People unfairly hate on Nas' It Was Written..........

[Don Seer]

yeah teecee is on point.. to be honest it too me a while to get into illmatic at first, because of the beats. same with ready to die.. now i appreciate them both.

i always liked it was writted "affirmative action" is tight as hell.. the tracks are a lot more polished/commerical on this album that on illmatic. even Dre drops a beat on here.. and i believe this is the start of Nas hooking up with trackmasters, IMO they produced the weaker tracks (but produced one or two nice ones.. so much its hit n miss..) (they also did the wack shit on the firm project.. arggggggg).  

nas switched up on the themes he was covering too..  it was quite a diversion from illmatic.

[Leggy Hendrix]

always felt this album, not as much as Illmatic but its still a classic imo.

Silent Murder is one of my faves from this cd

[Kill]

i basically agree with what tecee said. I still don't like the way Nas went from his poetic street narrator style to tryina act 'gangsta' or whatever u wanna call that Nas Escobar shit, but i agree on the lyrics bein very strong on this album too. As for production IWW had ups ("The Message", "Affirmative Action") and downs ("Nas Is Coming", one of Dre's weakest tracks ever) IMO, but overall it was good too. IWW was a lot more radio friendly than his debut, but it wasn't a bad album at all, people just hate on it because of Illmatic

[Young Dan Iza]

yeah i cant believe people hated on this album prolly cuz it was nuthin like illmatic, black girl lost is one of the best tracks nas ever did

[smartass]

it deserves all the hate it gets, and if you were around when it was released, you would know why. the only thing improved on this album was flow. he went from pete rock to trackmasters, what an idiot. illmatic will always be his best album.

[teecee]

Hey smartass, i was around and a huge fan of Illmatic-nas, and when IWW dropped i took it for what it was, an album full of hits(If i Ruled the World, Street Dreams) and great songs (The Message, Take it in Blood, I Gave U Power)....

And pete rock only did one song on Illmatic, but i get your point.  He went from TRUE hiphop to trackmasters, although the Trackmasters actually produced some very good songs on te album.  If you dont like The Message, you got problems.

[LyRiCaL_G]

im sure trackmasters did the message...........one of the sickest joints ever made....by any rapper.......

[hector]

dope album and only Nas album I listen to.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

Illmatic shits all over It Was Written. The beats and rhymes on Illmatic are consistantly much better than on It Was Written. I've bought IWW twice now, having repurchased it last year thinking I was prehaps too dismissive of the album in my youth, I realised I still had to skip through half the album, and traded it back in within a month or so. I just can't listen to the album all the way through, whereas Illmatic I can easily just pop in my cd player and listen from start to finish.

[Juronimo]

When it was written came out, I wasn't into it right away due to Nas trying to be a mobster. That turned me off to it a bit but I didn't really listen to it initially. I think I listened to it once and I let someone borrow the tape (big mistake) and it was quickly eaten.

The funny thing is, I wasn't into Illmatic right away either due to the beats. They're both tight albums and I appreciate them both more than when I first heard them, but compared to what was being released in that time period, I don't think either of those albums stack up against the best albums that came out during that period, IMO.

For me, Stillmatic is my favorite Nas album.

[N-Sane Brain]

...They're both tight albums and I appreciate them both more than when I first heard them, but compared to what was being released in that time period, I don't think either of those albums stack up against the best albums that came out during that period, IMO...

Agreed.

...For me, Stillmatic is my favorite Nas album...

Agreed again. "Illmatic" isn't a classic in my opinion, I don't like the beats very much and I think his lyrical ability grew with the time and he spits fire on "Stillmatic". Just thinking of "Rewind"

[Darksider]

im sure trackmasters did the message...........one of the sickest joints ever made....by any rapper.......