Hip-Hop Blasphemy: It Was Written Is Better Than Illmatic (Episode 2)

[Inspect Her Deck]

Yeah.

If instrumental copies of every rap album ever made were released today, I would not pick up a single east coast instrumental album, expect for Ready to Die and It Was Written. Illmatic wouldn't even enter my mind. G-funk is just a superior sound. You can kick back and smoke weed to g-funk beats. You can bump it in your ride. You can listen to g-funk beats while you train. East coast albums only have value because of the rapping. The lyricism is fantastic. The beats aren't bad, they complement the rapping, but if there is no rapping and no lyrics then there's no way I'd listen to boom bap. I would much rather take something by Lil' Half Dead over Illmatic if I had to choose between two instrumental copies.

Although to be fair to the east coast, if a capella versions of every rap album ever made were released, I would load up heavily. Only stuff by 2Pac, Ice Cube and Del tha Funkee Homosapien from the west would make the cut a capella. So I'm not biased. I got much love for both coasts. It's just a fact however that g-funk sounds better than any other type of music.

you would pick up IWW before a Redman album?

 

[Menelik II]

Stop it! So because the people had anointed him with the GOD MC position that meant there was no need to support his first album?!!! So in other words, "the prize for being the best emcee is we won't support your endeavour and buy your album son"

iWW was his second album

 

[Sound (∀√a) Maths]

iWW was his second album

I'm talking about Illmatic's sales at that time (Read my first response to you).

 

[Menelik II]

I'm talking about Illmatic's sales at that time (Read my first response to you).

After ILL and the 93-95 features they crowned him, who gaf about sales ??? (I personally bought ILL 3x fwiw)

 

[the cac mamba]

Im a mafioso head so IWW did more for me than Illmatic. Affirmative action is one of my favorite songs on the album and the way AZ and cormega killed their verses isn't like anything on Illmatic.

i mean, theres one AZ verse like that on illmatic

 

[Sound (∀√a) Maths]

After ILL and the 93-95 features they crowned him, who gaf about sales ??? (I personally bought ILL 3x fwiw)

 

[Menelik II]

I didn't say biting anyone. I said his rhyme style changed in tune with the kinda styles employed by Jay and Rae/Ghost. It was a fusion of sorts. The lyrical spectrum and clarity of Jay mixed with the subject matter and storytelling patterns of Rae/Ghost minus the slang.

I think Bmore hit the nail on the head saying Nas realised he wasn't getting any recognition for Illmatic (relative to his peers) and so he went for the approach that was hot (that street/mafioso/drug rap). Problem is...OB4CL coming out a year earlier and being literally a flawless piece of work in the subgenre meant that Nas had a huge amount to live up to...and failed...not only in failure to match OB4CL for quality but also to live up to Illmatic as a piece of work.

IWW is a great album, I'm not denying that. But worse than Illmatic.

OBCL was a much better piece of work than IWW. Although heads will argue who came with the idea/ subgenre first, Rae did it the best

 

[Menelik II]

this is one of the reasons why I think Lost Tapes is easily Nas's 2nd best release. It's got the feel/heart of Illmatic but more polished.

#realtalk

 

[Asicz]

OB4CL vs. IWW Thread

 

[Still Benefited]

nikkas finally came around to admitting we wasnt lying when we was saying Illmatic had very little impact outside of Ny


nikkas like It was Written because its the first Nas album most of us heard,hard to be impressed by Illmatic which sounds more dated,with less impressive lyricism....you had to be there with Illmatic i guess,glad nikkas finally coming around to admitting they wasnt there


"Bu bu but the world stopped when Illmatic dropped"


Time continues to make me look like one of the genius's/real nikkas,let this be a lesson kids,if nikkas ever try to dismiss u,or call you stupid or a liar on thecoli,and u know u right?just wait em out...theyll drop the act and forget they was tryna bullshyt you sooner or later

 

[AkaDemiK]

It's not better. But nas took his lyricism to another level on IWW. Both are flawless albums.

 

[ISO]

OBCL was a much better piece of work than IWW. Although heads will argue who came with the idea/ subgenre first, Rae did it the best

Man, Rae didn't hold down that album dolo and neither of them created the sub genre

 

[Menelik II]

I think everyone knows it was Rae/ghost

 

[Shadow King]

I honestly still don't get how people say IWW is better than Illmatic

Illmatic is pretty much flawless

Nas was a better MC on IWW
Illmatic was a purer work of art

 

[Menelik II]

Nas was a better MC on IWW
Illmatic was a purer work of art

possibly, though it was his subject matter pre IWW that really made ppl be like

No matter how good the MCing is, when you rapping about "champagne from Sicily" with rnb hooks who really gaf.