Complex: The making of It Was Written

[Asdfhhklpiyrewss]

The Making of Nas' "It Was Written" | Complex

Featuring Nas, Trackmasters, Steve Stoute, Prodigy, Premier and more

Some highlights:

Black Girl Lost

Nas: “I was still working on ‘Black Girl Lost Part II’ when it leaked. I make sequels to records but we don’t plan to put them out unless they are the records. I was working on a sequel to ‘Shootouts’ and a couple other records from that album too. I was working on another song, ‘Small World Part II.’ I don’t really have sequels, I did ‘N.Y. State of Mind Part II’ so that’s the only one I put out on a record.

“My other sequels never made an album. I never released them because they couldn’t top the first one. If I could top the original then I would put it on an album. ‘Black Girl Lost Part II’ would have originally been on the album but I never got back to fixing it and I’m too busy with other records. I don’t see where it could fit.”

The Message

Nas: I saw Jay-Z driving a Lexus with the TVs in them. I got rid of my Lexus at that point and I was looking for the next best thing. It wasn’t a shot at Jay but it was just saying that’s the minimum you gotta have. It’s not a shot at him but he inspired that line. It wasn’t necessarily a shot at him but because the song was a shot at everybody, he fell into that. But he definitely inspired that line

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I Gave You Power

Tone: “I always wanted to take the part off the record, where he goes, 'It’s like I’m a gun.' I didn’t want him to give the hook away. I always wanted him to take that out but we never took it out."

Nas: “I was struggling with the fact that people wouldn’t get it [that’s why I said I was a gun in the intro]. I underestimated that the audience thinking they wouldn’t get what I was talking about. They were telling me, ‘They gonna get it.’ And I’m like, ‘No, they’re not going to know.’ So I kept it there.”

If I Ruled The World

Nas: I was supposed to be on the The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill album but I was caught up with whatever and I never made it to the sessions. That’s one of my greatest regrets with music. I was getting the calls to come rap on the album and something was always happening at the time when I got the call. Lisa Ellis of Sony always used to tell me, ‘Man you fukked up, you’re supposed to be on that album.

 

[Gifted one]

Great read, one of the best albums of the 90's

 

[HNIC973]

lol@Jungle pulling a gun on Steve

 

[Ziggiy]

EXCELLENT read

 

[spliz]

Basically ALL that shyt I was sayin in the other threads about this shyt..is what these nikkas is sayin about it...

 

[ℒℴѵℯJay ELECTUA]

subs

daps

 

[threattonature]

That is funny him admitting that Jay-Z inspired the Lex with TV sets line. All these years I thought Jay-Z was just inflating his own name at that time since we was largely unknown still at that point.

 

[NigerianDonDada]

“I was nervous all the time. I was mastering and Q-Tip said to me, ‘You’re killing his career.’ I was so nervous about that. Q-Tip was so important, Q-Tip was like, ‘This ain’t it.’ Q-Tip [had a big role on Illmatic] but he didn’t produce on It Was Written. Nas is an artist’s artist. My whole thing was I didn’t want him to end up being like Kool G Rap.

“I went into thinking about the launch strategy. I thought he had much more potential than Illmatic because I felt like everybody liked Illmatic but they just wanted him to stay there. But the record had not gone gold at that time. I just want to see this guy win.”-Steve Stoute

 

[TEKBEATZ]

 

[NigerianDonDada]

Playing the album from I-Tunes while reading about each song

 

[Newark88]

Summer of 96, It Was Written and Reasonable Doubt were the only 2 albums bumpin out my whip

 

[Ndiema]

NICE!

 

[Long Live The Kane]

Had Nas listened to the dusty bum purist crowd he'd mess around and still be living in QB right now...Steve Stoute saved his life

 

[ℒℴѵℯJay ELECTUA]

NICE!

is that rock clip from a fight or??

 

[head shots101]

Got to read this lata