It’s been 20 years since Jay Z debut album “Reasonable Doubt” now Kareem Biggs Burke Talks Jay Z and The Rise of Roc-A-Fella Records, who was really behind the success!!!
Flip and get more details from Kareem Biggs Burke inside…
CelebNMusic247.com remembers when Jay Z came on the scene. His album was raw, hard and uncut hip hop, but Kareem Biggs Burke reveals that in the beginning Jay could get a deal.
In fact, in 1993 DJ Clark Kent (The producer behind artists like Notorious BIG, Lil Kim, 50 Cent and Mariah Carey) introduced Dame to Jay who introduce Kareem Biggs Burke to the up and coming rapper Sean Carter. Biggs admits he wasn’t a fan of Jay Z music back then. He was supporting rappers like Scarface, Snoop Dogg, and The Gheto Boys at that time.
Back in 93 Jay was shopping his music for deals, but nobody saw the vision. That is when Kareem “Biggs” Burke and Dame Dash decided to start their label independently through Priority Records ( is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group, and operates as a unit of Capitol Music Group) and Freeze Records. It was Kareem who put it all together with a deal they could refuse. Dame Dash, Kareem Biggs Burke who made Roc-A-Fella Records come to fruition – brought Jay to the table to co-sign the deal with them. At that time he was under the impression that he, Dame and Jay would be owning 80% of the company. It didn’t turn out that way. Instead, Freeze was making 80% of all profits and they were only making $30K to Freeze $3 Million. It was a learning lesson.
Kareem Biggs Burke Talks the Music on Reasonable Doubt:
After the success of Reasonable Doubt and the lesson learned they left Priority and Freeze and moved Roc-A-Fella Records to a deal with Universal Music Group. Their label was operated as a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, being distributed by Def Jam Recordings.
Biggs’ is known for the verse “We Don’t Lease, we buy the whole car” on the track “Can I Live.” Biggs says the Dead Presidents remix is his favorite song and the verse “I want money like Cosby…more pudding” is Biggs slang that made it to Jay’s album. Back then Biggs also reveals that none of the smoked the sticky back then, they were all drinkers.
Jay Z’s Reasonable Doubt wasn’t instantly crowned a rap classic when it was released 20 years ago on June, 25 1996— it took some time. But now, two decades later, Hov’s debut album is widely considered one of hip-hop’s greatest works.
Meet Biggs, who, along with Jay and Damon Dash started Roc-A-Fella Records, the independent label where Hov released Reasonable Doubt and set the foundation for a two decade long career which includes just as many rap accolades as it does business benchmarks.
Watch.Listen.Learn from this in-depth interview with Kareem Biggs Burke who talks about Jay Z + The Rise of Roc-A-Fella Records and with Genius:
Checkout this cool video from Power 106 VinRican as he showcases classic samples that were used on Jay-Z’s 1996 ‘Reasonable Doubt’ debut album.
It was these classics that helped to make his album one of Hovs best works besides his Blueprint album. Since then we haven’t heard a raw uncontribed album from Jay Z. He’s been hit and miss as well as confused in the new era hip hop that tends to be lackluster compared to the 90s and early 2000 hip hop that made your spin shake when the base hit and Jay spit on the mic.
Watch.Listen.Learn:
