JAY-Z REASONABLE DOUBT DOCUMENTARY MOVIE REALLY SPARKED
JAY-Z REASONABLE DOUBT DOCUMENTARY SERIES OF TRACKS

Jay Zs debut album recently turned 20 and to commemorate that.Jay-Z has established himself as one of the most successful and creative hip hop artists of all time. But its top two floors - the most prestigious - are home to Rocawear, the clothing company that last year posted sales of more than $700m (£340m).Reasonable Doubt 20: Biggs & Hip Hop Discuss The Impact Of Jay Zs Debut Album. So do Reebok, Levi's and Ralph Lauren. Nike has offices in the 39-storey building. 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.In New York's Garment District, a few yards from the kerbside sculpture that is the planet's largest button, the World Apparel Centre rises 501ft into the skyline. JAY-Z’s journey to realizing Reasonable Doubt did not happen overnight.

Please note that if you are under 18, you wont be able to access this site. Blige and more.20th Anniversary Documentary on one of the greatest albums of all time. Featuring in-depth interviews with Jay-Z, Kanye West, Mary J.

Yes, his people treat him with a deference usually reserved for royalty, and you can't buy rings like the gigantic emerald one on his finger from H Samuel. In 2006 alone, Forbes magazine estimated he earned $83m that's $9,474 (£4,554) for every hour of the year.But Jay-Z is less brash in person than you might expect. His fans insist he is the world's best rapper, while his entrepreneurial flair - honed as a teenage drug dealer in Brooklyn's tough Marcy Houses housing project - has helped him gather a personal fortune of more than $500m. 'You like it?' asks Jay-Z with a smile.Since 1996, when he co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records to release his debut album, Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z has established himself as both a rapper and a businessman. Look out of its enormous windows and you get views of Manhattan the likes of which only Spider-Man can take for granted. The newspapers sitting on his personal receptionist's desk are addressed to Shawn Carter, but he is better known as Jay-Z, the moniker under which he became the biggest name in hip-hop.The 37-year-old's office is bigger than most New Yorkers' apartments and much grander (the Warhol hanging by the door appears to be an original).

'Ranks among some of my best work.'American Gangster marks the striking comeback that Jay-Z was supposed to have made 12 months ago with Kingdom Come. 'It's pretty good,' he says in a speaking voice that is lighter than on record. He is often accompanied to the game by his long-term girlfriend, Beyoncé Knowles.Most likely, though, Jay-Z is happy because his 10th studio album, American Gangster, is out in a few days and the early reviews seem to share his opinion of it. Then again, it could be because as soon as our interview is over, the Rolls-Royce parked outside will whisk him through the Lincoln Tunnel to watch the first game of the new basketball season for the New Jersey Nets, the NBA team he co-owns and regularly watches. That could be because he has just spent a productive afternoon examining Rocawear's latest designs, or because his upcoming five-date US club tour sold out earlier in the week in less than a minute (the Chicago tickets went in eight seconds).

'I thought Kingdom Come was experimental and sophisticated,' he shrugs. However, Jay-Z doesn't seem particularly scarred by the experience. It became both his worst-reviewed and lowest-selling album. These range from Rocawear and the Nets to his high-end sports bars and role as CEO of Def Jam Records, where he is boss/mentor to acts such as Kanye West and Rihanna.But, although the much-hyped Kingdom Come wasn't without merit, its tales of the lifestyle of a super-rich exec lacked the rapper's trademark intensity and lyrical dexterity.

The moment of inspiration came in a cinema screening room, barely two months ago. But Kingdom Come was still the sound of a coasting superstar with nothing much to rap about.American Gangster sees Jay-Z rediscovering his muse. I was just reading a Rolling Stone review of American Gangster and they were like, 'Jay-Z can't just make new records, he has to make epochal records.''Certainly, the rapper has set his own bar extraordinarily high with releases such as Reasonable Doubt, 2001's The Blueprint and 2003's The Black Album.

Jay-Z Reasonable Doubt Documentary Movie Really Sparked

In truth, most of his records since that accomplished debut have contained gritty yarns harking back to his hustling days, but the memories the film awoke gave him a renewed zeal (or excuse, depending on how cynical you are) to rap about the subject again.Built around a funked-up 1970s sound that was inspired by the film, Jay-Z's American Gangster is a loosely auto-biographical concept album charting the rise and fall of a drug dealer. It took me back to a creative place that I didn't think I'd be able to go back to.'Recorded in four weeks, the result is Jay-Z's most compelling portrayal of his early life as a street criminal since Reasonable Doubt. 'But this movie really sparked a zone for me. 'I wasn't even thinking about putting out an album this year,' he says.

While Jay-Z subscribes to the theory that he is the best rapper of all-time - 'Because I've accumulated the work and maintained the consistency that's never been done in hip-hop before' - he is also quick to point out that 'the two other people that could have done it were taken away from us before they had a chance to really fulfil their destiny'.He is referring to Tupac Shakur and the Notorious BIG, the two feuding rappers who were shot dead in 19 respectively, aged just 25 and 24. 'There's danger from the minute you make your first sale.'Of course, even some of those who have used hip-hop as a springboard out of their tough neighbourhoods haven't escaped that violence. 'Whether you're in it from the lowest level to the top dog, you're putting your life on the line,' he says. Or worse - it happens so much, it becomes normal to you.'By the time Jay-Z hit his teenage years and began pushing drugs on street corners, he was a potential victim himself. 'And the guy's on the floor.' You'd imagine witnessing a fatal shooting would do strange things to a nine-year-old boy.

It would have been an incredible challenge for me to maintain a level with those guys,' he says. I can imagine how many records he made off that track.'Following the pair's premature deaths, Jay-Z's position in rap has arguably been akin to, say, Muhammad Ali without a George Foreman or a Joe Frazier to test himself against. He played it like 20 times in a row. 'I remember playing Biggie a new track called Streets Is Watching.

Jay-Z Reasonable Doubt Documentary Series Of Tracks

'And that's part of hip-hop as well. Given that, you suspect he might see his vitriolic feuds as a bit silly - the actions of an impetuous young man.'Yeah, that's part of growing up,' he says. (In fact, Jay-Z is now Nas's label boss at Def Jam.) Jay-Z says he sees himself as 'a good guy', a man who attempts to do the right thing and prides himself on seeing things from other people's perspectives. He and fellow New Yorker Nas traded spectacular insults in a series of tracks in 20 before their 'beef' eventually fizzled out.

I don't have those thoughts any more.'He readily admits that he is not remotely as boastful in real life as he is on record, that he's enjoying the new Arcade Fire album and that people are surprised when he doesn't drink champagne at 10am (he sips water during our early-evening interview). When you grow up in these neighbourhoods and you don't have any hope, you feel you'll take a chance with your life to make the situation better. 'Right now, I'm a much more patient person. 'The person I'm describing in this album was a younger me going through the game,' he says.

'If they don't have the talent, that's the end of it. And though he is not rash enough to declare another retirement - he thinks the quality of American Gangster affords him at least two more albums' grace - he anticipates a time when he will put down the mic and concentrate on guiding other artists' careers.'It's like being a coach with someone else executing your play,' he says of his Def Jam role. He sees rap as akin to basketball, where even the best players quit at about 40. When you have knowledge, you see the playing field differently.'Jay-Z routinely uses sporting analogies to describe his career. 'I'm not even worried about that, because you'll always have truth. 'Of course you're gonna lose your edge,' he says.