man on point with everything.

For me, I think at the time, Jay-Z potentially was not used as a scapegoat for the underground versus mainstream debate.

But I think he didn't necessarily get the ears that he deserved to get for this album when it dropped.

When you listen to it, it's an album about tension, drama, struggle, paranoia, loss.

It's all woven into those tracks.

And yes, the way that Jay-Z delivers it, it's not like he's shouting about it or ramming it down your throat.

But I think overall...

These include Legal Drug Money by Lost Boys, Riding Dirty by UGK and Wild Cowboys by Sadat X. Ryan Proctor, UK journalist, remembers the reception to Reasonable Doubt and highlights the growing underground and mainstream hip-hop divide that was taking place at the time.

When Reasonable Doubt dropped, it dropped to kind of almost a crossroads in hip-hop.

The whole underground mainstream thing was really kind of coming to a head.

But that summer of 96, Let's say you've got, you know, Nas' second album drops, same day, Daylarz, States' high drop, which is talking about commercial hip hop.

The Roots had the Clone single out, which again, you know, was very much based in talking about commercial hip hop and their album.

Obviously, there was anticipation for that, which dropped in the autumn.

And the underground movement was bubbling as well.

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.

Ryan Proctor, a UK-based journalist, further explores the themes and the lyrics of The Evils.

For me, that record is about...

Loss of innocence, loss of friendship, paranoia, going down a road that potentially you didn't necessarily want to, but circumstances presented it to you and you ended up doing things that you didn't really want to do.

I mean, the lyric on there where he says, we used to fight for building blocks.

It tells you everything you need to know without having to tell you more than needs to be said.

It's just there.

And you know exactly what he's referring to.

Then to the second one, which I think is incredible too, where it's like, yo, now he's getting big for his bridges, that kid.