June 16, 2016

Jay-Z "Reasonable Doubt" (20th Anniversary Mix)


With a rap career dating back to 1989 including stints as side man to mentor, Jaz, features for the likes of the Dame Dash-managed Original Flavor and Big Daddy Kane, Reasonable Doubt (released June 25th, 1996) arrived late in the rapper’s career for a debut LP. With production from DJ Premier and Clark Kent, plus features from Mary J. Blige and The Notorious B.I.G. it sits stylistically somewhere between the dominant underground sound of the mid 90s and the emerging sound pushed by labels such as Puff Daddy‘s Bad Boy records, which would come to define popular hip-hop and R&B into the late '90s. At the intersection between those sounds lies a varied selection of sample material. For this exclusive mixtape produced in association with Wax Poetics, former DMC champion DJ Matman delivers a selection of album tracks, alternate versions, interview snippets and of course original sample material. Listen below as DJ Matman pays tribute to a true classic...