It was written is a great album, but man i can't lie i was hating on that shyt hard when it dropped...
this is basically how i feel about this album.
i can understand how ppl can honestly say they like IWW more than Illmatic now in retrospect, but you gotta admit that you were disappointed at least at first. there's nobody alive that actually listened to Illmatic before IWW that can say they weren't at least slightly disappointed with IWW when it dropped.
all i can remember is me and alotta other cats i know copping IWW the day it dropped and being disgusted with it and dubbing it and taking it back to the store the next day. we were disappointed as fukk. it was like after Illmatic, he makes this? disappointing tracks like "Street Dreams" and "Nas Is Coming"? with that horrible hook? dre allowed that?
from what i remember seeing alotta ppl that really enjoyed the lp were the same kids who didn't know who Nas was til "If I Ruled The World" hit the radio and MTV, not all of them were newjacks, but the majority of the kids i knew who bought IWW were, that's why IWW was sold like it did. shyt i remember kids (mostly white boys) in school fukking his name up at first all the time on some "nah man, his name is pronounced Nazzz".
shyt was sad...
in retrospect, IWW is a great album, but at the time it came out it was a major disappointment to me and alotta other ppl. i just wasn't expecting that sudden change in beat selection and lyrical content. that tape dub of IWW didn't get much play for awhile either, i just went back to rocking the America Is Dying Slowly compilation, nutty professor soundtrack and the great hype soundtrack and kept it moving. (sidenote: man i miss the days of dope hip-hop movie soundtracks and compilations.)
to be honest though, i was in full blown "Keep It Real" mode back then so it took me awhile to get outta my timbz and fatigues backpacker mode before i could truly appreciate the greatness of It Was Written.
and as far as Reasonable Doubt, back then he was merely "that nikka who sampled Nas for his song and had B.I.G. in his video" to me and my boys. we weren't fukking with his playboy mafioso pimp shyt back then... that's another lp i didn't fukk with at first because i didn't like dude's style and initial singles.
and what the fukk was up Jay him putting those umlauts on his name? Jaÿ-Z, really?
y'all remember that? glad he wised up and dropped that stupid shyt. but word to '96, there were so many dope albums that dropped that year. shyt my pockets were getting emptied all year round.
