short, no guests, single producer.
He’s had a savvy knack of flipping between selling out entirely and artistic credibility/fan service his whole career. Has a solid legacy for an artist that’s released so much utter guff, and a decent knack for making music for a guy whose rapping skills have long rusted.
Vol 1 is freaking amazing
Is Reasonable Doubt on Spotify? All of his other albums have been on Apple Music for some time but not Reasonable Doubt for some reason.
Definitely Magna Carta… Holy Grail. You can really hear the Samsung come through on that record.
It is.
Reckon it has a decent share of the best stuff he’s ever done on it, and a fair bit of fluff – just isn’t consistent as those big three for me. That said, it’s an essential document of rap music in the immediate aftermath of the deaths of 2Pac and Biggie. In that sense, it’s the other album of his that can be considered a classic record.
Since it’s back on Spotify, I’ll give it another listen and see if I can move it up a tier 
There are a couple of places where it sounds a bit dated, but the high spots - Imaginary Players, Where I’m From, Streets is Watching etc - are just fantastic.
Weird it’s still not on Apple Music.
Good news. Can finally listen to 4.44 for the first time
my thoughts on jay z:
happy his stuff is back on streaming which means i was able to update my best of jay z playlist and add the reasonable doubt stuff in (wasnt on spotify b4). so now i got it down to a cool top 100 lol
Two perfect Jay songs featuring Beanie and Scarface. They kinda feel like they belong together in a way.
Some How Some Way vs This Cant Be Life
0 voters
The unplugged album is really good too
The Blueprint on repeat since I saw this had happened
Reasonable Doubt up on Apple Music now too. Hurrah!
Thanks, to all who recommended this album. So good! Never really rated anything I’d heard him on before (mainly guest features in this decade), so it’s good to finally see why he got to where he is today.
Classic, shoulda went triple
Blueprint 2 has some bangers too
Ah, nice. Some of it has aged badly, but it’s still my favourite Jay Z album.
D’Evils - what a track.