Reasonable Doubt

I needed me some more knowledge on Jay-Z and his music, so after a little while, I'm listening to another album of his, this time being his debut, but still a reasonably undoubtable classic.
You can find some of Jay's most acclaimed songs on here, and if the rest of the album held up just as well as the first few tracks, it would, without a doubt, be his best album, but since there were several tracks which weren't as impressive, I unfortunately had to give it a lower score than I intended to. But still, I still found what to enjoy in the tracks, so they aren't essentially to be criticized.
This is what I consider to be the perfect example of a 90s Hip-Hop classic. The variety to the songs really keeps you interested - from chill, relaxing, beautiful songs like "Dead Presidents II", to hardcore, banging, exciting songs like "Brooklyn's Finest", featuring the one and only Biggie Smalls, which was one of the influencers and peers of Jay-Z.
Jay sounds powerful and inspirational during this album, therefore I really enjoyed his performance and it was hard to find even remotely boring, no, maybe apart from one or two songs, his verses were really impressive and definitely blew away my expectations. What I also kind of noticed was Jay's flow being really similar to the New York rappers of the time. From what I've heard, Big L was one of the biggest influences for Jay's flow, so that's probably why he sounded so similar to him. Yeah, he sounds great, I just wish he had credited him atleast once in his career, but I don't think that really happened. He did appear on multiple Big L songs before, but that's pretty much all we got from him and Jay.
The production is also really great. It's energetic, dark, or like I said - hardcore. It almost feels luxurious, like the cover of Jay with a fancy fedora on and a cigar in his hand suggests.
The influence that came from this record is undeniable. It's one of the most popular and acclaimed peaces of Mafioso Rap ever. It most definitely inspired both the Gangsta and Jazz Rap scene because of how much variety there is in all of the songs.
The lyricism from both Jay and the guest appearances is all pretty great. While Jay took the spotlight as a lyricist, the features must've had the people excited as hell at the time of release, so this turned out to be a big hit. I hope so, since I wasn't really alive at the time...
So yeah, great album, and possibly my favourite of Jay, I still have to listen to peaces like 4:44 and The Black Album though.

Fav. Track - Dead Presidents II
Least Fav. Track - Ain't No Nigga