Let's actually have a hip-hop conversation for once... Does anybody else have "IWW > Illmatic"?

[Brown_Pride]

Can one of you older guys explain the "sell out" shyt?

what do yu mean explain it? Do you not know what selling out means?

 

[Brown_Pride]

This is an interesting discussion.

First time I ever heard the name "Nas" was in 1997, the year I seriously got into hip hop. I didn't even know It Was Written was Nas's sophomore album until years later: I actually thought IWW was his debut.

Anyway, I loved "The Message" instantly. It really spoke to me, especially the famous "and love changes" part.

The rest of the CD? Boring. I thought "wow this is really well written and I wonder if rap lyrics look this good when written down" (the CD came with rhyme booklets)
But overall I saved The Message and Shootouts - deleted the rest.

I didn't really care for Nas till the absolutely brilliant "Nas Is Like". That shyt was the best stuff I'd ever heard from dude (keep in mind it's 99, and I still don't know Illmatic even exists)

I always wonder: if not for IWW, would I even know Nas existed? Is selling out necessary to make sure your great work doesn't die in obscurity? Do we love Illmatic partly because Nas sold out directly afterward, which makes Illmatic a rare gem?

Then again, would Nas had been bigger if he just stayed true, and let the accolades catch up to him? Sure it's taken 10-20 years to see that Illmatic is the pinnacle of rap, but it's happened nonetheless. Illmatic is so good it makes you reevaluate what hip hop is about. One shouldn't be scared to be a leader

The bolder right there is ill. How you can listen to illmatic then turn the radio on and here some shyt and consider it in the same Genre is beyond me.

I literally got mad today when I heard "Watch Me" come on the hip hop station like, "this isn't even the same type of music."

 

[Mike the Executioner]

That's my SH*T! That laid back track, smooth flow by Nasir.....





"....ya'll ni**as was born, I shot my way out of Mom Dukes..."

A song like this definitely gets underappreciated on Illmatic. The jazzy sample, Nas' easygoing flow, and the whole atmosphere of the song just makes you want to relax.

"Right, right, what up nikkas, how y'all? It's Nasty the villain/I'm still writing rhymes but besides that, I'm chilling"

 

[pointproven214]

A song like this definitely gets underappreciated on Illmatic. The jazzy sample, Nas' easygoing flow, and the whole atmosphere of the song just makes you want to relax.

"Right, right, what up nikkas, how y'all? It's Nasty the villain/I'm still writing rhymes but besides that, I'm chilling"

nas and rakim are alot like in alot of ways they jazz type flows i bet they study music theory and shyt they shyt rhymes perfectly on the kick and snare etc

 

[RichYung]

what do yu mean explain it? Do you not know what selling out means?

No.... I don't.... Everybody has a different idea of what "selling out" means as evidenced in this thread. There's no one way it's held too..... Just wanted to see if people all had the same reasoning.

 

[SirBiatch]

The bolder right there is ill. How you can listen to illmatic then turn the radio on and here some shyt and consider it in the same Genre is beyond me.

 

[SirBiatch]

That's my SH*T! That laid back track, smooth flow by Nasir.....





"....ya'll ni**as was born, I shot my way out of Mom Dukes..."

It's funny that some people consider this the 'weakest' joint when it's one of the few joints that blew me away on first listen. It's so crucial to the whole atmosphere of the album. Like you're sitting next to Nas on a park bench in his natural habitat listening to him rhyme. Makes you look at the album differently (and hip hop as a whole if you're inexperienced).

 

[intilectual recipricol]

Yes of course IWW is better than illmatic, its not even worth debating... the lyrics and production are far better on IWW. only brainwashed herbs think otherwise

Honestly I prefer God's Son, Stillmatic, Life is Good and The Lost Tapes over Illmatic as well. But those are just personal preferences. Illmatic is the perfect album with not a weak bar on it, really can't say the same for any other album I don't think.

he got whole songs of awful bars on illmatic... ever heard NYSOM?

 

[Mike the Executioner]

nas and rakim are alot like in alot of ways they jazz type flows i bet they study music theory and shyt they shyt rhymes perfectly on the kick and snare etc

I think that's what separates emcees like Rakim and Nas from today's rappers. They didn't just understand hip-hop, they understood music. Rakim was a Coltrane fan and played the saxophone while his aunt was an R&B singer. I think he even played live drums on "Juice (Know the Ledge)." Nas' father was a cornetist along with a guitarist and singer. Plus, a lot of the records sampled on Illmatic was what Nas himself had grown up with. They were really in touch with their own records and tried to blend genres together. It was never just hip hop for them. It was funk, jazz, soul, etc.

 

[Asicz]

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