IF nas died a couple months before IWW

[Alexander Wiggin]

nikka were you in ny to see this? ANy album people are talking about gets bootlegged,you think nikkas who did better than nas didnt get bootlegged MORE THAN HIM? Stop making excuses. It wasnt POPPING LIKE THE MEDIA pretends it was,that's my point. I agree hiphop was bigger in the later 90's but even is scale capital punishment was bigger than illmatic.
Das efx went platinum in less than a year from 92' to 93'. Onyx went plat in 7 months back then. Wu tang went plat in a year and a half. Heavy d went plat in 2 and a half years with his 94' release. Case and point is illmatic was not some sky opening moment in hiphop. Just a fabricated tall tall of a lyrical miracle rapper being prematurely crowned while the real king biggie was bringing ny back and forcing nas to change his whole approach from illmatic to IWW.

ok so what, you got 2 or 3 exceptions more. In 98 its like litteraly a dozens of artists that were going platinum, that's imcomparable. I disdn't say bootleging was the main reason Illmatic disnt sell, I said it was one of the reason. The album was onre o the most anticipated at that time. They took so long to drop it it leaked way early in the street. I remember nas on the radio in 93 freestyling memory lane lyrics and saying illmatic was gonna realease in january 94. And it didn't have big singles to really blast the radio hitlist like that.

You can deny the thing all you want, but the fact is illmatic continued to sold till now and the love and recognizion the album got is just untouchable even by ready to die to this day

 

[iliketurtles]

Illmatic is the most overrated op is right the only people who really fukk with it are 'hip hop elitest' who are stuck in the past and think rap sucks now there is a handful of classics from the 2000s that top Illmatic #faxonly

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

His first album was a critical classic and his second album was a commercial success.
One can argue that whatever IWW backlash which was imminent would have been forgotten had he died as we would have no Nastradamus. I think as great as Life after Death is, had he lived Biggie would have faced a little bit of an underground backlash like Nas did. But he died and that didnt happen. If we're saying nas goes out with his 2 best albums, then there's a lot of what ifs and people romanticizing the material even more

Lmao at you comparing IWW's success to that of a LAD. IWW did fairly well but it's not like nas was running shyt. He still wasnt as big as biggie or 2pac. It's not like nas had just had a year in hiphop that he was the face of. 2pac died on top. Biggie died and his album,along with his teams were the biggest moments of that year. Nas was NOT in the same position.

 

[prophecypro]

Lmao at you comparing IWW's success to that of a LAD. IWW did fairly well but it's not like nas was running shyt. He still wasnt as big as biggie or 2pac. It's not like nas had just had a year in hiphop that he was the face of. 2pac died on top. Biggie died and his album,along with his teams were the biggest moments of that year. Nas was NOT in the same position.

The album went 3 x plat and was number 1 for 4 weeks in the summer of 96. That year was stacked anyway, but when you think of 96 you think Nas, Pac, Fugees from a commercial standpoint

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

ok so what, you got 2 or 3 exceptions more. In 98 its like litteraly a dozens of artists that waer going platinum, that's imcomparable. I disdn't say bootleging was the main reason Illmatic disnt sell, I said it was one of the reason. The album was onre o the most anticipated at that time. They took so long to drop it it leaked way early in the street. I remember nas on the radio in 93 freestyling memory lane lyrics and saying illmatic was gonna realease in january 94. And it didn't have big singles to really blast the radio hitlist like that.

You can deny the thing all you want, but the fact is illmatic continued to sold till now and the love and recognizion the album got is just untouchable even by ready to die to this day

Bootlegging effects everyone so it's not worth bringing up PERIOD. Doggystyle was one of the most anticipated debuts of all time and sold 800,000+ copies. WHo was anticipating nas? His borough? All that shyt is myth. It's funny the same mag that erroneously gave illmatic 5 mics,intentionally didnt give RTD 5 mics though it deserved,cause they didnt wanna give out 5 mics to another album so soon (trying to hide their east coast bias). They also put biggie on the cover as king of ny. It didnt have big singles? All i know is illmatic had 3 videos in regular rotation,if they didnt hit,tha'st nasir and his producer's fault.

