‘I’d Rather Die Enormous’
Written by Elisha Kiala
With it being 30 years since the release of Reasonable Doubt. Jay-Z’s debut album. I thought it would be a great time to revisit an important project in Hip Hop's history that seems ever-present today. This being released when Jay-Z was 26 yrs old, there is a lot in his artistry that has changed now that he is in his 50s. But what has remained consistent is his continuous self belief which has been reflected within his entire discography. But let’s start from the beginning, in this album he is laying out the foundations for his career, who he is, who he wants the audience to believe he is and his own aspirations for life. This album almost acts as a manifesto for Jay- Z the persona. To him, in this album we see him use Hip-Hop music as a tool to not only express himself, but also to elevate in life. Hip Hop, unlike today was not a capitalist playground. It wasn’t always an avenue to lay down neo-capitalist ideals, rather a space where black people can lay down their anti-establishment ideals. What Reasonable Doubt does is detail a shift in Hip Hop culture. With the rise of Bad Boy records, the label demonstrated how Rap music could be a means to gain fame, money and notoriety. This album showcases that change in social and cultural values. It is no longer was about criticing American imperialism rather wanting to engage and be apart of this expansion.
Jay- Z opens the album stating his desires and what he did in order to achieve them. In the soulful opener Cant Knock the Hustle, he says "Big man, you want to make some big bucks?” This desire is a reflection of black capitalism. This dispalys a shift from the radical aestetics of the 80s to the mid 90s where Black people’s form of empowerment looked a lot different. The fro’s and fists now became skin fades complemented with gold chains. It was about becoming what was once looked down upon. bell hooks writes, ‘...find it difficult to believe that we are not all eagerly embracing an American dream of wealth and power. Those individual black folks who are either privileged by birth or by assimilation become primary symbols used to suggest that the American dream is intact and can be fulfilled’. By the end of this album this becomes true. Jay- Z sells his life as something to be fulfilled. Which is an economic idea that is based in neo-ccapitalism. Hip Hop for many black people is an avenue to escape poverty. Entertainment as an industry has consistently used black people and their likeness to make money, from the outside and from marketing black people have been the group that appear to have made it out through entertainment. What this essay aims to highlight is not only the change in attitudes around rap music and its culture. But also a transition in how Black people began to view themselves and the power hip hop had to financially change their lives. It's no longer about fighting against white supremacy, but absorbing some of its ideologies and seeing how it could possibly benefit and move us.
Violence and the need for domination is a core part of patriarchy. On this album there are many songs with skits that display this. On the song with Biggie Smalls, ‘Brooklyn’s Finest’, On this song particularly they discuss what they did in order to make money. Describing instances of robbing, selling drugs. All in the pursuit of some sort of wealth. Masculinity requires men to potray themselves in aggressive, dominant and violent ways. Blackness exagrattes these attributes. What much of this album exudes is the embodiment of this fact. It isn’t necessarily something that is potratyed as something Jay -Z or Biggie is aware of. This is something they have been socialised into because of their race and class. However, what I find intresting is their response to this issue. Rather than condemning it as something black children shouldn’t have to experience. It is more optimistic. Sonically they sound big on the song, but them being put in this position as children is a form of state violence. Their response to this issue isn't to 'eat the rich' but to become those people. Trevor B. Milton writes, “Black identity in poorer communties followed attributes of masculine patriarchal domination as response to economic subjagation. Many saw embracing negative stereotypes as a form of empowerment and self-realization.” For Jay Z throughout this album this reigns true. Growing up in poverty can cause you to become insecure and unstable in your identity. Which is why it is easier to give in, rather than become something better. It can be why these same dominating practices are exercised on other men and black women. Masculinity for Jay-Z is an armour, its his ego and it protects him from feeling sorry for himself and admitting to his bad habits. This is because in poverty those bad habits allowed him to get through, he gained respect from it.
On the song with Foxy Brown, this other angle is displayed. His relationship to femininity and women. The chorus, “Aint no nigga like the one i got no one can fuck you better, sleeps around but he gives me a lot”. Though he is not saying these lyrics directly, it is implied through its inclusion that he believes women should participate and behave in this way. Dominating women is a large part of black masculinity. This provider role is conditional to the womens sexual prowess that in a relationship he is in ownership over. Misogyny is not foreign to Hip Hop and even our greatest rappers have a tendency to degrade and isolate women within their songs. This song features a young Foxy Brown, who her career can be attributed to trailblazing female rap. Her own sexual verse, refelcts diffrently to Jay- Z’s
arrogance and confidence in his ability to keep a women despite his lack of care for them "You know my pussy is all that That's why I get bagets 5 carats and all that". How Jay-Z objectifies women is another form of violence, which is an aspect of black masculinity. Society denies black womens fragility, to the point where they are not humanised. Within this song Jay-Z engages with this, "I make the best bitch see the exit, indeed, You gotta know you're thoroughly respected by me".
Reasonable Doubt is an album that to me reflects on what modern rap looks like. This album ultimately represents a shift in Hip Hop culture that is no longer about critic but becoming what we once hated. As bell hooks suggests it is expected that we become the American dream rather than oppose it. The 1990s hip hop music displays a shift in black manhood. Tricia Rose argues that “Since the mid to late 90s the social, artistic and political significance of figures like a gangsta and street hustler substaintly developed into an apolitical, simple-minded almost comic stereotype.” In Jay-Z’s case, i do not believe he is intentionally inhabited a stereotype nor was it marketed this way. He was describing his own material reality. But in the 1990s, Hip Hop music was no longer marketable unless it had garnered a large white audience. But Hip Hop music did move far away from the black man empowered iconograpjhy likened to the 1960s. But in the same way it also aided in enabling and creating a new template for manhood.
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