After several guest appearances in the early 1990s and the release of his first single “In My Lifetime” in 1994, JAY-Z released his debut album Reasonable Doubt on June 25, 1996 through his Roc-A-Fella Records imprint with distribution from Priority Records. The album features hardcore New York hip-hop with backdrops from Ski Beatz, Clark Kent, DJ Premier, Irv Gotti, and Jaz-O among others. In a 1997 interview with German station WWETV, Jay discussed the meaning behind the album’s title: We named the album Reasonable Doubt because with anything you do in life, people are going to judge you, whether it be doing interviews or radio or whatever you do in life, people will judge you. So, the album is basically on trial, whether you like it or you don’t, it’s reasonable doubt. This being my first album, people heard me on guest appearances and things like that but they wasn’t so familiar with me putting out a full-length project and things like that. So it’s reasonable doubt. It’s just a chronicle of all the events that happened during my life, or things that I’ve seen or people around have seen, things that I’ve witnessed. Jay originally intended for this album to be his only one, as DJ Clark Kent detailed to Spin magazine: I think that’s the reason why it was so good, because it was more, like, effortless. ‘Yeah, we gon’ do it. We gon’ put this record out and we gon’ walk away.’ That’s what the plan was. The album presented tales from the streets of Brooklyn and the Marcy Projects mixed with mafioso rap, hustler stories, witty rhymes and friendly competition between Jay and guest artists such as Jaz-O, Sauce Money, and another one of “Brooklyn’s Finest,” The Notorious B.I.G. The album also introduced Foxy Brown and Memphis Bleek. Reasonable Doubt peaked at #23 on the Billboard 200 and #3 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart before reaching platinum status with support from the singles “Dead Presidents,” “Ain’t No Nigga” with Foxy Brown, “Can’t Knock the Hustle” with Mary J. Blige, and “Feelin' It.” The album has been featured on several “best of” lists, including The Source’s list of the Top 100 Rap Albums of All Time and a rank of #67 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.