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

The album went 3 x plat and was number 1 for 4 weeks in the summer of 96. That year was stacked anyway, but when you think of 96 you think Nas, Pac, Fugees from a commercial standpoint

pac and the fugees were far above nas. nas stopped at double platinum. not bad but #levels

 

[prophecypro]

pac and the fugees were far above nas. nas stopped at double platinum. not bad but #levels

Nas was big that big that year breh whatever ranking you wanna put it. Aint like only 2 acts were running Hip Hop exclusivley that year either

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

Nas was big that big that year breh whatever ranking you wanna put it. Aint like only 2 acts were running Hip Hop exclusivley that year either

nas was there. but he wasnt at the roof with them. That;s like saying pun was big as juvey,dmx,jay in 98'

 

[Alexander Wiggin]

Bootlegging effects everyone so it's not worth bringing up PERIOD. Doggystyle was one of the most anticipated debuts of all time and sold 800,000+ copies. WHo was anticipating nas? His borough? All that shyt is myth. It's funny the same mag that erroneously gave illmatic 5 mics,intentionally didnt give RTD 5 mics though it deserved,cause they didnt wanna give out 5 mics to another album so soon (trying to hide their east coast bias). They also put biggie on the cover as king of ny. It didnt have big singles? All i know is illmatic had 3 videos in regular rotation,if they didnt hit,tha'st nasir and his producer's fault.

why are you bringing snoop and west into this ? death row was on an all other planet. We are talking strictly about ny here. Was the source had an east coast bias ? sure, did they not give 5 mics to rtd because of illmatic, maybe, but a lot of incredible records went and go between 92 and 96 deserved 5 mics and didn't had them. It's just that standard in the quality of music was so high, that albums we considered classic now were just good releases back then.
Just listen to interviews of primo, pete rock q tip and every artists of that time, you want to threat them as liars when they say illmatic was anticipated like the golden treasure and people held it in high regard ? Excuse me to taking their word more seriously than yours since they fully lived the shyt.

 

[prophecypro]

nas was there. but he wasnt at the roof with them. That;s like saying pun was big as juvey,dmx,jay in 98'

You really trying too hard to move the Goal posts on this crusade to downplay Nas' legacy. Even if Pun wasnt as big as Jay/DMX in 98, he still had a big year and was argubaly the breakout lyricist. And even then Pun didnt have a multi-plat 4 week number 1 album. At this point Nas was pretty much on the table with the Pac, Biggies, Snoops, Bustas etc

I mean you wanna Coolio to your "#levels " as well, considering he was bigger than all during 95-96
Perhaps the Outhere Brothers and Scatman John while we at it

 

[BmoreGorilla]

Illmatic > Ready to Die

It Was Written > Life After Death

There you have it

 

[Gains]

 

[bigbadbossup2012]

You really trying too hard to move the Goal posts on this crusade to downplay Nas' legacy. Even if Pun wasnt as big as Jay/DMX in 98, he still had a big year and was argubaly the breakout lyricist. And even then Pun didnt have a multi-plat 4 week number 1 album. At this point Nas was pretty much on the table with the Pac, Biggies, Snoops, Bustas etc

I mean you wanna Coolio to your "#levels " as well, considering he was bigger than all during 95-96
Perhaps the Outhere Brothers and Scatman John while we at it

Nas clearly meant something that year,in fact i bought IWW the week it dropped. However he was not runnig shyt like pac or the fugees. Fact. JUst like pun wasnt as big as the people I contrasted him to.

 

[prophecypro]

Nas clearly meant something that year,in fact i bought IWW the week it dropped. However he was not runnig shyt like pac or the fugees. Fact. JUst like pun wasnt as big as the people I contrasted him to.

Yeah he only had one of the biggest LPs and tracks that year.

 

[Mike Wins]

Pun was a bigger star than nas following their first albums and look what happened. Naw we wouldn't even discuss nas. Well maybe in a Big L capacity

Not sure where you going with this comparison. Pun first album sold because it had one of the biggest singles of the year period not just rap. It also had street buzz because of shyt like Beware, You Ain't A Killer and Twinz was generally considered one of the best albums that year. His second album didn't have a hit and the quality suffered because of his health. Didn't have near the buzz that IWW had.

Flip side, Illmatic was a street classic the moment it dropped but it had no crossover songs so it didn't sell a ton. It Was Written had a street buzz because of Illmatic but also a mainstream buzz because If I Ruled The World was a huge lead single. Street Dreams was at last as big as the follow up. So yeah if Nas had passed right around the time If I Ruled The World dropped the album would have been even more successful because it would have had even more publicity.