It Was Written -24 year anniversary

Asicz

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I didn't even hear this album until I heard stillmatic, maybe a year after. same is I didn't hear reasonable doubt till like 2 years after vol 1. and my consensus since then is always the same. Rappers might get better over time. But there first joint tells you more about them than anything afterwards. True story one of my best homies had an attempt murder charge on his wife, and was in jail and sent me a letter. so I wrote him back. trying to be all cute and shyt/but just showing him you my nikka and i understand while some things arent humerous, even fukked up shyt can be funny. told him "I left a half a hundred in ya commissary" knowing he would get the reference. This nikka wrote back. :stopitslime: "nikka why you ain't leave the entire hundred" lol. Yeah I fukked up. I guess its not too much shyt funny when you in prison.
You a weirdo breh
 

spliz

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I don't know about IWW being Nas's darkest album. "Street Dreams", "Watch Dem nikkas" don't sound dark at all. Same for "Black Girl Lost". "Take It In Blood", "Suspect", "I Gave You Power" and "Live nikka Rap" are the darkest moments on the album. Maybe "Nas Is Coming" as well.
U get a bright feeling when listening to Watch Dem nikkas? That shyt is somber as hell. Lol. Even The Message is dark sounding.
The Message
I Gave You Power
Watch Dem nikkas
Take It In Blood
Affirmative Action
Suspect
Live nikka Rap
The Set Up
Shootouts
Silent Murder

all dark and somber. The brightest track is Street Dreams. Followed by If I Ruled The World. Black Girl Lost is somber sounding as well.
 

Tallac

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How could I start this?
I was in Africa in 96 when the album got released. Back then, well, in my country, we only had a national TV channel, which was in French, so we were not exposed to US Hip-Hop like that on TV. Radio also only played popular songs. Rich people had satellite TV at the time. Anyway, the channel had a Saturday show at 7:30 pm:mjlol: where they would play top 10 local, top 10 African songs, and top US/Europe stuff and not even the full song.:yeshrug:. So one day I was watching with my cousin, and then boom, they played If I ruled the world, I was like who is this guy on the bus:patrice:. I knew Lauryn Hill because of Fugees the score album was huge. NAS also had a song with NTM, which is one of the most legendary French Hip-Hop groups, and they released a video for Affirmative Action:wow:Man, I was hooked. Later that year, we got cable :takedat: so I was exposed to Street dreams with the pink suit:mjlol: I was in middle school, so I was not balling,could not afford to buy the album, and a CD was like a quarter of my mom's salary:mjcry: and no way my dad would but that for me. Real CDs used to cost like $50, that was like 2 weeks of food:hubie:. I knew some stores where I could get tapes for like $2, so that's how I got It Was Written.:pachaha: I played that album crazy, even got my hair cut like the CD cover:ohlawd::deadmanny:
 

H. Selassie

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All the superlatives that can be said about Nas’s lyricism/storytelling on IWW have been discussed ad nauseam.

What I wanna bring up is how this is Nas’s most swagged out album. On joints like Watch them nikkaz, Take It In Blood, Street Dreams, Suspect...Nas was on some laid back mafioso/hood shyt but lyrically flexing on the everybody at the same time. You can tell his confidence was through the roof as far as where he stood in the game.
 

WhoShotCha

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I don’t put down Illmatic at all. It Nas’ best album imo. BUT. People shyt on IWW like it ain’t ALSO a legendary classic album as well.
Who do you feel like shyts on IWW? Most ppl I know feel like, at worst, its Nas' 2nd best album.
 

spliz

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Who do you feel like shyts on IWW? Most ppl I know feel like, at worst, its Nas' 2nd best album.
Critics. And the media. They been carrying around this impression that Illmatic is Nas’ only album worth a damn really. shyt even when Nas does interviews. He only gets asked about Illmatic unless he’s promoting a specific album. I know this nikka tired as fukk of telling the same ass stories over and over again about the creating of that album.
 

Big Mark

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Here is my IWW (Special Edition CD)

Disc 1
  1. Album Intro
  2. The Message
  3. Street Dreams
  4. I Gave You Power
  5. Watch Dem nikkas (ft. Foxy Brown)
  6. Take It In Blood
  7. Nas Is Coming (ft. Dr. Dre)
  8. Affirmative Action (ft. The Firm)
  9. The Set-Up (ft. Havoc)
  10. Black Girl Lost (ft. JoJo)
  11. Suspect
  12. Shootouts
  13. Live nikka Rap (ft. Mobb Deep)
  14. If I Ruled The World (Imagine That) (ft. Lauryn Hill)
Disc 2
  1. Escobar Season Begins (Freestyle)
  2. Silent Murder
  3. Watch Dem nikkas (Extended Version)
  4. Street Dreams (Remix)
  5. Street Dreams (Extended Version)
  6. Take it in Blood (Alternate Version)
  7. Affirmative Action (Remix)
  8. Escobar 97
  9. Funkmaster Flex (Freestyle)
  10. The Foulness (Freestyles)
 
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