Sometimes there was talk of a single deal, but whenever it got to the point where it was supposed to be real, the label would renege.” “None of them were f-king with us,” Jay writes in Decoded. “He had released that first album, Reasonable Doubt, on his own record label, with his business partner, Damon Dash. “He had spent eight years in the doldrums,” said Nick Raphael, the man who signed Jay to a world record deal with Northwestside Records. 23 on Billboard’s album chart, and wasn’t certified platinum ’til 2002.” Calling himself Jaÿ-Z, he set about crafting one of hip-hop’s most revered albums – although it wasn’t as highly-praised at the time.Īs XXL writes, the album sold “just 420,000 copies its first year out, peaking at No. On June 25th, 1996, the most prolific rapper of all-time made his debut as a 26-year-old former-crack-dealer-turned-emcee.
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