Shawn 'JAY-Z' Carter is not just the first hip-hop artist to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but he is also a 23-time GRAMMY award-winner. But mostly, it revealed a young artist with a story to tell and the discipline to do so more effectively than almost any other in hip-hop’s illustrious history. It was an arduous journey marked by previously insurmountable uncertainties, unyielding gatekeepers, tenacious artistic ambition, and an enormous amount of sweat equity – a masterpiece wrought in rapier sharp flow and steeled in indefatigable hustle. JAY-Z’s journey to realizing Reasonable Doubt did not happen overnight. The recording of one of Reasonable Doubt’s best-loved tracks, 'Brooklyn's Finest,” JAY-Z’s first collaboration with the Notorious B.I.G, resulted in a friendly competition between two Brooklyn emcees, even though the recording session revealed they had more in common than previously thought: While pushing pen and paper towards each other in the studio, the two men discovered that they both employed a “no pen, no pad” method of preparing to record their verses. It was, and is, a portrait of an artist on the cusp of success and fame the songs were too good for any other outcome. Chest-puffing nods to the luxe life are woven together with stark drama and dark ruminations on the realities of his early life.

Reasonable Doubt has been heralded for its gritty realism, dense wordplay, and mellifluous musicality as evidence of its greatness.

Reasonable doubt jay z album art poster