It remains shocking that Reasonable Doubt was Jay-Z’s debut album. Every creative decision feels so measured and manicured. Similar to Nas’ Illmatic , it’s such an evocative portrait of street life in New York, where every record places you in the heat of every moment. Both albums play like the culmination of a lifetime’s worth of storytelling in one album, with so many crystal clear details that make the album what it is. But for Jay-Z, the reason the album works at all was because of how ‘naïve’ he was. Videos by VICE In the 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters series by The New York Times , they asked Hov to chronicle his journey and detail his process. By the time he got to his debut album, he explained that most of it was already swirling in his head. Jay-Z Explains The Thought Process Behind His Classic Album ‘Reasonable Doubt’ All he needed was to tell his story and get it all out of his system. However, where a lot of his albums can feel a bit methodical in their rapping, Reasonable Doubt wasn’t.…