The album features production provided by DJ Premier, Ski, Knobody and Clark Kent, and also includes guest appearances from Memphis Bleek, Mary J. Blige, Jaz-O, and the Notorious B.I.G., among others.
Reasonable Doubt was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and,[2] as of 2006, has sold 1.5 million copies in the United States.
[3] A critical success, it has been ranked on several publications' lists of hip-hop's greatest albums, while many hip hop fans have viewed it as Jay-Z's best work.
In August 2019, Reasonable Doubt was released to digital and streaming platforms under Roc Nation's independent label, Equity Distribution.
[6] The success of his street-level marketing led to a deal with Payday Records, which released his first solo single, "In My Lifetime" and its B-side "I Can't Get wit Dat".
[6]Jay-Z rented a small, cheap office for Roc-A-Fella Records on John Street in one of the "dreariest parts of the busiest city in the world".
"Can't Knock the Hustle" was produced by Knobody at his mother's home in 1994, while the vocals were recorded on tour at a studio in Tampa Florida named Progressive Music with Mary J. Blige.
[9] An East Coast hip hop record,[10] Reasonable Doubt was noted for having mafioso rap themes,[11][12] with lyrics characterized by Stylus Magazine as "gritty realism".
[15] Huey summarizes the album's subject matter saying: He's cocky bordering on arrogant, but playful and witty, and exudes an effortless, unaffected cool throughout.
And even if he's rapping about rising to the top instead of being there, his material obsessions are already apparent [...] the album's defining cut might [...] be the brief "22 Two's," which not only demonstrates Jay-Z's extraordinary talent as a pure freestyle rapper, but also preaches a subtle message through its club hostess: Bad behavior gets in the way of making money.
[29] Charlie Braxton of The Source praised Jay-Z for evolving "from hip-hop sidekick to Mafia-style front man, blowing up the spot with vivid tales about the economic reality fueling what's left of contemporary ghetto politics".
[26] Entertainment Weekly's Dimitri Ehrlich commended him for rapping "with an irresistible confidence, a voice that exudes tough-guy authenticity", also noting the "unadorned but suitably militant" production.
[7] Huey said the lyrical appeal lied within Jay-Z's "effortless, unaffected cool" flow, and knack for "writing some of the most acrobatic rhymes heard in quite some time".
[16] In a retrospective review for MSN Music, Robert Christgau said the album was "designed for the hip-hop cognoscenti and street aesthetes who still swear he never topped it," finding it "richer than any outsider could have known, and benefiting from everything we've since learned about the minor crack baron who put his money where his mouth was.
[12] On February 7, 2002, Reasonable Doubt was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipments of a million copies in the US.
[37] In the opinion of Miles Marshall Lewis, Reasonable Doubt was a "seminal" work that "shocked the world ... a personal touchstone for fans then Jay's own age who were getting their own hustles on—hip hop's young, gifted, and black".
The concert's band included The Roots' drummer Questlove, the Illadelphonics, a 50-piece orchestra dubbed The Hustla's Symphony and Just Blaze, the performance's disc jockey.
[7] Celebrities such as Alicia Keys, Young Jeezy, Jadakiss, Chris Tucker, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony attended the concert.