Jay-Z fans can add another album to their digital music collection as the rapper’s classic debut Reasonable Doubt is now available to download online for the first time on iTunes and other digital download stores.
According to BlockSavvy.com’s Kareem “Biggs” Burke, the album will be distributed online via TuneCore starting tomorrow (November 29).
Damon Dash and Burke retained the rights to the masters to Jay-Z’s classic album Reasonable Doubt when Roc-A-Fella was sold to Island Def Jam in 2004 for $10 million dollars.
The decision to use TuneCore to re-release Reasonable Doubt was based on the way it handled music from Jay-Z in the past, said BlockSavvy.com executive Kareem “Biggs” Burke.
“We went with TuneCore because TuneCore delivered Jay-Z’s music while keeping none of the rights and none of the profits for themselves,” Burke told AllHipHop.com in a statement. “For the first time, thanks to TuneCore, Jay-Z’s great first album will be available in iTunes.”
Considered as one of Hip-Hop’s all-time classic albums, Reasonable Doubt marked the official arrival of Jay-Z on the rap scene.
The Roc-A-Fella Records release, which originally hit stores on June 25, 1996, has been certified Platinum by the RIAA.
It earned five mics from The Source magazine as well as critical praise from Rolling Stone and Blender magazines.
Both publications ranked Reasonable Doubt among their top 500 albums of all time.
The album, which included guest appearances from Memphis Bleek, Sauce Money and The Notorious B.I.G., spawned the hit singles “Ain’t No N***a” featuring Foxy Brown and “Can’t Knock the Hustle” featuring Mary J. Blige.
The new venture puts Jay-Z in the company of various TuneCore customers, including Public Enemy, Ziggy Marley, Queens of the Stone Age, The Dandy Warhols, Keith Richards and High School Musical 2 star Lucas Grabeel.
The rap mogul is currently enjoying the success of his latest release, American Gangster.
The concept album debuted at number one with more than 433,000 copies sold in its first week of release.
Jay-Z refused to sell American Gangster via iTunes, because he didn’t want to break the concept album down into individual songs.
