Anybody ever listen to illmatic and think damn this shyt is wack

[The Devil's Advocate]

Rewrite history????) that wack shyt sold 59k albums the first week. nikka did ace hood numbers.

Wasn't nobody tryna hear him monkey flipem with the funky rhythm

nikka had to do a song with Lauryn hill for people to pay attention

Here we come with the sales talk. Nyc wasn't even popping at the time. Not one song on that album was a reach for radio play. Which is why he "took home ready to die, listened, studied shyt. Now he on some money shyt, successful out the blue....."


But there wasn't even an Internet, blog, etc to be checking back then. Magazines, tv shows and other rappers are who told the story of how great that album was. They spoke on it then and now, calling it classic

nikkas was buying bootlegs off the corner, but was bumping that shyt all day. Talking about "who's the best mc, biggie, Jay or nas"

nikkas have no history and I doubt was over 10 years old at the time. Let alone in any hood or club or hip hop mecca

 

[eastsideTT]

It Aint Hard To Tell held down the number 1 video on BET's Rap City Saturday Top 10 for like half the damn year it dropped, I remember. I was too young to really appreciate Illmatic at the time. I was more into It Was Written just because that was my "golden years" coming of age time of life that everyone looks back on and thinks that music was the best during. I listen to It Was Written a lot more today than I do with Illmatic. If I were 5-6 years older I'd probably rate Illmatic a lot higher

 

[JuvenileHell]

Gee never saw a thread like this before

 

[Sunalmighty]

I don't think it's the GOAT, but it has the illest 3rd verse ever (One Love) the GOAT song (World is Yours) and for some reason I've been listening to "Represent" like crazy. "Till I trap em and clap em, won't even run, don't even talk about gods ...I don't believe in none of that shyt,, ya facts are backwards".

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

Did Illmatic appeal to the masses in the beginning? No. But in hip hop, that is not how we judge the content of our music. That is an ideal that has developed over the years for rappers to justify why they are great or better than others. Hammers Please Hammer Don't Hurt em sold more than Paid In Full, Follow The Leader, Long Live The Kane, It's A Big Daddy Thing, Criminal Minded and By Any Means Necessary COMBINED.

So tell me again about the importance of sales?

I could totally accept and respect this is other albums from other regions were treated this way. But historically the east is the only place you can flop and be talked up to classic through time. Because it's the root of media. Dj's,nerds that go on to edit mags,etc are often from there. Meanwhile these same mf's will try to tear down an album that performed well from another region.
I also dont respect when nikkas use extreme corny examples to try and make a point.
Hammer's persona on please hammer dont hurt em and content is entirely different than the people you're comparing him to.

When I compare illmatic to other projects from 1994,i dont compare him to blatant attempts at cross over success.
I compare him to other artists that have some type of similarity
Illmatic was outsold by alot of other street albums that werent going around wearing shiny suits smiling,not cussing etc. that also came out in the same year etc.
When nikkas have to say way out shyt or give outlandish examples to try and prove me wrong,it just reaffirms i'm right.
Do me a favor and name some albums outside the east coast,that didnt cater to a east coast sound,that didnt sell well but get built up over time as some GOAT potential album.

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

it is a classic. there's albums that sold more initially the same year that aren't talked about like that like da brat's fake snoop dogg album. Illmatic's slow burn to platinum and Nas being able to do a 20 year aniversy tour shows it's "classic"-ness. real classic usually don't move super units.

Ok show some examlpes of other failures from other regions being talked up over years like illmatic was.
Name a slowburn classic from anywhere outside the east that didnt cater to the east coast sound.

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

My argument has been that real classics always sell over time (they never go triple plastic forever). But their sales are in respectable amounts, not in super units.

examples from areas outside the east?

 

[JayBaldacci]

Ok show some examlpes of other failures from other regions being talked up over years like illmatic was.
Name a slowburn classic from anywhere outside the east that didnt cater to the east coast sound.

there just aren't many classic's from other regions in the first place. so there's probably none.

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

1. I never said the west stopped dominating, I said it laid the foundation for the east to surge back.
2. I said Nas laid the framework with Illmatic for the East. Check the release dates on both.

You yoga pants wearing fakkit, you seem flustered. Why don't you go bike ride to the corner store, get an bottle of water and leave this thread.

Which isnt true at all. That's why nas changed his whole style afterward and start making bad boy sounding music with obvious loop samples and obvious jacked hooks from the 80's.
Dont matter which came first. Big and puff layed the ground work and finished the job. who blew up soundling like nas? who blew up and came through nas? lmao

 

[cartierhoe]

I swear its like some nikkas don't even like rap

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

there just aren't many classic's from other regions in the first place. so there's probably none.

So there's no classics outside the east that didnt sell well off top? thanks,point proven

 

[JayBaldacci]

So there's no classics outside the east that didnt sell well off top? thanks,point proven

there's barely any classics that aren't east coast period.

 

[LEEeveryday]

dog...it's nothing wack about Illmatic

...and once you realize WHEN it came out, you'll realize that shyt birthed all the dope emcees thru the 90s and today...

 

[thekingsmen]

If the shyt is wack, why are you making a thread on it?

 

[Kyle C. Barker]

So there's no classics outside the east that didnt sell well off top? thanks,point proven

You didn't prove anything, you're just being thick headed. The point @JayBaldacci and @SirBiatch made was that classic music sells over a prolonged period of time and they are absolutely right about that. That standard applies to every genre of music, not just rap.

From the Beatles to bob marley, from Beethoven to pink floyd, to jay and to nas. They've all made music that continues to sell decades after they were released. Cant say the same thing about bone thugs