and people still seem to have an easier time embracing him here in

Boston.

Well, because here's the thing.

If you ran up to Larry and said, Larry, can I have an autograph? Larry's going to give you an autograph, okay? You could go.

There are several bars around the Boston Garden, or you could just hang out.

You could drink a beer with Larry.

You could hang out with Larry.

So what is the legacy of Bill Russell? And why is it important to still talk about him? What does it teach me about Boston as I continue this project to understand the city better?

Music historian Dart Adams explains where Reasonable Doubt sits in the continuum of classic rap albums and how it has inspired other critically lauded albums since its release.

You have to put everything into errors, right? Because there's a full continuum.

In urban music, there's a new generation every three to five years.

And then there are albums that are game changers that completely change the tide.

There's a main continuum in rap in that second golden era.

And Reasonable Doubt is right in there.

You start with Illmatic.

Ryan Proctor talks about the album not having an immediate impact upon release, but growing in acclaim over time.

If you read a crime novel, a noir crime novel, that's what Jay-Z did.

He made it almost elegant to talk about hustling, struggling, trying to survive, and then the drawbacks of being successful and everybody else's reactions to you.

Why did Jay have umlauts over his name in the early Rockefeller years? To uncover the mystery, we spoke to historian Dart Adams.

If you remember, you look at early Jay-Z singles, early Jay-Z albums, and you see umlauts.

And a lot of people didn't know why that was.

They thought it was just like maybe an error or maybe just like something that they tried to do to be cute with the type setting, the typeface, what have you.

No, there was a Jay-Z.

Jay-Z was a producer on the West Coast, and he did production for Sphere.

He did production for Hobo Junction.

Jay-Z, cut that shit up stupid.

Dart Adams, historian and journalist, explains the demand for Ski's production and his influence on Jay-Z's music.

When original flavors run, they kind of stole.

They made some joints that people liked, but they didn't really get over.

But Ski's production is what won people over.

So Ski was so hot that people were coming from everywhere to try to work with Ski.

And Ski had a sound that people gravitated to.

So he became the cornerstone of what Game Dash and Rockefeller did.

Later, we hear from Rob Markman on why he loved the collaboration with Mary J. Blige.

He explains how Clark Kent leverages A&R skills to feature Jay-Z on a number of songs and build up his buzz.

Clark Kent gets a job at Atlantic as an A&R.

If he believes in you, because he has an ear, if he said, this guy, you better listen.

If you go through Discogs, And you look at all the remixes or the albums he oversaw during that stretch at Atlantic, including like East West, Atco, Atlantic Street, right? And you look at all the remixes, all the stuff he did.

Do you know how many songs did he put Jay-Z on uncredited? But he paid him.

But it was because he believed in him.

He knew putting Jay on these joints, putting Jay on these joints.

They were happening in New York.