1996 Rewind: Remembering Nas’ It Was Written

1996 is one of the most beloved years in hip-hop and R&B, so we’re going to spend all month celebrating its greatness! All 2026, we’re turning the clock back 30 years to review, revisit and relive the most pivotal moments of Black music in that era. And, of course, I’ll be joined by a host of music homies as we debate the best of the best.

Thirty years ago today, history was finally made as we recevied the follow-up to one of rap’s greatest masterpieces. Nas’ It Was Written was no mere rehash of Illmatic, it took Esco into new directions, both creatively and sonically. Some opinions may have been mixed back then but today it’s rightfully celebrated a standout. But is it Nas’ BEST? Ronald Grant is back to reminisce about the day when Nas ruled the world. Imagine that.

Share your earliest memories of It Was Written!

Ron: As with many hip-hop albums from my youth, including In My Lifetime, Vol. 2, The Score, Hell On Earth and ATLiens, I actually listened to the sophomore effort before I listened to the classic debut. In the case of It Was Written, Nas wasn’t on my radar as heavy as Wu-Tang, Biggie, Outkast and Bone were at the time. But upon first hearing It Was Written, I remember being enthralled by Nas’ storytelling, especially on “I Gave You Power.” I also remember playing “The Message”, “Affirmative Action”, “Street Dreams”, “Shootouts”, “Take It In Blood” and “Live N***a Rap” til the cows came home. Mind you, I was 14 and thought I was being oh so rebellious by listening to explicit Hip Hop that my parents heavily disliked, all while attending a college prep high school and a pre-college engineering program. But the mafioso imagery coupled with Nas’ intricate wordplay and compelling production from Trackmasters, DJ Premier, Havoc and L.E.S. throughout It Was Written quickly made it one of my top albums of ’96 and pushed me to go back and listen to Illmatic.

Edd: It may be hard to stomach now, but my strongest memory of the release of It Was Written was that streets were not feeling it in the moment. 103 Jamz, my beloved local radio station in the ’90s, ran a segement called Rock It or Stop It. It allowed listeners to vote on new records as they broke. Rock It meant add it to the radio’s playlist rotation, Stop It means toss it forever, never to be heard again on radio. The 90s were brutal, y’all. You’d think the highly anticipated single from Nas’ even more highly anticipated sophomore effort would be an easy win but NOPE – there were quite a few Stop Its from listeners. Why? Because this a big departure from Nasty Nas, the Illmatic Kid. This was the introduction of Nas Escobar, rap mafioso aficionado. Several people called in to say that “If I Ruled the World” was too glossy, to radio friendly, too R&B for the streets. Didn’t matter, because I loved the single, and I loved the album even more. Despite a few mainstream-leaning cuts, IWW was just as foreboding – and compelling – as its predecessor.  I’d wager to say that if you calculated all the hours I’ve spent listening to this album over the years, it’s one of my most played albums in my collection (for sure top 10). So even when the streets were unsure about it, I never doubted Esco.

Let’s talk best song! Which song did you go with?

Ron: “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)”

Might be an obvious choice, but for me, it could only be the Ms. Lauryn Hill-assisted “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That).” There can be no doubt that “If I Ruled the World” is the hip-hop song of a generation. Nas and Lauryn advanced the art of the Hip Hop/R&B collaboration and set a new standard with it. And it’s not only that the song was likely the most commercially successful song Nas had done to this point, but it was how everything came together seamlessly to make it a high point in ’90s hip-hop. Nas with his aspirational rhymes that were almost folkloric. Lauryn’s honey-coated voice blessing the track with one of the greatest re-imaginings of a hook and soul-stirring ad-libs. Trackmasters sampling Whodini while Lauryn calls back the Kurtis Blow joint from a decade earlier. When we talk about a song being an actual moment, “If I Ruled the World” is undoubtedly that and the best song off Nas’ sophomore effort.

Edd: “I Gave You Power”

Similar to Ron’s note, if you know me, you know No. 1. I have spent decades dissecting the brilliance of “I Gave You Power,” one of the most masterfully written concept pieces in hip-hop. It’s more than just rap wit, it’s a look at the endless cycle of violence in the Black community. And that ending – when the gun itself tries to change its deadly fate, it still winds up in the hands of another, continuing the cycle of death. Add DJ Premier’s haunting production and you have one of the best stories ever told in hip-hop. Correction, THE best.

What’s the most underrated track?

Ron: “Take It In Blood”

I’m gonna roll with “Take It In Blood” for this one. To me, Nas has always had a distinct ability to bridge the musical gap between generations of hip-hop fans because this sounds like a wild, alcohol and dope money-fueled nighttime romp through the streets of NYC in the 80s reimagined for ‘96. I feel like this is a track that Nas chose to intentionally move himself further away from what he did on Illmatic. It’s as if Nas knew firsthand all the praise he was getting from so-called purists and made a last-minute sharp left at the light into more commercial territory and didn’t give a damn. Nas does some of his most intricate, eclectic word play on “Take It In Blood” over a sparse but crisp, hard-hitting Live Squad beat. It’s one of Nas’s most stellar deep cuts.

