It Was Written better LYRICALLY then Illmatic??

[Hallbanger]

this is a great question. unlike the last song on illmatic, this answer is hard to tell *pats self on back* i'd have to say as a whole, illmatic was probably overall better lyrically. i think it was written had couple of his best verses (the set-up, shootouts, The message), but it also had a couple average ones (street dreams.) So overall, i gotta say illmatic, but its damn close

 

[ArtsyGirl]

Both albums are great and they represent the times they were made really well. Theres nothing you can take away from Illmatic, its gotta be considered a perfect album. I love It Was Written, I think Nas progressed from Illmatic really well with this album and apart from a few songs it should be considered near perfect.
But its hard to compare the two purely based on lyrics theres so much more to take into account.

 

[GhettoStar]

All I know is I can see why some of these magzaines could say lyrically that IWW is better then Ill. Espcially in terms of the verstility presented in eahc track while Illmatic was more one style of rap in terms of content(except for One Love). You had such songs as Affrimative Action, The Message, I Gave you Power, If I ruled the World, Black Girl Lost as some examples of Nas' growth as an overal good MC other then a gritty street rapper who spoke only gritty stree poetry with a couple of big words. I think many people find Illmatic better due in part it was shorter, more gritty and raw.


pretty good read:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Was_Written

 

[roaches]

You had such songs as Affrimative Action, The Message, I Gave you Power, If I ruled the World, Black Girl Lost as some examples of Nas' growth as an overal good MC other then a gritty street rapper who spoke only gritty stree poetrOy with a couple of big words.

Any errors = OHHLA's fault:

Nas on "Affirmative Action":
Yo, my mind is seein through your design like blind fury
I shine jewelry sippin on crushed grapes, we lust papes
and push cakes inside the casket at Just wake
It's sickenin, he just finished biddin upstate
And now the projects, is talkin that somebody gotta die shit
It's logic, as long as it's nobody that's in my clique
My man Smoke, know how to expand coke, and Mr. Coffee
Feds cost me two mill' to get the system off me
"Life's a Bitch," but God-forbid the bitch divorce meh
I'll be flooded with ice so hellfire can't scorch me
Cuban cigars meetin Foxy at Demars
Movin cars, your top papi Senor Escobar

How is this growth from what Nas was talking about on Illmatic? The
only thing different is that now he's biting Raekwon just like every other rapper was at the time.

"The Message"
Fake thug, no love, you get the slug, CB4 Gusto
Your luck low, I didn't know til I was drunk though
You freak niggaz played out, get fucked and ate out
Prostitute turned bitch, I got the gauge out
96 ways I made out, Montana way
The Good-F-E-L-L-A, verbal AK spray
Dipped attache, jumped out the Range, empty out the ashtray
A glass of 'ze make a man Cassius Clay
Red dot plots, murder schemes, thirty-two shotguns
Regulate wit my Dunn's, 17 rocks gleam from one ring
Yo let me let y'all niggaz know one thing
There's one life, one love, so there can only be one King
The highlights of livin, Vegas style roll dice in linen
Antera spinnin on Milleniums, twenty G bets I'm winnin them
Threats I'm sendin them, Lex with TV sets the minimum
Ill sex adrenaline
Party with villians, a case of Demi-Sec to chase the Henny
Wet any clique, with the semi-tech who want it
Diamonds I flaunt it, chickenheads flock I lace em
Fried broiled with basil, taste em, crack the legs
way out of formation, it's horizontal how I have em
fuckin me in the Benz wagon
Can it be Vanity from Last Dragon
Grab your gun it's on though
Shit is grimy, real niggaz buck in broad daylight
with the broke Mac it won't spray right
Don't give a fuck who they hit, as long as the drama's lit
Yo, overnight thugs, bug cause they ain't promised shit
Hungry-ass hooligans stay on that piranha shit

What's special about this verse? Content-wise, it sounds about the same as, say, "Represent".

I peeped you frontin, I was in the Jeep
Sunk in the seat, tinted with heat, beats bumpin
Across the streat you was wildin
Talkin bout how you ran the Island in eighty-nine
Layin up, playin the yard with crazy shine
I cocked a baby 9 that nigga grave be mine, clanked him
What was he thinkin on my corner when it's pay me time
Dug em you owe me cousin somethin told me plug him
So dumb, felt my leg burn, then it got numb
Spun around and shot one, heard shots and dropped son
Caught a hot one, somebody take this biscuit 'fore the cops come
Then they came askin me my name, what the fuck
I got stitched up and went through
Left the hospital that same night, what
Got my gat back, time to backtrack
I had to drop so how the fuck I get clapped
Black was in the Jeep watchin all these scenes speed by
It was a brown Datsun, and yo nobody in my hood got one
That clown nigga's through, blazin at his crew daily
The 'Bridge touched me up severely hear me?
So when I rhyme it's sincerely yours
Be lightin L's sippin Coors, on all floors in project halls
Contemplatin war niggaz I was cool with before
We used to score together, Uptown coppin the raw
But uhh, a thug changes, and love changes
and best friends become strangers, word up

This verse is kind of a narrative, I guess. The one on "NY State of Mind" is vastly superior to this, though.

