Irv Gotti/Funk Flex interview from last yr; 1 topic: Illmatic vs. Reasonable Doubt

[ThreeSixMafia]

I think they was putting a lil too much sauce on RD. They saying both these albums are the bar. But that shyt was never considered the bar for anything. I guess u can now say witty rhymes n shyt but it wasn't really doing anything new at the time. Aside from Jay spittin his ass off. This is why it was kinda lost in the shuffle against other albums that released that same year. To act like THAT was THE album to compare to Illmatic is even disrespectful to Biggie imo. But I understand Irv's bias considering he helped make the album. Both classics but Illmatic is better for me.

I think illmatic is cool but I'd take reasonable doubt/ready 2 die over it. I don't feel like that's a crazy statement .

 

[spliz]

it was common to give your album out
i had the lke 6-8 joint off R2D in the summer of ‘94 - biggie album drop’d 3 months later

and again them same hip hop purist went out and brought 36 chambers

36 Chambers wasnt looked at like Nas was. Fam I already explained the issues surrounding the Illmatic release. There's really not much else to say. Just say Biggie is the best like I know u want to and let it go bro. Lol.

 

[kingofnyc]

I don't doubt he had buzz in NYC but by 1996 hip-hop was a lot larger than NYC....so an NY artist being hot in NYC....I mean, it's expected.

EDIT:

As far as RIAA it's not about disregarding anything. I'm telling you point blank they don't track shipping in real time....gold/plat/whatever is based on what shipped, not sold....and the RIAA don't even start the audit to determine that until the artist or label pays for it.

So saying something "took 2 years to go plat" or whatever doesn't mean anything in the real world....it's possible the audit wasn't paid for until 2 years later. And it's additional money for each certification, so there's some albums that haven't had their certs updated. So there's no way to tell how much they shipped.

Fred.

respect on the RIAA

but as far as illmatic goes - even irv whom had absolute knowledge of what was selling & not selling talked about the sales this interview

 

[FeloniousMonk]

You had to be there.

When illmatic dropped everybody was like

Nas being one of the most anticipated artists of the new decade.

Unlike Jay who'd BEEN on the scene and been on features..

WAS NOT ANTICIPATED!!

NOBODY WAS CHECKING FOR JAY, PERIOD.

The reason being the reaction to RD

 

[kingofnyc]

36 Chambers wasnt looked at like Nas was. Fam I already explained the issues surrounding the Illmatic release. There's really not much else to say. Just say Biggie is the best like I know u want to and let it go bro. Lol.

breh - this got nothing to do with biggie


i brought up comparables
wu & nas
explain the differences between the 2 ?
(lyrical, street poets spitting fire)


i dunno why nas gets this excuse

 

[FeloniousMonk]

Daam.

So many points to address in that segment.

And Funk Flex is kinda on point, having to stop Irv from rewriting history.

 

[kingofnyc]

You had to be there.

When illmatic dropped everybody was like

Nas being one of the most anticipated artists of the new decade.

Unlike Jay who'd BEEN on the scene and been on features..

WAS NOT ANTICIPATED!!

NOBODY WAS CHECKING FOR JAY, PERIOD.

The reason being the reaction to RD

i dunno why people say this shyt ...

im still figuring this out if nas was one of the most anticipated... why did it take 2 years to just gold

snoop was only one of the most anticipated ... and he sold 600K in his 1st week




i'm not shytten on nas ... im just trying understand yall logic

 

[Mr. Negative]

i dunno why people say this shyt ...

im still figuring this out if nas was one of the most anticipated... why did it take 2 years to just gold

cause everybody had it when it came out

 

[ThreeSixMafia]

i dunno why people say this shyt ...

im still figuring this out if nas was one of the most anticipated... why did it take 2 years to just gold

snoop was only one of the most anticipated ... and he sold 600K in his 1st week




i'm not shytten on nas ... im just trying understand yall logic

I see you got ready 2 die in your Avi. So I cant be the only one who thinks ready 2 die is better than illmatic. I agree with your post.

 

[FreshAIG]

Illmatic but Reasonable Doubt is one of my favorite albums ever, and stands up better than 99% of the other classics from that time from.

 

[spliz]

breh - this got nothing to do with biggie


i brought up comparables
wu & nas
explain the differences between the 2 ?
(lyrical, street poets spitting fire)


i dunno why nas gets this excuse

Nobody got into it the way Nas did. And Wu had a gimmick(dope one) and not all of em was on the same wave. Mad different rhymes styles and personalities while Nas was one emcee and more focused then basically anything before then. It didn't sell as much cause of the reasons I gave u. It was so hot in the streets of NYC most people in the know had the shyt before release. But being real. Wu brought the interest back to NYC, Nas killed the game and Biggie came thru and put it in a ziplock. He sealed the deal.

 

[ThirdAct]

There wouldn't be a Reasonable Doubt without Illmatic.

 

[ThreeSixMafia]

There wouldn't be a Reasonable Doubt without Illmatic.

Reasonable doubt would've came out either way. Rd sounds nothing like illmatic. If you said ready 2 die I could maybe agree with that.

 

[ThirdAct]

Reasonable doubt would've came out either way. Rd sounds nothing like illmatic. If you said ready 2 die I could maybe agree with that.

Yeah it would have come out, but with Jay doing that hippedty lickedty splittedy fast shyt he was doing back in the day. After Illmatic dropped (along with some other joints, RTD like you said, plus also Only Built, Infamous and Doe or Die) and Jay switched his entire shyt up. It's no coincidence that RD also has three Premier beats exactly.

And don't get me wrong, RD is a classic 5 mic album and still my favorite Jay album...but let's not act like other albums didn't pave the way for it.

 

[FeloniousMonk]

i dunno why people say this shyt ...

im still figuring this out if nas was one of the most anticipated... why did it take 2 years to just gold

snoop was only one of the most anticipated ... and he sold 600K in his 1st week




i'm not shytten on nas ... im just trying understand yall logic

They said it because of his verse on 'Live at the bar b que' and Halftime single.

In terms of hip hop purety, I dont think Nas was concerned about record sales and commercial popularity in the way you think anticipated.

You may be looking at it from a commercial standpoint of popularity where sales=demand

Yet Flex did mention Illmatic initiated the bootlegging craze.

The only difference Nas was out on his own signed to a major, Snoop had Dre, to focus on helping establish Deathrow as indie with major backing from Interscope.

Nas was a guy who got a deal, Snoop Dogg was an actual investment.

I can understand where you are coming from, and really the argument is about the impact of the soundscape of emceeing.