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It
Was Written
Nas |
"I'm tired of
these niggas, niggas stealing beats" This comes off of
Nas's sophomore album It Was Written, and more directly from
his track "Nas is Coming". This is laughable to
point of unconsciousness. Nas complaining about people stealing
beats is ironic since he is proven guilty of violating this rap
commandment on his album. This is however more funny and trivial
than a detraction. One track where this occurs is actually his best
song on the album and is even better than the Tupac track "All
Eyez On Me" where the beat shows up for the second time
after Tupac sampled the 80's hit "Sweet Dreams".
This is as I said before all trivial, because this CD is very good
and doesn't deserve this kind of nit picking.
Nas's debut album was
in my opinion a legendarily poor effort. It was bland and lacking
in any quality tracks. It Was Written has an abundance of fabulous
tracks, like "Street Dreams", "Nas Is Coming",
"If I Ruled The World", and "The Message".
These tracks have some very un-New York beats, which is a welcomed
surprise since Nas has been known to drop some of the most simplistic
and boring beats you will ever hear. These tracks alone would make
this cd a solid purchase, but Nas has done us one better. He has
actually filled the rest of this album with interesting music. There
are still some strikeouts, like "Shootouts" which
sounds like a Wu-Tang song, and isn't a bad song at all, and has
a very solid plot line, but isn't very innovative. Nas overall is
batting much better on It Was Written.
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The strength of this
album is in the fact that there are more snappy lines from Nas and
it holds your attention much better than Illmatic, wherein
I would find myself nodding off at times. Nas also paints a much
more vivid picture of his life in the hood. There are more tracks
and there are different stories in each song, like "Black
Girl Lost" where Nas raps about girls who are dazzled by
the player lifestyle. He describes how easy it is for black women
to get rapped up in this lifestyle and to be taken advantage of.
Nas displays much more depth and emotion in his tracks, his intro
I think leeks out a lot about his true feelings. This adds much
more relevance to the album as a whole.
Nas still is amazing
on the lyrical tip. He is almost unmatched, he has crafty lines
like Biggie, he is poetic like the Wu-Tang, and dramatic like Tupac.
He brings a lot to the table with his lyrics as he creates a lot
more meaningful music. Nas still is un-amazing however when it comes
to his rapping style. He is not as tight on the mic as he is on
the pen. His style is up-tempo but not hardcore which works with
some of the pure New York baselines. But overall he is nothing special.
This is why its very important for Nas to have many hit tracks because
his raps even though they might be brilliant are boring at times
to listen to.
Thankfully there are
plenty of great tracks on this album, mainly because he has become
more experimental with his beats. Instead of just relying on a simple
baselines repeating over and over he mixes in different sounds,
and even gets a little west coast with the track featuring Dr.Dre.
Overall Nas makes a giant leap up from Illmatic, with this
album, and comes out with some really profound street rap.
Favorite line[s]
"Two sips from being
alcoholic, 999,000 thou from being rich, but now I'm all on it"
This line really drives
home the image of the track "Street Dreams" he
desperately wants to be rich but he is so far from it that its
almost depressing.
"Wishin I could
be the one man, but you juggling too many willies with one hand"
- This line comes from
the track Black Girl Lost, where Nas desires to be with this girl
but her nasty lifestyle proves to be just to much even for Nas.
It's also kinda funny.
Favorite track
"Street Dreams"
This song utilizes a very solid beat and background sounds,
with a splendid story about dreaming about becoming rich, and
smooth as butter lyrical play by Nas. The end result is a masterful
rap song One of the best ever.
Total Tracks: 14
Skipped Tracks: 5
Recommend: Buy it
This effort is better
than Illmatic by a hundred miles. It's so much more diverse,
and is a much better literary rap album than most out there. It
also has a couple huge hits, which alone set this album up for success.
- Sloppy
Joe 
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