"I Gave You Power" gets no props from me, Pharoahe Monch is one of my favorite rappers. Most people consider this a well-executed concept song, though, so I really can't hold it against him. I can hold his making the concept completely obvious, as if his listeners are idiots, against him, though. Approaching a concept song like that makes it feel very gimmicky.

"Black Girl Lost" is wack. People love to cite this as an example of Nas's growth, how he became socially conscious or whatever. The "The buck that bought the bottle..." couplet has more value than this entire song. This is just a preachier version of a typical song about skeezers. This is the beginning of what made Nas wack.

On Illmatic, he was talking about life in Queensbridge from the perspective of someone living in Queensbridge and what he learned from it. On IWW, Nas was pretending to be some mafioso who wipes his ass with T-bills and pausing for a moment to lecture everyone. That's not a street's disciple, that's a fucking Republican, or a crooked preacher.

 

[Duke]

Any errors = OHHLA's fault:

Nas on "Affirmative Action":
Yo, my mind is seein through your design like blind fury
I shine jewelry sippin on crushed grapes, we lust papes
and push cakes inside the casket at Just wake
It's sickenin, he just finished biddin upstate
And now the projects, is talkin that somebody gotta die shit
It's logic, as long as it's nobody that's in my clique
My man Smoke, know how to expand coke, and Mr. Coffee
Feds cost me two mill' to get the system off me
"Life's a Bitch," but God-forbid the bitch divorce meh
I'll be flooded with ice so hellfire can't scorch me
Cuban cigars meetin Foxy at Demars
Movin cars, your top papi Senor Escobar

How is this growth from what Nas was talking about on Illmatic? The
only thing different is that now he's biting Raekwon just like every other rapper was at the time.

"The Message"
Fake thug, no love, you get the slug, CB4 Gusto
Your luck low, I didn't know til I was drunk though
You freak niggaz played out, get fucked and ate out
Prostitute turned bitch, I got the gauge out
96 ways I made out, Montana way
The Good-F-E-L-L-A, verbal AK spray
Dipped attache, jumped out the Range, empty out the ashtray
A glass of 'ze make a man Cassius Clay
Red dot plots, murder schemes, thirty-two shotguns
Regulate wit my Dunn's, 17 rocks gleam from one ring
Yo let me let y'all niggaz know one thing
There's one life, one love, so there can only be one King
The highlights of livin, Vegas style roll dice in linen
Antera spinnin on Milleniums, twenty G bets I'm winnin them
Threats I'm sendin them, Lex with TV sets the minimum
Ill sex adrenaline
Party with villians, a case of Demi-Sec to chase the Henny
Wet any clique, with the semi-tech who want it
Diamonds I flaunt it, chickenheads flock I lace em
Fried broiled with basil, taste em, crack the legs
way out of formation, it's horizontal how I have em
fuckin me in the Benz wagon
Can it be Vanity from Last Dragon
Grab your gun it's on though
Shit is grimy, real niggaz buck in broad daylight
with the broke Mac it won't spray right
Don't give a fuck who they hit, as long as the drama's lit
Yo, overnight thugs, bug cause they ain't promised shit
Hungry-ass hooligans stay on that piranha shit

What's special about this verse? Content-wise, it sounds about the same as, say, "Represent".

I peeped you frontin, I was in the Jeep
Sunk in the seat, tinted with heat, beats bumpin
Across the streat you was wildin
Talkin bout how you ran the Island in eighty-nine
Layin up, playin the yard with crazy shine
I cocked a baby 9 that nigga grave be mine, clanked him
What was he thinkin on my corner when it's pay me time
Dug em you owe me cousin somethin told me plug him
So dumb, felt my leg burn, then it got numb
Spun around and shot one, heard shots and dropped son
Caught a hot one, somebody take this biscuit 'fore the cops come
Then they came askin me my name, what the fuck
I got stitched up and went through
Left the hospital that same night, what
Got my gat back, time to backtrack
I had to drop so how the fuck I get clapped
Black was in the Jeep watchin all these scenes speed by
It was a brown Datsun, and yo nobody in my hood got one
That clown nigga's through, blazin at his crew daily
The 'Bridge touched me up severely hear me?
So when I rhyme it's sincerely yours
Be lightin L's sippin Coors, on all floors in project halls
Contemplatin war niggaz I was cool with before
We used to score together, Uptown coppin the raw
But uhh, a thug changes, and love changes
and best friends become strangers, word up

This verse is kind of a narrative, I guess. The one on "NY State of Mind" is vastly superior to this, though.