Edd: “Shootouts”

“Take It in Blood” and “Shootouts” are basically 1A and 1B for me in the Most Underrated convo. Since Ron hit the former, allow me to celebrate the latter. According to legend, this track of murderous intent is at least loosely based on a true story. Esco is the hip-hop Francis Ford Coppola as we waxes poetic about crazy confrontations with unfaithful women and cops. And once again, the Trackmasters chef up another beat that perfectly captures the atmosphere.

Best production goes to…

Ron: “Shootouts”

“Shootouts” takes the cake. At first, I was leaning towards “The Set Up” because Havoc deserves more praise for his production. And “The Set Up” is 90s boom bap production in its finest form. But the truth is that “Shootouts” is a major standout on It Was Written in terms of production, lyrics and storytelling. Poke & Tone tapped into an underlying, impending sense of frantic yet melodic unease. The production on “Shootouts” might be the most cinematic across the entire album, allowing Nas to weave a story of intrigue, deception and violence that’s also still more commercially viable. In every way possible, Trackmasters delivered and gave Nas one hell of an assist on “Shootouts.”

Edd: “The Message”

Lots of strong contenders for this but no beat has stuck with me over the years like the sample of Sting’s “Shape of My Heart.” The gentle guitar licks transitioning into something much harder – and much bleaker – adds so much to the canvas Nas that paints over on this track. Beautiful, yet menacing. The Trackmasters got way, way, WAYYYYYY too much grief in this era for their so-called pop tracks. Elements of “The Message” may have its roots in pop, but finished version was forged by flames that turned even the most glitzy notes impossibly gully.

Lots of great storytelling on this project, but which song is peak?

Ron: “I Gave You Power”

That’s “I Gave You Power” hands down. We know that the whole “a gun as a person” thing had been done before and would be done a million more times, but when you put the concept in Nas’ hands, it’s bound to become a master work. What makes “I Gave You Power” work so well is that almost never-ending push and pull between the object and the person in the song trying to use it. Nas gives life to the constant struggle between the gun and the owner, how they’re both slaves to each other, and the frustration of a tool being used for its exact purpose but having the desire for something greater. And at the end when we hear the subject say, “Now I’m happy until I feel somebody else grab me…DAMN!” we know that the cycle will only continue for the worse. Nas is in top form as a storyteller on “I Gave You Power”.

Edd: “I Gave You Power”

“I Gave You Power” is one of my favorite songs of all time, so y’all already knew where I stand here. Between my earlier comments and Ron’s addition, I don’t have much to add, other than this:

He pulled the trigger, but I held on, it felt wrong
Knowing n****s is waiting in hell for him
He squeezed harder, I didn’t budge, sick of the blood
Sick of the thugs, sick of wrath of the next man’s grudge

Those four bars have done more to break down the roots of  violence in our community – from the culture of retaliation to the community itself fighting to break the cycle –  than any 20 page reddit dissertation ever could.

Who gave us the best feature performance?

Ron: Cormega on “Affirmative Action”

Easy choice for me… Cormega on “Affirmative Action.” I get the impression that the song itself is sometimes overlooked as a posse cut, which is a mistake. AZ and Nas start the tack off with respectable verses on their part. But the song truly belongs to Foxy and Cormega because we hadn’t heard much from either of them at that point. Cormega especially.  If you didn’t know him as a lyricist prior to this verse, you damn sure knew his name and his style after “Affirmative Action.” He’s battle-tested, he’s hungry, and he’s more than willing to thrash and one-up everyone on the song, regardless of whether they’re in his crew or not. I didn’t know Cormega like I knew Foxy, AZ and Nas back then, but I knew a standout verse when I heard it:

Criminal thoughts in the blue Porsche, my destiny’s to be the new boss/
That n***a Paulie gotta die, he’s too soft/
That n***a’s dead on a ki of heroin, They found his head on the couch with his d*** in his mouth/I put the hit out/
Yo, the smoothest killer since Bugsy, b****es love me/ In Queens where my drugs be, I wear Guess jeans and rugbies…

Apart from Foxy, no featured guest on this song, or on the album for that matter, was spitting like Cormega. It Was Written might’ve been Nas’ album, but “Affirmative Action” was Cormega’s moment.

Edd: Lauryn Hill on “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)”

This is actually a tough one. Cormega’s “Affirmative Action” verse is an immediate standout that had me so excited for his career (and equally had me so sad in 97 when he didn’t appear on the Firm project); JoJo being JoJo on “Black Girl Lost,” Prodigy dropping quotables on “Live N**** Rap” (“Inside my rap cookbook, paragraphs is gourmet/You pay about five thousand a plate”) but none of those features have stood the test of time like Ms. Lauryn Hill. Nas and Lauryn was a surprising paring in 1996 – as a I said above, “If I Ruled the World” was Nas’ first true radio hit and rocketed him to another level of stardom. And for the 11^th graders among us who love to assume that Lauryn’s resume is regulated to one LP in 1998, this showcased just how wide her range was long before her hit album.

