Sean Fennessey

RapidShare

Breaking it down, one single at a time.

Jay-Z's New DVD: Shockingly Good

Posted 09/28/2007 at 8:33 PM | Comment?

There's plenty of chatter about Jay-Z's forthcoming American Gangster album. But there hasn't been much talk about the upcoming Eagle Rock production of The Making of Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt, the latest addition to their stellar Classic Albums DVD series.

The episode is scheduled to air next week, October 3 or VH1, but I have an advance here (I wish I had some video to post — the above is an unrelated video Ski put on YouTube earlier this year) and needless to say it's incredible. With full involvement and original interviews from Jay, Irv Gotti, Ski, DJ Premier, Clark Kent, Foxy Bronw, Mary J. Blige and others, there's so much insight. Ski recreates "Dead Presidents" alongside Jay, Hov breaks down lyrics bar by bar, Irv Gotti pretends to know how to operate an MPC, Damon Dash dances a lot. It's a bit too literal at times — for "D'Evils" Jay quotes the song and then explains "'We used to fight for building blocks' — you know the little things you used to build with." Thanks for breaking that down, homie. Still seeing Ski and Jay or Premier and Jay sitting beside each other laughing, so proud of their work, is surprising considering talk of unspoken bad blood.

There's also unseen footage from '95/'96, live home video, early EPK stuff, footage from the 10th Anniversary concert at Radio City Music Hall, etc. — all dope and also surprising considering previous recipients of the Eagle Rock Classic Albums treatment include Phil Collins, Cream, Def Leppard, Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan and The Who. This is the first rap installment. Sorry to go all press release-y here, but this shocked me when I dropped it in — I'm not exactly sure why Def Jam didn't blow this out and make it a full-scale DVD release. It needs more exposure than it's going to get.

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