"I Gave You Power" gets no props from me, Pharoahe Monch is one of my favorite rappers. Most people consider this a well-executed concept song, though, so I really can't hold it against him. I can hold his making the concept completely obvious, as if his listeners are idiots, against him, though. Approaching a concept song like that makes it feel very gimmicky.

"Black Girl Lost" is wack. People love to cite this as an example of Nas's growth, how he became socially conscious or whatever. The "The buck that bought the bottle..." couplet has more value than this entire song. This is just a preachier version of a typical song about skeezers. This is the beginning of what made Nas wack.

On Illmatic, he was talking about life in Queensbridge from the perspective of someone living in Queensbridge and what he learned from it. On IWW, Nas was pretending to be some mafioso who wipes his ass with T-bills and pausing for a moment to lecture everyone. That's not a street's disciple, that's a fucking Republican, or a crooked preacher.

 

[PELLA]

illmatic

 

[PELLA]

Im feeling Illmatic better... I hardly ever listen to It Was Writtin anymore.. It was still good though... "Affirmative Action", "I Gave You Power", and "Street Dreams" are all good... but in the end I gotta go with Illmatic...

Oh yea, about Nastradamus, am I one of the few people that actually like it? Every1 hates on it sayin its garbage etc., but I actually think its pretty good.. Better then "I Am" but not as good as his others... I think "I Am" was pretty bad except for 3-4 tracks.. wasnt really feelin it ...

id rather give YOU the 20 bucks.

 

[GhettoStar]

Any errors = OHHLA's fault:

Nas on "Affirmative Action":
Yo, my mind is seein through your design like blind fury
I shine jewelry sippin on crushed grapes, we lust papes
and push cakes inside the casket at Just wake
It's sickenin, he just finished biddin upstate
And now the projects, is talkin that somebody gotta die shit
It's logic, as long as it's nobody that's in my clique
My man Smoke, know how to expand coke, and Mr. Coffee
Feds cost me two mill' to get the system off me
"Life's a Bitch," but God-forbid the bitch divorce meh
I'll be flooded with ice so hellfire can't scorch me
Cuban cigars meetin Foxy at Demars
Movin cars, your top papi Senor Escobar

How is this growth from what Nas was talking about on Illmatic? The
only thing different is that now he's biting Raekwon just like every other rapper was at the time.


How is this biting Raekwon?I didn't know Rae was the inventor of self-hype/mafiaiso flows.



"The Message"
Fake thug, no love, you get the slug, CB4 Gusto
Your luck low, I didn't know til I was drunk though
You freak niggaz played out, get fucked and ate out
Prostitute turned bitch, I got the gauge out
96 ways I made out, Montana way
The Good-F-E-L-L-A, verbal AK spray
Dipped attache, jumped out the Range, empty out the ashtray
A glass of 'ze make a man Cassius Clay
Red dot plots, murder schemes, thirty-two shotguns
Regulate wit my Dunn's, 17 rocks gleam from one ring
Yo let me let y'all niggaz know one thing
There's one life, one love, so there can only be one King
The highlights of livin, Vegas style roll dice in linen
Antera spinnin on Milleniums, twenty G bets I'm winnin them
Threats I'm sendin them, Lex with TV sets the minimum
Ill sex adrenaline
Party with villians, a case of Demi-Sec to chase the Henny
Wet any clique, with the semi-tech who want it
Diamonds I flaunt it, chickenheads flock I lace em
Fried broiled with basil, taste em, crack the legs
way out of formation, it's horizontal how I have em
fuckin me in the Benz wagon
Can it be Vanity from Last Dragon
Grab your gun it's on though
Shit is grimy, real niggaz buck in broad daylight
with the broke Mac it won't spray right
Don't give a fuck who they hit, as long as the drama's lit
Yo, overnight thugs, bug cause they ain't promised shit
Hungry-ass hooligans stay on that piranha shit

What's special about this verse? Content-wise, it sounds about the same as, say, "Represent".


So are you saying that this song, content wise, is on par with a song on Illmatic?




