Bringing to real life the rags-to-riches American dream. Jay Z hoisted himself up with his dreams as a young man to eventually become the reigning rapper of New York City. Even more evident, a major-label executive following his very short retirement from producing hits. In the dawn of his 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z's albums sold millions upon millions with each release. His seemingly never ending flow of hits made him omnipresent in all aspects of urban radio and television airwaves. He has built a strong and loyal fan base and shut down whatever rivals attempted to remove him from the top of the rap game.

Born and raised in the tough Marcy Projects of Brooklyn, NY, Jay Z experienced very rough times after his father abandoned his mother before he was even a teenager. Without a man and role model in the house, Jay-Z became an independent, self-supporting young man, turning to the streets. It was here that he made a substantial name for himself as a raging rapper. Known as "Jazzy" throughout his neighborhood. “Jazzy” soon shortened his street given name to Jay-Z and did all he knew to make an entrance into the rap game. As he vividly relays in his rhymes, Jay-Z also was a hustler in the streets of his projects, doing what he needed to in order to make money. For a short time he hung closely with Jaz-O, aka Big Jaz, a small-time New York rapper who was signed and had a record deal but very few sales. From Jaz he saw first hand how to make his way through the rap industry and which moves to successfully to make. He also joined the group Original Flavor for a short time. To everyone’s surprise, Jay-Z decided to make a very controversial decision and start his own record label. With close friends Damon Dash and Kareem "Biggs" Burke, he created Roc-a-Fella Records. This was a very risky strategy for eliminating the middleman and capitalizing money for himself. Once he found a distributor who was reputable, Priority Records who would later become Def Jam, Jay-Z finally had everything in place, including a debut album, Reasonable Doubt (1996).

Although Reasonable Doubt only reached number 23 on Billboard's album chart, Jay-Z's debut album would soon become recognized as an unarguable classic among fans. A majority of people would consider this his crowning achievement. The hit single "Ain't No Nigga," a duet featuring the sexy Foxy Brown, his debut album slowly spread through New York. Many listeners were drawn closer because of huge names like the infamous DJ Premier and the Notorious B.I.G. By the end of its steady run, Reasonable Doubt produced three more singles that would hit the charts. "Can't Knock the Hustle,” featuring Mary J. Blige. "Dead Presidents," that had a well known sample of "The World Is Yours," by renown rapper Nas, and the hit single "Feelin' It" all of which set the path ablaze for Jay-Z's follow-up, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 (1997).