Official Nas Thread

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spliz

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Piff Perkins said:
But they were opposite ends. There is nothing commercial about Stakes Is High, it got virtually zero radio play and wasn't trying to get radio play. It Was Written was literally crafted to get Nas more commercial success after Illmatic. Sure...Stretch and Havoc are on the album. But the dominant sound are the Trackmasters. Including a single with singing on the hook - something that "real" hip hop fans loathed at the time. And a disco sample (Street Dreams) that "real" hip hop fans disliked. And JoJo on a hook (Black Girl Lost). None of this matters to ME but we are talking about east coast, NY "real rap" nerds who still had a lot of influence at the time and the label they put on that album sticks to this day. And I get it....you can listen to IWW's drums compared to any noteworthy "real" rap album from 95 (OB4CL for instance) and immediately tell the difference in sound. But is the album dope or not? Yes. So many of these types won't really answer that question in any logical way.

Today nobody cares and what we view as dope or "hip hop" shifted. And guess what, IWW aged very well because it was ahead of that shift. So when I hear 9th Wonder praise Rick Ross beats over the last decade I want to bust out laughing because those drums/snares are way closer to IWW than Illmatic. In fact I've heard multiple people praise Ross who shyt on IWW. Guru, Jay, Clark Kent (RIP), Pete Rock...there was like a ten year period where every time Ross dropped an album with some of those types of tracks (example: Santorini Greece) he got praised by the Coli and all the guys who disliked IWW years earlier.
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Tell me. What’s the difference between G Rap’s Fast Life and anything on IWW? How many people criticize Fast Life? And that was 95. Do u know how many hip hop albums dropped in 96? Yet IWW gets to be the scapegoat? Nah I’m not buying it. At all.
 
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spliz said:
Tell me. What’s the difference between G Rap’s Fast Life and anything on IWW? How many people criticize Fast Life? And that was 95. Do u know how many hip hop albums dropped in 96? Yet IWW gets to be the scapegoat? Nah I’m not buying it. At all.
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You know whats funny? IWW is talked about as the scapegoat of mafioso albums and we (rightfully) talk about the unfair criticism it got, but with all the backpack nerds crying and bytching about it, It Was Written was one of the most successful albums of the year and THE most commercially successful mafioso album of all time. It spent 4 CONSECUTIVE weeks at number 1 on the Billboard 200. Something that the Fugees, Outkast, and 2pac didn’t do. Nas NEVER brags about that or being the first solo New York rapper to debut at number 1 (NOT Biggie. NOT Rakim. NOT Jay-Z) but if he really wanted to talk his shyt It Was Written is his forever trump card.
 
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