club dj and co-founder of living proof dj snips believes you can trace reasonable doubt's blueprint on many of today's contemporary rap records

When you're talking about that era, I think there's two different eras, right? Where we talk about seminal albums.

One is 88 and one is that stretch from 94 to 96.

So when we're talking 88, we're talking paid in full.

We're talking the takes a nation of millions.

We're talking the first BDP album, Slick Rick.

We're talking about that era of music, first Kane album.

He also credits Jay-Z's artistic growth to three key individuals in particular.

I don't know how much they communicated through the making of the album or how involved there was, you know, how involved the A&R process was to make sure that there was that.

But it just, everything worked, man.

Even with Clubio records like Ain't No War, Can't Knock The Hustle, those were the records that made me skeptical to even think, am I going to enjoy the album? But now when you listen back to it, it's like, all right, they were slightly more up-tempo records or club-friendly records, but they still held the same sound as the rest of the record.

They still allowed it to sound like a coherent listen.

But I think what doesn't get enough credit is the artist's development of who he was, aside from how he was packaged and sold to the world.

If we have that discussion, we need to talk about Clark Kent.

From a producer point of view, Bring It On holds a special place with me because

I'm somebody that, you know, I obsess over samples and breaks and finding these original records that producers flip.

It's the only one that's eluded me.

It's the only one no one knows what it is.

Nobody knows what it is.

Stress.