People need to realize IWW was NOT a commercial album. There was 3 joint that were single friendly on the album If I ruled the world, Street dreams/remix, and Black girl lost, and thats ' it, on 15 songs. And If I ruled the world despite the commercial tone was still nas being conscious ad lyrical, same with street dreams where he flipped a eurythmics chorus into a drug dealing anthem.
Suspect, The set up , Shootouts, I gave you power, Live nikka rap, The message, they all were gritty, IWW is in fact more QB in the sound than any Illmatic song except represent and nysom.
Nas didn't sold the culture, he made it shift, if you didn't like it after that's your problem, but 90 to 94 rap despite great was a phase, simple jazz loop but a music gotta evolve and it did. How can you say Nas killed a culture when the said culture stay alive 20 years later. New York rap would have became commercial Nas or not and if he didn't make a change we would have missed the train and became a zombie on a ghost train station.
There's no such thing as sellout, you're just a fan and fan need to remain at their place, to me as long as the music is ill, I'm not gonna come and juge an artist behavior because I want him to be captain uncompromise. Remember Nas signed on muthaphukin Columbia, which is a white white label, Michael was the only black cat on sony at the time, then after Nas they went with Maxwell and Big L. So called doing it for the culture hey, Nas got rejected by Def Jam when he tried to have deal, the supposed greatest hip hop label didn't want him and thats not Russel who signed him but some caucasian female. Pete Rock almost made The world is yours not to be on illmatic because of some petty cash issue with serch, forcing Nas to record the remix with Q tip, how hip hop is that. Not to mention the source incident. So stop putting a cape no one gives a frak about and lets' face the reality. NO mc can be singlely responsible for a all culture, if it was the case, that culture would be very poor then. When you do not want to evolve you finish like afura or Jeru, flabby and sick because you didn't see it comin
You could Not have been culturally cognitive or aware when this album dropped.
Also,...this culture had been dwindled down to one pillar business wise.
Which means it had one gateway.
The other pillars were compromised as a large commercial business from sellout acts.
Arthouses destroyed the viability of graf.
Moviehouses and film companies destroyed the entire permeation and creation of new bboys, and hip hop original gateway in break'n.
By a number of discrediting moves from Leroy to the bullshyt of the van peeples[the van peeples, are the only ones. who created another gateway after their destruction, in new jack city. van peoples are the only ones who cared enough after making breaking into a laughing stock. Yet, acting had nuffin to do with an actual pillar. Plus, acting gave way to being classicly trained and this culture is the voice of the impoverished. There are not to many bboys talented enough to go to classicly trained art schools. So, hip hopop was under attack. As you now, had to go to a art school to learn to break. Or to get in the most profitable next business, acting. Something not to many bboys were going to be able to do.
Dj'n, not to many bboys were going to be able to do either.
As it was an art that was for the naturally skilled and you had to have records and equipment. Plus, a start early on to ramp up and it was far and away the hardest pillar to partake in. which is why it was the vanity position originally, in the culture. Aside from the focal point of hip hophy hiphop started in the park.
Rap became the gateway for hip hop because the other two pillars had been destroyed as a profitable gateway.
Plus, the new school way of thought defeated the evil business monopoly of sugarhill.
Plus, hip hop was born from the government purposefully stifling education for the prison economy].
Which rap had now, been used as the tool for marketing it.
As the implosion/explosion of gangsta rap swept the world. As,the boom of nwa's soc and 20/20 consistent marketing of the group to scare white America and build the marketing aspect of the prison economy system went into full swing. The cultural protection mechanism from cowboy's death. Made it so the general ideals and performers/consumer of rap were not ready for the resulting large influx of record labels trying to capitalize on non-culturally endorsed rap. Plus, the culture was not ready for the next large commercialization of gateway commercial rap in hammer and vanilla ice. So, when nas dropped on BBQ. He originally was the only new herald of the knights of the templar and viewed as pretty much the savior. he directly came from and was later endorsed by serch and makers of fakin the funk in main source. Who at the time were the only classic release, in the first chinks in hammer and ice's armor.
at that exact time when hammer and vanilla Ice, were making their pr runs of awfullness that would later damage their careers for ever. This was before Redman pushed a lady, before common was on Roosevelt with tone. Before snoop remixed the original deep cover. Wu-tang were to mysterious, and a white label promo at the time.
Before even come clean came out. Before big l released devil's son. After the explosion of k solo.
I know you could not have been around then or even know of hip hop history saying or belittle nas's place, or stature as the next herald of rap. nas was the epitome of the one shot feature to prominence emcee after k solo. So kill all that bullshyt about one guy in rap, you spewed.
One guy in rap always was the next catalyst...
Melle to krs, to nas in that order.
nas at the time was the stand alone herald, of the nineties as a solo artist after hammer/ice.
He was the next non-preacher on the hill, as the media lambasted krs. Plus, he was the new image or visage of the black man in the position krs held.
With the same aura combination of rakim in a whole new form. all without being ra, krs or anyone else. Quite simply, before nas ruined the culture for himself and everyone else.
nas, was perfect.
Without being to extra, and without having any connection to the original new school guard In skill.
nas is/was the important cog to the business of rap.
As well as the culture.
nas, was the golden child, the chosen one, period.
Why the fukk do you think nas got so much industry support when he said he wanted to go commercial.
columbia, knew what they had.
As a matter of fact, nas was on Columbia, the parent label.
he was not on ruffhouse, like cypress.
Who at the time were the best group and being oversaturated after their billboard award.
Oversaturation that lead to their irrelevency.
when it was written dropped
it was handled with care and budgeted completely accurately. No other emcee was given that from a cultural perspective and had it executed exactly how it should to fool the noob gateway consumer.
Originally, nas was not marketed as a drug dealer.
Originally, nas was not marketed in a suit.
These, and the production choices were all taboo, culturally.
All the things nas did for the run of iww and the actual content of the record and the production choices.
were all To capitalize and sway hip hop as a culture and fool new noob fans from what the real was.
So kill that bullshyt of one guy can not change it.
Anyone, who knows nas's history knows he was that lone guy, period.
Anybody else and everyone else tried to do what nas did, and failed.
It was not till nas sold the culture did the culture come under real attack.
Art Barr
You don't even know Pete rock was the premier east coast remix producer from the MCA model.
With publishing from defjam,.. Who also happened to have the unofficial soundtrack of defcomedy jam with the cultural history making shut'em down remix. Yes, pr was going to have to be paid on the small budget of illmatic.
Tha fukk you mean, b!!
I can tell you really do not know this culture or the business of rap like that.
