THE BIG BREAK: But even though he had a catchy stage name, Jay-Z remained relatively anonymous until he and two friends, Damon Dash and Kareem Burke, founded their own record label, Roc-A-Fella Records, in 1996. In June of that year, Jay-Z released his debut album, the timeless classic Reasonable Doubt. Because it was a debut album from a relative unknown, the album did well to climb to No. 23 on the Billboard albums chart. But the song was like a nuclear detonation as the project produced potent joints such as “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” featuring Mary J. Blige, and “Brooklyn’s Finest,” a collaboration with Notorious B.I.G. Reasonable Doubt established Jay-Z as an emerging star in hip-hop.
