Ryan Moore

Ryan Reviews: It Was Written (1996) by Nas

As the second generation of Queensbridge hip hop came to fruition in the first half of the 90s, the leader of that new generation, Nas, gave the world an absolute gift in 1994, dropping his debut album Illmatic. Needless to say, after how influential Illmatic was from the get-go, Nas created a high standard for himself, but was able to capitalize off of Illmatic’s success and, two years later, came back with one of the better sophomore albums in hip hop history. On July 2, 1996, It Was Written was released, like its predecessor, on Columbia Records. And while it isn’t quite on the same overall level as Illmatic, it’s a fantastic follow-up for which Nas deserves eternal credit.