Foxy Brown’s infamous verse on “Affirmative Action” – brilliant or nonsense?

Ron: Oh, my dear, dear Foxy Brown. The truth is that Foxy’s verse on “Affirmative Action” is impeccable… until you get to the end. She sounds hungry, confident bordering on arrogant, controlled, and more than holds her own with Nas, AZ and Cormega. She proves herself to be an amazing lyricist, she’s fully leaning into her mafioso persona, and her ending verse sets “Affirmative Action” up to be a pillar in further evolution of Coke rap. Plus, she was still a teenager at the time, so give her flowers for that. But then comes the math. I feel like the end of this verse walked so that the phrase “the math ain’t mathin” could run, because, WHAT??? I’m not saying that we should expect Foxy to be a Certified Public Accountant when it comes to rattling off complex cocaine numbers and calculations, but she lost me completely after “Double it times 3”. While the verse itself isn’t nonsense and displayed Foxy’s skillful abilities, we all learned not to call on Foxy to help us make any major money decisions.

Edd: Look playa, the reason I got into writing was to AVOID having to do whatever hood calculous Foxy was dreaming up on “Affirmative Action.” There was a pretty infamous social media thread a few years back that allegedly proved that Foxy’s math was correct but her endless double talk just has me lost. Example: does “Now triple that — times three” mean triple 250,000 OR does it mean triple 250,000 and then three additional times?  Don’t mind me, I got a D- in Ill Na Na Economics.

“Street Dreams” Remix or “Silent Murder” – which bonus song would you add to the full album?

Ron: “Silent Murder”

Give me “Silent Murder” over the “Street Dreams” Remix. Any time I can get a bonus storytelling rhyme from Nas, I’ll take it. Besides, the updated verse on the “Street Dreams” Remix never sat well with me. There’s just something off an unaligned about it that doesn’t fit with the rest of the song. Besides, “Street Dreams” is already such a great track that didn’t need to be tampered with. I think that Nas leans even more into trying to depart from what he did on Illmatic with “Silent Murder” similarly to “Take It In Blood”. There’s a curious wispy, orchestral feel to the production as Nas proceeds to ride the boom bap drums, which makes for a curious by enjoyable listen. It fits well with the rest of the album, and I feel like it could rest well between “Live N***a Rap” and “If I Ruled the World” to close It Was Written out.

Edd: “Silent Murder”

I guess I’m a much bigger fan of the Streat Dreams Remix than the homie Ron, even though I’m probably not allowed to say that now (for obviously pissy reasons). But for a moment it was my preferred version of the record, largely because I overplayed the OG track more than a Tyler Perry production on BET. It was fresh, different yet still dope. However, we’re not talking personal preference, we’re talking about what’s the best fit for the album and “Silent Murder” is easily the superior choice. The orchestral tones married with the gritty boom bap is the perfect fit for another mafioso styled masterpiece. Very dope track.

Is It Was Written better than Illmatic?

Ron: Yes, it is. My opinion is that Illmatic is the greatest debut album in hip-hop history. That’s my story and I’ll pretty much always stick to it. But if we’re being honest, It Was Written is a more mature, conceptual, story-driven and imaginative body of work, even if it is far more mainstream. It’s Nas upping the ante and taking risks that a lot of Hip Hop purists didn’t like. But they were calculated risks that allowed him to expand his sound, his storytelling abilities and his audience. Where Illmatic was more gritty, honest, youthful and underground, It Was Written was made for the purpose of creating more of a musical atmosphere. When it comes right down to it, It Was Written was Nas’ great leap forward out of his Queensbridge comfort zone and into a space where people were starting to consider him more than just a dope lyricist, but a great artist. No matter how much fans wanted him to stay in his battle rap-driven Nasty Nas persona, the Nas Escobar alter ego had to emerge and take his place. But hey, the Illmatic vs. It Was Written debate will probably rage on forever, anyway.

Edd: Not at all. And look, I don’t fault anyone like the homie Ron who prefers It Was Written to Illmatic. IWW is a much more assessable album than its predecessor. The production is more diverse, the R&B features give it a more widespread appeal, and the mafioso influences still has its fingerprints all over modern hip-hop. Illmatic is jazzier, much more lyrically dense and lack the frills that are commonplace for today’s rap projects. But in terms of quality, it’s really no contest. The worst tracks on Illmatic – a phrase that pains me to write, to be honest – clear nearly half the tracks on IWW.  “One Time 4 Your Mind” absolutely obliterates “Nas is Coming,” for example. But don’t get me wrong – I’m not here to bash IWW. It’s one of Nas’ greatest achievements and one of rap’s best albums. It’s just not better than the greatest rap album of all time. Nothing is.

Nas fans, time to pick your side. Did Ron or Edd get it right? Show your love for It Was Written below!