As the buzz for Jay-Z’sAmerican Gangster continues to grow, a series of changes on his former business partner Damon Dash’s social networking site are appearing. The “Leak” sectionof Dash’s Blocksavvy.com now features a mandatory registration link, which takes registrants to streaming audio of the shelved Beyond A Reasonable Doubt project. Dash told MTV.com that the Reasonable Doubt tribute album had been planned prior to his and Kareem “Biggs” Burke’s exit from Roc-A-Fella, but is just now seeing the light of day.
“We made this a while ago [when we still co-owned] Roc-A-Fella,” says Dash. “At the time I was always looking for projects to showcase the artists and move as a team. Cam’ron did a record too. Everybody did renditions of Jay songs. Some from Reasonable Doubt, some from other records.”
Interestingly, despite its title, seven of the 10 available songs are from albums other than Reasonable Doubt. An R&B version of “Regrets” by Nicole Wray and re-workings of “Politics As Usual” and “Can I Live” by Freeway and Memphis Bleek respectively, are the only offerings from what most critics and fans consider a classic Jay-Z album.
While the aforementioned Cam’ron and Jim Jones tracks are absent, songs from Diplomat member Juelz Santana and State Property member Omillio Sparks–both who have voiced displeasure with Jay-Z–are present. For his part, Dash says there are no hard feelings on his side.
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“Honestly, Reasonable Doubt was very important to us–despite the fact that people are paying homage to it without us, and I’m seeing stuff on television,” says Dash. “[But] we’re not getting interviewed, which is cool.” As for Dame’s rationale for releasing the material now?
“It’s a piece of us. It’s the only thing we still own that has anything to do with Roc-A-Fella…Jay said he didn’t like it, so we scrapped it. We felt like we might as well [release the material], why not?” remarks Dash.
An audio stream of 10 tracks from Beyond A Reasonable Doubt are available at Blocksavvy.com, as well as some individual tracks, courtesy of MTV.com, below.
Juelz Santana – “You Must Love Me”
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Nicole Wray – “Regrets”
