Published Thu, May 12, 2022 at 12:00 AM EDT
Self-actualization is an under-discussed aspect of rap music.
At first, it seemed like Jay-Z's career was going to be forever bogged down by false starts.
I told them that I liked the skinny light-skinned dude [Jay-Z] better and that I’d rather work with him..."
- Big Daddy Kane
“Jay knows that that’s the record that made him,” Foxy said to DJ Superstar in 2013.
He flows like he's conversing with you at a party or on the street, telling tales of male conquest or simple stories of street survival. His lyrics create cuttingly clever rhymes that ride bomb tracks provided by Clark Kent, Primo, Big Jaz and others with effortless perfection..."
- Charlie Braxton (THE SOURCE, 1996)
He said, 'Yo, I’ma take the hook and I’ma take your flow,' and obviously he made it way much better than me."
- Ski
"Because we believed in [REASONABLE DOUBT] so much, you couldn’t even tell me that it wasn’t going to be the best album that was ever made."