Brooklyn's Finest: The Making Of Reasonable Doubt by Jay-Z
Jun 25, 2026 · 30 min · 11 segments
In our third episode, we continue our deep dive into the album’s tracklist and key themes. We also analyse the people, places and things that made the album happen, including early live performances…
DJ Clark KentGuest
Sumit SharmaHostChristopher MitchellHost
Pain In Da AssGuest
Maria DavisGuest
Ryan ProctorGuest
Yoh PhillipsGuest
Charlie BraxtonGuest
Dart AdamsGuest
Rob MarkmanGuest
Ski BeatzGuest
Jaz-OGuest
DJ SnipsGuest6.
Primo then created a beat sampling Go Back Home by Alan Toussaint and delivered a tailor-made production for Jay to exercise his demons over.
The hook is a patchwork of vocal samples from Snoop Dogg's Murder Was The Case and Prodigy's verse from I Shot Ya by LL Cool J. Charlie Braxton, who wrote the review for Reasonable Doubt in The Source magazine's August 1996 issue, explains why he thinks The Evils is one of rap's most profound religious experiences.
The record, The Evils, is my favorite record because it is one of the most profound critiques of capitalism I've ever heard in a gangster rap record.
Okay, I know that I'm destroying my community, but I'm infected with this lust for lucre.
You've got companies who are destroying human lives to increase their bottom line.
So what's the difference between a drug dealer who's a street vendor like Jay-Z was depicting in the record and say somebody from a big farmer who's peddling a drug they know has dangerous side effects.
You know, it was a very subtle way of critiquing capitalism without ever using the word capitalists.
It was the subtle way of critiquing how the industry works without calling it out.
Ryan Proctor, a UK-based journalist, further explores the themes and the lyrics of The Evils.
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.
He's talking about being a kid, arguing with his friends that he grew up with as a kid, building blocks.
You're playing with building blocks when you're three, four, five, six years old.
6.
Primo then created a beat sampling Go Back Home by Alan Toussaint and delivered a tailor-made production for Jay to exercise his demons over.
The hook is a patchwork of vocal samples from Snoop Dogg's Murder Was The Case and Prodigy's verse from I Shot Ya by LL Cool J. Charlie Braxton, who wrote the review for Reasonable Doubt in The Source magazine's August 1996 issue, explains why he thinks The Evils is one of rap's most profound religious experiences.
The record, The Evils, is my favorite record because it is one of the most profound critiques of capitalism I've ever heard in a gangster rap record.
Okay, I know that I'm destroying my community, but I'm infected with this lust for lucre.
You've got companies who are destroying human lives to increase their bottom line.
So what's the difference between a drug dealer who's a street vendor like Jay-Z was depicting in the record and say somebody from a big farmer who's peddling a drug they know has dangerous side effects.
You know, it was a very subtle way of critiquing capitalism without ever using the word capitalists.
It was the subtle way of critiquing how the industry works without calling it out.
Ryan Proctor, a UK-based journalist, further explores the themes and the lyrics of The Evils.
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.
He's talking about being a kid, arguing with his friends that he grew up with as a kid, building blocks.
You're playing with building blocks when you're three, four, five, six years old.
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