Jay-Z on Vinyl: Where to Start and Where to Go Next

Shawn Carter came out of the Marcy Houses in Brooklyn with a rapper's gift and a businessman's patience, and the second one is what made this catalog what it is. When the label deal he wanted never arrived, he built Roc-A-Fella Records with Damon Dash and Kareem Burke and released his own debut through it. Every record that follows carries that decision in its posture: unhurried, self-assured, answerable to nobody.

What makes Jay-Z worth collecting rather than streaming is how cleanly each album marks a turn. The mid-90s records are dense, mafioso, jazz-lined New York rap. The Blueprint hands the beats to a young Kanye West and Just Blaze and rebuilds the whole sound around chopped soul. The Black Album closes a chapter, the collaborative records open different ones, and the late catalog gets quieter and more confessional. Very little repeats.

Here is where we would start on the shelf at GOOD TASTE, and where to go once the first one has done its work.

Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt (30th Anniversary) Vinyl LP

The debut arrived on June 25, 1996 through Roc-A-Fella with Priority handling distribution, and it still sounds like a man who has already decided he is right. DJ Premier, Ski, Clark Kent and Knobody build cold, jazz-lined loops for a narrator who treats crime like accounting, and the guests run from Mary J. Blige on "Can't Knock the Hustle" to the Notorious B.I.G. trading verses on "Brooklyn's Finest." This is the thirtieth anniversary pressing of Reasonable Doubt, which we also carry on CD and cassette.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• The 1996 debut that launched Roc-A-Fella Records
• Production from DJ Premier, Ski, Clark Kent and Knobody
• Includes "Dead Presidents II" and "Brooklyn's Finest" with the Notorious B.I.G.

Jay-Z - The BLUEPRINT (UK Import) Vinyl LP

Released September 11, 2001 on Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam, The Blueprint is the pivot the rest of the catalog swings on. Kanye West, Just Blaze and Bink pitch old soul records up into something bright and enormous, and Jay-Z answers with the loosest, funniest writing of his career on "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)," "Takeover" and "Song Cry." Eminem is the only other rapper on the album, on "Renegade," which he also produced. This is the UK import pressing.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• The 2001 album that made chopped soul the sound of mainstream rap
• Production from Kanye West, Just Blaze and Bink
• Includes "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)," "Takeover" and "Renegade"

Jay-Z - The Black Album Vinyl LP

The Black Album came out on November 14, 2003 and was sold as a farewell, built with a different producer on nearly every track because it was supposed to be the last one. Rick Rubin strips "99 Problems" down to drums and guitar, Timbaland skitters through "Dirt Off Your Shoulder," and Kanye West, Just Blaze, the Neptunes, DJ Quik and 9th Wonder handle the rest. The retirement did not hold, but the record earned the send-off, and its a cappella version is what let Danger Mouse build The Grey Album out of Beatles samples.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• The 2003 album with a different producer on nearly every track
• Rick Rubin's "99 Problems" and Timbaland's "Dirt Off Your Shoulder"
• The a cappella source record behind Danger Mouse's Grey Album

Jay-Z & Linkin Park - Collision Course Vinyl LP

Collision Course landed on November 30, 2004 out of MTV's Ultimate Mash-Ups series, six tracks that both acts re-recorded across four days in July so the seams would actually close. "Numb/Encore" is the one everybody knows, but "Dirt Off Your Shoulder/Lying from You" and "Izzo/In the End" hold up better than a crossover stunt has any right to. A strange and genuinely fun corner of the catalog.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Six mash-ups from MTV's Ultimate Mash-Ups series
• Parts re-recorded by both acts rather than layered from old masters
• Includes "Numb/Encore" and "Jigga What/Faint"

Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch the Throne Vinyl LP

By August 8, 2011 both men had everything, so Watch the Throne became a record about what that costs. Kanye West leads production alongside Mike Dean, RZA, Q-Tip, Swizz Beatz and Pete Rock, Frank Ocean opens the album on "No Church in the Wild," and "Otis" turns an Otis Redding vocal into a victory lap. Loud, expensive, and more anxious underneath than it lets on.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• The 2011 collaborative album with Kanye West
• Production from Kanye West, Mike Dean, RZA, Q-Tip and Pete Rock
• Includes "Otis" and "No Church in the Wild" with Frank Ocean

Where to Go Next

Once those are on the shelf, the rest of the run fills in quickly. The Roc-A-Fella volumes are the sound of a rapper working out how big he is allowed to get: Vol. 1: In My Lifetime is the glossy uptown detour, Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life turns a showtune from Annie into a stadium chant, and Vol. 3: Life and Times of S. Carter gives us "Big Pimpin'." Further along, The Blueprint 3 opens the Roc Nation years with "Empire State of Mind," and 4:44, produced start to finish by No I.D., is the one where he stops performing and starts explaining himself. Kingdom Come, American Gangster and Magna Carta Holy Grail fill in the discography if you go looking past our racks.

If You Like Jay-Z

• Nas: the other side of the mid-90s New York argument, and the subject of his own guide in our blog.
• The Notorious B.I.G.: Brooklyn storytelling with more menace and better punchlines.
• Mobb Deep: the coldest version of the same city, Queensbridge instead of Marcy.
• Kanye West: the producer who built The Blueprint, then went and built his own catalog.
• Common: Chicago soul-rap for when you want the loops without the boardroom.

Start with Reasonable Doubt if you want the origin story and The Blueprint if you want the turn. Everything we carry by him lives in one place in the Jay-Z collection, and when you are ready to keep pulling the thread, our Hip-Hop and Classic Hip-Hop collections are the rest of this shelf. Come dig in person at 4 Thacher St in the North End, or browse the whole run online.

It's all in GOOD TASTE.