A QUESTION FOR THE OLD HEADS.....DID ILLMATIC REALLY HAVE AS MUCH OF AN IMPACT AS PEOPLE SAY.....

[Bugsmoran]

lol @ illmatic being popular amongst just a certain segment of people.

yall trippin.

Nah that's real talk.... And Nas is in my top 3 greatest mc's

illmatic's impact the week it dropped wasn't no bigger than Blackmoon - enta da stage album when it dropped

Same group of people that was into Blackmoon was into Nas... Same group of people that went on to buy Mos Def - black on both sides album

Like I was saying before people are getting the word impact confused with influence

Albums that had a big impact was instant must haves amongst every hiphop fan... It took years for alot of hiphop fans to understand how great illmatic was and to kno it was a must have album

Beastie Boys - Licensed to ill had a bigger impact

50cent - get rich or die trying had a bigger impact than illmatic

 

[intilectual recipricol]

They ain't Illmatic. Go look up any lyric from 94 and before and compare to Illmatic. Listen to any song before and compare it to his flow on it.

Yes, go look up Resurrection by Twista in 94 and see how far ahead he was than naS in 94...

@essdot literally nobody was checkin for illmatic outside of a 3 block radius in NY. That is why is took 7 years to go plat, even with heavy propaganda from EC based magazines. shyt just wasnt poppin AT ALL. You came to the logical conclusion in your OP. There was literally nothing advanced about it if you listen to other rappers of the time, and they sold MUCH better. Look at LL at that time, Naughty By Nature, Pac, Cube, Redman, the nikkaz that @bigbadbossup2012 listed.... even Kris Kross had a bigger influence considering they birthed Da Brat who was also bigger than naS at that time.

 

[Bugsmoran]

Lets focus on the word "impact" for a minute

When u say something had a big impact that means it hit hard and you felt the impact immediately

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

what kind of logic is this. IMPACT has almost EVERY THING to do with sales. lmao.

No rappers were going platinum in 1994. Most albums from that era are barely platinum now. By that logic Nelly had a bigger impact than Illmatic. It's stupid logic

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

It got props of source mag propaganda.

 

[MINT]

nas is trash

 

[intilectual recipricol]

No rappers were going platinum in 1994. Most albums from that era are barely platinum now. By that logic Nelly had a bigger impact than Illmatic. It's stupid logic

A LOT OF RAPPERS WERE GOING PLAT IN THAT ERA... ask @mobbinfms

only illmatic didnt... and since you mention it... Nelly did have a bigger impact than illmatic, its not even debatable.

 

[Wacky D]

Nah that's real talk.... And Nas is in my top 3 greatest mc's

illmatic's impact the week it dropped wasn't no bigger than Blackmoon - enta da stage album when it dropped

Same group of people that was into Blackmoon was into Nas... Same group of people that went on to buy Mos Def - black on both sides album

Like I was saying before people are getting the word impact confused with influence

Albums that had a big impact was instant must haves amongst every hiphop fan... It took years for alot of hiphop fans to understand how great illmatic was and to kno it was a must have album

Beastie Boys - Licensed to ill had a bigger impact

50cent - get rich or die trying had a bigger impact than illmatic

it looks like youre talking commercial impact.

nas & black moon are the type of artists where everybody had they chit, but it was usually either a dub or a bootleg. that doesn't take away from their albums' popularity & impact on a cultural level.

also, theyre not in the same grouping of mos def. hes one of those okay-player rappers. those crowds love nas & black moon - yes. but nas & black moon have a much longer reach than mos def.

I don't think anybody is comparing illmatic's impact to that of licensed to ill, grodt, or the other albums people mentioned in here like e.99 eternal, matw, etc.

 

[Rem]

I love Nas, but he benefits from incredible double standards on the Coli (and sohh before that). The excuses kill me, why would bootlegging be a factor for him and not the other artists in the same Era?

I wont even touch on albums from the west like doggystyle or regulate...g funk era who's impact blew illmatic's out of the water. Lets just take a look at Rappers from the tri state area that released an album in that same time period (1993-1996).

Wu tang, 36 chambers went gold in 4 months in March 1994 (from Nov 1993)
Biggie, Ready to die took 2 months to go gold in Nov 1994 (from Sept 1994)
Redman, Dare iz a darkside went gold in under two months in Jan 1995 (from Nov 1994)
ODB, Return to the 36 chambers went gold in 3 months in June 1995 (from March 1995)
Mob deep, The infamous went gold in 2 months in June 1995 (from April 1995)
Raekwon, OB4CL went gold in 2 months in October 1995 (from August 1995)
Jay Z, Reasonable doubt went Gold in 3 months in Sept 1996 (from June 1996)
Mob deep, Hell on earth went gold in 5 months in April 1997 (from November 1996)
IWW, by Nas himself, released in Sept 1996 went gold under a month

Now we have Illmatic, going gold in 21 months in Jan 1996 (from April 1994)! But no, its because it was bootlegged, otherwise would have gone platinum in a month

Even if you exclude Ready to die which you could say had a lot of promotion, the point still stands. The most hilarious one is Jay-Z's RD, who I must have seen about 20 threads (from sohh and on here) about its revisionism in terms of its impact, I wonder what that makes Illmatic that took almost 2 years to go gold.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

A LOT OF RAPPERS WERE GOING PLAT IN THAT ERA... ask @mobbinfms

only illmatic didnt... and since you mention it... Nelly did have a bigger impact than illmatic, its not even debatable.

Which of these albums went platinum in 1994?

https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=rap+albums+1994&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Only nikka going plat in that era *might* have been West Coast nikkas.

 

[intilectual recipricol]

Which of these albums went platinum in 1994?

https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=rap albums 1994&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Only nikka going plat in that era *might* have been West Coast nikkas.

the era fakket... the era... Naughty went plat in 93, LL went plat around that same time. Red was going gold in mere months. Bone went plat in that time frame. Pac was gold. illmatic was plywood. Da Brat and Kris Kross was plat...

 

[MINT]

illmatic is overrated as fukk but it had more impact than rd, thats for sure

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

the era fakket... the era... Naughty went plat in 93, LL went plat around that same time. Red was going gold in mere months. Bone went plat in that time frame. Pac was gold. illmatic was plywood. Da Brat and Kris Kross was plat...

So all the nikkas that weren't going plat (Biggie, Common, Outkast, Jay-Z, etc) weren't making an impact?

 

[intilectual recipricol]

So all the nikkas that weren't going plat (Biggie, Common, Outkast, Jay-Z, etc) weren't making an impact?

Outkast was at least gold think they went plat though...

illmatic was drywall status. point is nikkaz was going to the store to get albums. illmatic was in the store when they went to get albums. and they didnt get illmatic.

 

[Rem]

So all the nikkas that weren't going plat (Biggie, Common, Outkast, Jay-Z, etc) weren't making an impact?

No one is saying it didn't have an Impact. It is the extent of the impact which is being questioned, seeing as there is a huge deal of revisionism with regards to how big its impact was. There were are a shytload of albums with a bigger impact between 1993 and 1996, especially for an album that is (rightly) one of the greatest albums of all time.