I peeped you frontin, I was in the Jeep
Sunk in the seat, tinted with heat, beats bumpin
Across the streat you was wildin
Talkin bout how you ran the Island in eighty-nine
Layin up, playin the yard with crazy shine
I cocked a baby 9 that nigga grave be mine, clanked him
What was he thinkin on my corner when it's pay me time
Dug em you owe me cousin somethin told me plug him
So dumb, felt my leg burn, then it got numb
Spun around and shot one, heard shots and dropped son
Caught a hot one, somebody take this biscuit 'fore the cops come
Then they came askin me my name, what the fuck
I got stitched up and went through
Left the hospital that same night, what
Got my gat back, time to backtrack
I had to drop so how the fuck I get clapped
Black was in the Jeep watchin all these scenes speed by
It was a brown Datsun, and yo nobody in my hood got one
That clown nigga's through, blazin at his crew daily
The 'Bridge touched me up severely hear me?
So when I rhyme it's sincerely yours
Be lightin L's sippin Coors, on all floors in project halls
Contemplatin war niggaz I was cool with before
We used to score together, Uptown coppin the raw
But uhh, a thug changes, and love changes
and best friends become strangers, word up

This verse is kind of a narrative, I guess. The one on "NY State of Mind" is vastly superior to this, though.


Agreed but that song was more meant to be a narrative then this one which only contained one verse(in terms of telling a story) in this type of style (the other more self-hyping showing off his new flows)


"I Gave You Power" gets no props from me, Pharoahe Monch is one of my favorite rappers. Most people consider this a well-executed concept song, though, so I really can't hold it against him. I can hold his making the concept completely obvious, as if his listeners are idiots, against him, though. Approaching a concept song like that makes it feel very gimmicky.


I don't see why it doesn't after all it is very orginal and was not (at least bout the perspective of being a gun/talking from the point of view of a gun) poorly excuted. He made it obvious he was talking from the point of view of a gun and stayed in character the whole time explaining the things he had seen in his life (as a gun). It is very revealing how the gun is not at fault but the owner (which speaks to the whole guns dont kill people, people kill people argument) if Nas meant this or not, you can see this. Although I do feel Me & My Girlfriend is better and more advanced (the fact that I still run into idiots who think he is talkin bout an actaul girl) I still feel this was very well done in terms of what he was trying to set up. So agree with the making the concept appear front against him but don't agree with the gimmicky part




"Black Girl Lost" is wack. People love to cite this as an example of Nas's growth, how he became socially conscious or whatever. The "The buck that bought the bottle..." couplet has more value than this entire song. This is just a preachier version of a typical song about skeezers. This is the beginning of what made Nas wack.



It is not the best but it does show him trying to branch out and grow. Keep in mind Nas (compared to 2pac Chuck D etc.) is not as good making socially concious songs but at least the effort is there(which also shows growth from Illmatic)


On Illmatic, he was talking about life in Queensbridge from the perspective of someone living in Queensbridge and what he learned from it. On IWW, Nas was pretending to be some mafioso who wipes his ass with T-bills and pausing for a moment to lecture everyone. That's not a street's disciple, that's a fucking Republican, or a crooked preacher.



So he wasn't pretending when he said such lines as


Niggaz be runnin through the block shootin
Time to start the revolution, catch a body head for Houston
Once they caught us off guard, the Mac-10 was in the grass and
I ran like a cheetah with thoughts of an assassin
Pick the Mac up, told brothers, "Back up," the Mac spit
Lead was hittin niggaz one ran, I made him backflip
Heard a few chicks scream my arm shook, couldn't look
Gave another squeeze heard it click yo, my shit is stuck
Try to cock it, it wouldn't shoot now I'm in danger
Finally pulled it back and saw three bullets caught up in the chamber
So now I'm jetting to the building lobby
and it was filled with children probably couldn't see as high as I be



fact is every rapper pretends a little bit I hardly doubt Nas shot anybody and made them backflip and was able to get away with that shit. I never said that Illmatic wasn't better then IWW you keep making the argument into that it seems like, I said I could see why people would see that, lyrically, it was better.

yes sir

 

[GhettoStar]

id rather give YOU the 20 bucks.

just saw this hahaha



and I Am>Nastradamus (should have been much better with LES producing most of the tracks and DJ Preimer being on it (his weakest beat))

 

[Four Bars]

Illmatic for me

 

[GhettoStar]

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see the need to compare. I think Illmatic is the better album, but It Was Written is dope. They both have really dope songs. Why bother?

Well you really can't compare anything that Nas' does to Illmatic but in temrs of lyrics you can'.

 

[Franchise2003]

both really great albums lyrically but Illmatic takes it by a mile for me though. Just too many quotables "i never sleep cos sleep is the cousin of death etc....