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

[Billy Ocean]

I was saying blasphemous in response to the series title and the YouTube vid. It's not a crazy opinion to have but I think Illmatic should be heralded the greater album.

Nah I'm not the biggest hater. I like some of his work. If you wanna discuss discographies against Cube or whatever we can save that for another thread. But you're wrong.

What did I say that was wrong and I'll respond to those comments instead of vague general accusations.

You said IWW was following the precedence of Cuban Linx, but other than the street hustler/gangsta theme I don't see it. Albums aren't very similar sonically.

You also shyt on Watch Dem nikkas but I have yet to meet a Nas fan that doesn't like that track. You're bugging.

And like I've said many a times prior, Nas discography is much better than Cube's. Cube started off strong but the quality of his albums, and his skills as a MC, DRASTICALLY fell off. Nas last album was dope af and he still crafts high quality verses.

 

[Inspect Her Deck]

Let's be reality here. Pac was better at charisma & passion, talking tough, snatching azz and live performance. Dude was a good rapper, not lyrically on Nas level.

Creativity
Flow
Delivery
Lyrics
Story Telling


All go to Nas.

Creativity how? Songwriting? Nope. Delivery? Nope. Storytelling? A wash. Two different styles. Flow probably.

Pac was a better manipulator of lyrics to get his message across. Nas was more technical but the gap there isn't as large as you might think.

 

[SirBiatch]

Post that.

This info is readily available. and frankly, obvious.

The Making of Nas' 'It Was Written'

Tone: And if the music is too hard, we’ve got to put melodic stuff on top of it to bring it back up. That was how we made sure the album had hard appeal but was broad enough that it didn’t discourage white America.

Poke: When you have other rappers saying, “Yo, they’re about to fukk Nas up,” and they’re rappers that you look up to, it’s like, “Oh my God, we’re about to be finished.”

People feel like Nas is almost like their baby, like he’s the rapper of all rappers and you don’t want to see that tarnished. We tried our best not to fukk it up. [Laughs.]

That album is a classic. It stands up against any other classic hip-hop album. It was the benchmark for what Nas is capable of, that he could make big pop records that are also hood records.

the more you know...

but I'm sure you'll come up with something idiotic that's off-topic

 

[Billy Ocean]

Right at this moment donkey faced troll Tochi feverishly searching the internet for anything remotely implying Trackmasters called IWW "poppy". Right exactly at this moment.

 

[pointproven214]

Let's be reality here. Pac was better at charisma & passion, talking tough, snatching azz and live performance. Dude was a good rapper, not lyrically on Nas level.

Creativity
Flow
Delivery
Lyrics
Story Telling


All go to Nas.

lmao

 

[Inspect Her Deck]

You said IWW was following the precedence of Cuban Linx, but other than the street hustler/gangsta theme I don't see it. Albums aren't very similar sonically.

You also shyt on Watch Dem nikkas but I have yet to meet a Nas fan that doesn't like that track. You're bugging.

And like I've said many a times prior, Nas discography is much better than Cube's. Cube started off strong but the quality of his albums, and his skills as a MC, DRASTICALLY fell off. Nas last album was dope af and he still crafts high quality verses.

I was talking thematically not sonically. But it wasn't just Nas a bunch of albums were heading in that direction, spearheaded of course by the unmatchable Cuban Linx.

I'm not a Nas fan to that degree and even if I was, I can dislike a track lol wtf. It's one of the weaker tracks on the album. Beat is poor. Lyrics are great because you can trust Nas to deliver there.

Let's not get into Cube vs Nas. It's a losing battle. Cube is in another stratosphere as an MC.

 

[BmoreGorilla]

Nas didn't do the mafioso shyt because of anybody. It was a general trend at the time on the East Coast that was popularized by Kool G Rap and Mobstyle.

He is a Kool G Rap stan, has songs on Illmatic talking about "lamp like Capone", "Uptown was Alpo heard he was kingpin", and "I'm like Scarface sniffing cocaine" has a whole song called The World Is Yours. He was featured on AZ, Kool G Rap, and Raekwon's albums all mafioso albums in '95 and going by Esco on The Infamous.

