Actually Biggie transition from RTD to LAD is not the same as NaS from ILLmatic to I.W.W.
It is not the same, but it is similar...
NaS did a complete 180 where as Biggie just expanding his formulas.
Nas didn't do a "complete 180" as you put it...He expanded just as you concluded with Biggie...
"Ready To Die" still had the club bangers in the mist of the grimey tracks.
Dude there are no "club bangers" on Ready To Die...The concept of "club banger" as we know it today, and as you are referring to, did not exist back in the 90's...
Would you call "Protect Ya Neck" "All I Need" "Ice Cream" "Shimmy shimmy ya" and etc "Club Bangers"...? What about "Quiet Storm"...? According to hip hop historians, and people who lived through it, "Quiet Storm" wrecked the Tunnel (a club) when Mobb Deep released it...
The song was so hot it propelled the Mobb to platinum status...There were NO "club bangers" as we know it today...Hot songs were just hot songs...
"One more Chance" which you are probably referring to, was just a less edgy song that did well in the club, because it had a slow RnB beat, and people could slow dance it when the party was closing down...
Ready To Die has 16 tracks, and of the sixteen tracks, "One more chance" is the only so called club banger that you are referring to, okay, I will give you "Juicy" too..So, 2 out of 16 tracks are so called "Club Bangers"...That's only 12.5% of the album...
Where as "ILLmatic" basically had no club records on it then he had the more flossy sound on "I.W.W.".
The same argument can be used for "Ready To Die" and "Life After Death"...Those two albums DO NOT have the same sound as you alluded to, in your argument against the Nas albums...
"It was written" doesn't have any "Club Bangers" on it...The album was carried by "If I ruled the world" and "Street Dreams"...These songs can hardly be called "Club Bangers"...
Nas didn't do a 180 as you put it...He was "dreaming" a little bigger...On "Illmatic", he is a young dude looking out his window and fantasizing on a hood level...On "It was written," he has matured a little bit, and he is "dreaming" on a global level...On "It was written" Nas realizes that QB is not the beginning and the end of the world...There is a bigger world beyond those project walls...
In other words, he is "expanding" his horizon as you argued for Biggie..."It was written" was just ahead of it's time, in the sense that, (1) hip hop in a stage were, the grimmey NYC sound was being challenged by a more advanced brighter NYC sound, producers were becoming more creative (2) Nas was pushing forward, but the fan base was not ready for it...They wanted a couple of more "Illmatics" before letting Nas go...
I personally loved the album when it came out but even back then I knew it wasn't better than "ILLmatic". Purist did go overboard with hate but NaS did again make a huge 180 turn. The reason Biggie didn't get the same criticism is the fact he gave us the "Big Poppa's, and One More Chance's". Which was no different than "Hypontize and Mo, Money, Mo Problems". Had NaS did a few flossy records or polished sound on "ILLmatic" then it wouldn't of been a huge change to "I.W.W.". Also Critically "Life After Death" got way better reviews than "I.W.W." actually the reviews were on par with his debut. Where as I.W.W. got way less reviews scores than "ILLmatic"
Biggie didn't get that hate because (1) he died..."Life After Death" really is a trash album...How many people who are not Biggie fans even talk about that album...? Even in The Coli, we hardly discuss this album, unless somebody brings it up in an unrelated discussion...For example, this thread was about "It is was written," but because I made the comparison, we are talking about Life After Death...
LAD is a sympathy win for Biggie...That album was NOT that good...Especially when you consider the album that preceded it...
Think about it, most casual Nas fans will pick "It was written" over most Nas albums most of the time...But a casual Biggie fan like me will pick RTD over LAD, like many more casual Biggie fans would...
LAD was NOT that good...It was a commercial success, but Biggie's talent was not put into good use...Biggie was a dark irony with a little twist of a sick sense of humour type of rapper...I was glad that even Kanye West alluded to this in one of his recent rants...
That flashy stuff, I really don't think Biggie "naturally" wanted to do it...
The change from RTD to LAD is night and day to me...I was young at the time, but all I remember from that time, is the hype of "missing you," and I think that song helped to sell LAD, in unison with Biggie's untimely demise...
LAD is forgettable without the historical context of its release...
played it about 50 times first time i heard it. That beat 
