before biggie died jayz was like lil cease

[avon barksdale]

Jay wish he was cease...cause he was scared of them mafia thugs. listen to his verse

 

[I_Got_Da_Burna]

Camel was a little n1gga when Big and Pac was alive. pac gave him half a bar and that was it,

 

[razassin]

Ironically I think jay z the camel was one of the best before he blew up.... RD, Vol 1 n Vol 2 are the reason he will always be a legend to me...

Post-2001 camel status is to me

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Ironically I think jay z the camel was one of the best before he blew up.... RD, Vol 1 n Vol 2 are the reason he will always be a legend to me...

Post-2001 camel status is to me

I told nikkas Jay fell off when he stopped calling himself Jigga

 

[Sam Peel]

 

[Uncle_Dirty]

where is this from??

 

[FreshAIG]

A lot of people went double platinum.
Pac sold 3 times more than Nas first week, big sold more than 3 times more.
Pac sold 5-6 million records in 1996, Nas about was what around 1.7-1.8? just above/or on the same level as Outkast, Busta Rhymes, Pacs second album, Dogg food and others. YET less than LL, Coolio and a lot less than BTNH, Pac and The Fugees. Don't forget that super underground people like Gza were selling 8-900k in the mid 90s. It was standard, cats had cop your shyt to hear your shyt, specially if you weren't from the hood.

Not only that, but the other albums had bomb hits, award nominations, classic reviews and on unlike It was written.

All props to Nas having a #5 selling hiphop album. I can give you a lot of artists that have been #5 once.
Not enough to stick them with the biggest artists of the genre.

this is such a misnomer that people throw out with recklessness without much to back it up

No, MOST rappers did NOT go double platinum back in the 90s. Hell you had pretty big rappers like Redman, MC Eiht, De La Soul, Method Man, Mobb Deep, etc.. barely went Gold.

 

[Harry B]

this is such a misnomer that people throw out with recklessness without much to back it up

No, MOST rappers did NOT go double platinum back in the 90s. Hell you had pretty big rappers like Redman, MC Eiht, De La Soul, Method Man, Mobb Deep, etc.. barely went Gold.

Who said most rappers? I said A LOT.
More important than getting rap facts correct, is getting the english language correct.
About 20 rap albums went multi between in 94 and 97. If not more.
While cats like to think that Nas was one of 3 doing this, people forget that cats like Warren G, Coolio, LL Cool j, Master P, Diddy, Busta Rhyme, Mase were doing the same numbers and more.

 

[ISO]

A lot of people went double platinum.
Pac sold 3 times more than Nas first week, big sold more than 3 times more.
Pac sold 5-6 million records in 1996, Nas about was what around 1.7-1.8? just above/or on the same level as Outkast, Busta Rhymes, Pacs second album, Dogg food and others. YET less than LL, Coolio and a lot less than BTNH, Pac and The Fugees. Don't forget that super underground people like Gza were selling 8-900k in the mid 90s. It was standard, cats had cop your shyt to hear your shyt, specially if you weren't from the hood.

Not only that, but the other albums had bomb hits, award nominations, classic reviews and on unlike It was written.

All props to Nas having a #5 selling hiphop album. I can give you a lot of artists that have been #5 once.
Not enough to stick them with the biggest artists of the genre.

It Was Written went 2x Platinum in 1996, and is a 4x Platinum album to this day. It Was Written was on top of the billboards for 4 weeks straight. If I Ruled The World and Street Dreams were both Gold selling singles and got regular spins in 1996. Illmatic also started to pick up on sales going gold. Nas was featured on several classic albums, he was definitely a tier one rapper. How was GZA "super underground" everybody knew him from Wu-Tang. Nas outsold LL Cool J's Mr.Smith by a lot.

It Was Written did have classic reviews, some critics disliked the direction Nas was taking in working with the Trackmasters and getting into mafioso rap but for the most part It Was Written had critical acclaim.
AllMusic: 4 out of 5
Chicago Tribune: 3.5 out of 4
The Souce: 4 Mics
Q Magazine: 4 out of 5
Entertainment Weekly: A
The Rolling Stone Album Guide: 4 out of 5



As for this thread Jay was not like Lil Cease before Big died

 

[Harry B]

It Was Written went 2x Platinum in 1996, and is a 4x Platinum album to this day. It Was Written was on top of the billboards for 4 weeks straight. If I Ruled The World and Street Dreams were both Gold selling singles and got regular spins in 1996. Illmatic also started to pick up on sales going gold. Nas was featured on several classic albums, he was definitely a tier one rapper. How was GZA "super underground" everybody knew him from Wu-Tang. Nas outsold LL Cool J's Mr.Smith by a lot.

It Was Written did have classic reviews, some critics disliked the direction Nas was taking in working with the Trackmasters and getting into mafioso rap but for the most part It Was Written had critical acclaim.
AllMusic: 4 out of 5
Chicago Tribune: 3.5 out of 4
The Souce: 4 Mics
Q Magazine: 4 out of 5
Entertainment Weekly: A
The Rolling Stone Album Guide: 4 out of 5



As for this thread Jay was not like Lil Cease before Big died

Mr. Smith sold 2 million just like IWW and it's not sold more than 2 million, update your wikipedia facts. It was probably Illmatic buckeye or whatever his name is who edited the whole page. Super underground is wrong to say, but underground meaning he wasn't on commercial television, wasn't aiming for it and on. The strength of Wu-tangs underground buzz made him move those units.

That was just a little sidenote though.
And critical acclaim? It had good reviews.

You posted the best reviews, it's at least as many that gave it between 2 to 3.5/5.
Since you were on wikipedia I assume you saw the quote

Upon its release, It Was Written received mixed to positive reviews from most music critics, who found it not on-par with Nas's debut album, serving as an example of the sophomore jinx.[1]

 

[Poitier]

Are yall really arguing with someone who quotes Wikipedia as a source?

 

[ISO]

Mr. Smith sold 2 million just like IWW and it's not sold more than 2 million, update your wikipedia facts. It was probably Illmatic buckeye or whatever his name is who edited the whole page. Super underground is wrong to say, but underground meaning he wasn't on commercial television, wasn't aiming for it and on. The strength of Wu-tangs underground buzz made him move those units.

That was just a little sidenote though.
And critical acclaim? It had good reviews.

You posted the best reviews, it's at least as many that gave it between 2 to 3.5/5.
Since you were on wikipedia I assume you saw the quote

It Was Written has moved over 4 Million copies to this day, the RIAA still has Mr.Smith with 2x Platinum recognition. GZA wasn't on commercial television but he was known, he was one of the founding Wu-Tang members and was featured on OB4CL. I still remember "I Got Ya Back" being played on the Boombox, he wasn't mainstream but he would sell since Wu-Tang as a whole was.

I consider an A, a couple of 4 out of 5's and 3.5 out of 4's to be critical acclaim . That quote is right it did receive some mixed reviews but the vast majority were positive.

 

[Harry B]

Are yall really arguing with someone who quotes Wikipedia as a source?

I do not use wikipedia for artists like Nas.
But your man quoted wikipedia not only for sales but for the incomplete review distribution.

You are unbelievably quickly moving up to the most irritating poster on the coli, I've dabbled with some of the other Jay-z haters for years and yet you are already top 5 most irritating.

 

[Poitier]

 

[intilectual recipricol]

its kinda like naS was J Cole