Nas catching shyt for doing R&B/rap collabs with Jodeci, Lauryn Hill, and R. Kelly but nobody say nothing when Wu-Tang working with SWV and Method Man putting out songs with Mary J. Blige.

Man, foh.

I agree with this. My thing with IWW is you could tell he was trying to make a more cinematic well rounded album. He clearly had a vision. But it also had a couple filler tracks and I think its becuz people complained about how short Illmatic was

 

[spliz]

Ready to Die was the best album of 94 tho why would he get criticism? That's a truly flawless execution of a cinematic album if I've ever seen one.

The real destroyer of hip hop to put it harshly was LAD.

Nas is unfairly criticised for that transition I get that....doesn't change the facts about the main focus of this argument. Illmatic is considerably better than IWW, which has some flaws as an overall work.

I think Illmatic is better but not CONSIDERABLY better. And I don't have a problem with people thinking IWW was better. And this is my point. Biggie or none of Nas' peers got the same criticism Nas did for doing the SAME exact shyt. They all had RnB features. All had hit singles. All had mafioso shyt. Yet people pick apart Nas for no reason. And Nas got snubbed. How u give Nas 5 mics and Biggie didnt. Yet Biggie gets album of the year and worst of all. LYRICIST of the year. Biggie himself didn't think he would get that over Nas.

 

[Billy Ocean]

This info is readily available. and frankly, obvious.

The Making of Nas' 'It Was Written'





the more you know...

but I'm sure you'll come up with something idiotic that's off-topic

" Pop records that are also hood records". Not "poppy". They didn't make poppy music for Nas. They cleaned up the sound and thus made it more palatable, this making it more mainstream. It didn't have a "poppy" sound.

 

[neko_804]

Creativity how? Songwriting? Nope. Delivery? Nope. Storytelling? A wash. Two different styles. Flow probably.

Pac was a better manipulator of lyrics to get his message across. Nas was more technical but the gap there isn't as large as you might think.

As a fellow fan of hiphop I have to respectfully disagree with you.

I see the technical gap wider then you do but hey.

 

[Inspect Her Deck]

I think Illmatic is better but not CONSIDERABLY better. And I don't have a problem with people thinking IWW was better. And this is my point. Biggie or none of Nas' peers got the same criticism Nas did for doing the SAME exact shyt. They all had RnB features. All had hit singles. All had mafioso shyt. Yet people pick apart Nas for no reason. And Nas got snubbed. How u give Nas 5 mics and Biggie didnt. Yet Biggie gets album of the year and worst of all. LYRICIST of the year. Biggie himself didn't think he would get that over Nas.

I feel you bro. As a Cube Stan I understand the whole unfairly living up to expectations thing. Happened to Cube with Predator and Lethal Injection as it did Nas with IWW.

I'm not even critical of Nas for that move. I just don't think it was good enough to merit the plausibility of an argument for its superiority over Illmatic. Lyrically perhaps but as an album/overall work? Nah.

You can prefer it tho. I know Cube fans who prefer Predator over AMW. Doesn't make it better.

 

[pointproven214]

As a fellow fan of hiphop I have to respectfully disagree with you.

I see the technical gap wider then you do but hey.

he ain't pac has better rhymes then nas better wordplay punchlines etc imo

 

[neko_804]

lmao

You know I'm telling the truth.

I gave Pac credit for the qualities he was better at. Did I not?

 

[BmoreGorilla]

I think Illmatic is better but not CONSIDERABLY better. And I don't have a problem with people thinking IWW was better. And this is my point. Biggie or none of Nas' peers got the same criticism Nas did for doing the SAME exact shyt. They all had RnB features. All had hit singles. All had mafioso shyt. Yet people pick apart Nas for no reason. And Nas got snubbed. How u give Nas 5 mics and Biggie didnt. Yet Biggie gets album of the year and worst of all. LYRICIST of the year. Biggie himself didn't think he would get that over Nas.

Hell yea Nas got snubbed and tbh I think Puff prolly paid the Source. But I think Nas got criticism for the growth he showed. I don't really think we understood at the time how people grow as artists becuz we were mad young. Plus hip hop was still young and most rappers came and went with one album. Big came out the gate polished

 

[ISO]

he ain't pac has better rhymes then nas better wordplay punchlines etc imo

Pac doesn't spit punchlines retard