What was the inspiration behind "Reasonable Doubt" by Jay Z?

Answer by  Simo53 (90)

From what I can tell he spent a lot of time in his youth having run-ins with the law, so most likely crime was a big inspiration for his album. Looking further into it, a few different websites do mention directly that his criminal acts were inspirational factors to the music and lyrics.

Answer by  dwammer (710)

The inspiration behind Reasonable Doubt was about his life as a hustler. He grew up without a male figure in the house and turned to the streets to later hook up wiht other rapper artists. He created Reasonable Doubt in 1996 after he scored a deal with Priority Records. They were his distributor of the album.