illmatic vs. ready to die

I was creeped out by all the "I've never heard..."'s

I've always been put off Biggie a bit by the fan worship and martyrdom thing, much like I have with 2Pac. I mean, "Hypnotize" rocks with the best of them, but should I invest in "Ready To Die" too?

Life After Death is also a GREAT album.

RTD is more consistent though.
I can't believe anyone would ever question owning RTD.

illmatic is a real slow-burner - took me a while to get over the initially underwhelmed reaction. i'm glad i persevered, because i like the washed-out melancholy. the first half is a lot better than the second, but i still say this is a damn good record.

wtf?! Explain.

Preposterous.

Maybe it's one of those "you had to be there" records that doesn't hit you the same way if you're discovering it after the fact.

But I don't see anything on that album touching what Pete and Primo delivered.

One Love and Represent are weak tracks?!

1. NY State of mind
2. Memory Lane
3. Ain't Hard to Tell
4. World Is Yours
5. Life's a Bitch
6. One Love
7. One time for your mind
8. Halftime
9. Represent

It's like ranking your children etc etc

"Its just works as an album!!!"
hip-hop, of course, not doing so.

Honestly...

1. everything but...
8. Life's a Bitch (the beat is a little sacharine)
9. One Time For Your Mind

In a way that verse is AZ's personal "Illmatic", a debut that is so good it becomes a curse, cuz he's never able to match it.

better?

xpost haha yes. I obv feel the same way about my bottom two or three. Our arguments are so silly. We're all like "I love Illmatic more! No I love it more!"

I love ILlmatic, and I just bought Ready to Die.

a lot different than I expected. not really that poppy at all, very nice production....and of course B.I.G. owns....

oh wow, this thread just reminded me that I woke up early on new year's with a desperate need to hear "Juicy", but then I went back to sleep and forgot about it. now I can finally silence the nagging voice in the back of my head that keeps telling me I've forgotten to do something important

woke up early on new year's with a desperate need to hear "Juicy", but then I went back to sleep and forgot about it

it was all a dream

ready to die, and it's not even close for me.

I always thought illmatic was just nice.

ready to die has three or four of my all-time favorite tracks and illmatic only has a couple so ill go with rtd

"Ready to Die" of course but where is the love for "Halftime" on this thread

No, no, no. Illmatic beats the shit out of that other overrated whatever.

Life's a bitch, and then you die....

They're both perfect, no? Illmatic is slightly more perfect though.

"I hate it when your moms cries" on "One Love" is, in context, the most devastating line, like, ever, I think.

both perfect, fuck choosing one

how about illmatic + ready to die vs. everything else

this could potentially be a good poll thread.

deej2005 is rong about 'life's a bitch'

no he isnt

pffff "saccharine"

capt. save-a-self

ready to die has three or four of my all-time favorite tracks and illmatic only has a couple so ill go with rtd

― max, Thursday, January 3, 2008 2:41 AM (10 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

changing my mind on this one

illmatic is sick beyond sick

this should be a poll

lol was going to start this poll this morning then found this thread

there should be a poll for best challops in Explain Nas' Illmatic To Me

nice to know i'm not the only one who finds "illmatic" fucking dull... hip-hop people always try to tell me it's classic or something, but it just bores me to tears. nas is sub-average on a good day. and i like company flow.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Sunday, October 13, 2002 7:53 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

PS I have been mugged in a subway! Just keepin' it real...
― Ben Williams, Monday, October 14, 2002 12:24 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Are "hunger" and "authenticity" anything like "soul"? coz I can't hear that either.

Also: a neophyte?

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, October 14, 2002 2:49 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I'm getting visions of Nas doing a modified "I'm a little teapot" dance. Too cute.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, October 16, 2002 12:43 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Sterl was like 19, be kind.

totally resisted from posting every s clover post

Need to find the thread where Lex says that the Princess Superstar album with "Bad Babysitter" on is better than "Illmatic"

Haha ben look at the last verse of "Has It Come To This" which has far more metaphors than nas, as well as plenty rhythmic complexity though granted not on lines which you need to cycle breathe to deliver.
I step out my yard through the streets
In the dead heat
All i got's my spirit and my beats
I play fair don't cheat
And keep the gangster's sweet
Turn the page
Don't rip it out at your rage
Move to the next stage
Lock the rage inside the cage
Like SK, it's a new day
But don't take the shortcut through the subway
Its pay or play
These geeza's walk the gangway
Deep seeded urban decay
Deep seeded urban decay
Rip down posters alight from last week's big garage night
And the next Tyson fight
I cook 'em at 90 degrees farenheit
And don't copy the copyright
I got 'em in my sights
Blindin with the lights
Takin 'em to dizzy new heights
Blindin with the lights
Blindin with the lights
Dizzy new heights

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 14 October 2002 16:48 (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Turn the page
Don't rip it out at your rage
Move to the next stage
Lock the rage inside the cage

^^^these are like the rhymes anti-drug dudes kick in "very special school assemblies"

I cook 'em at 90 degrees farenheit
And don't copy the copyright

The takeover, the break's over nigga, God MC, me, Sterling Clover

Sterl was like 19, be kind.

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, November 14, 2008 10:06 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i was 19 in 2002 and never posted such faggotry

who's that ben williams dude? he kinda owned

i was 19 in 2002 and never posted such faggotry

― some dude'n'em (and what), Friday, November 14, 2008 10:24 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

mad stampede to the search function

lol @ "such faggotry"

"and what impudence is this, sterling clover? such blatant faggotry!"

that reads like a poem I would have been given to read and then emulate the style of in 9th grade.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, October 15, 2002 5:12 PM (6 years ago)

1st result on s clover search:

In a word, Sam, "Yes". Although genres are "insubstantial" in the sense that they are ideas, they contain a particular reality as socially defined typified construct. Communities establish themselves as distinctive through their discourse practices. Genre is psychosocial ascription category. To exist in a world without recognizing (not submitting to) genre, is to exist in a world which is by nature isolated from societal discourse.

oh god i'm doing an ethan

A+

Ever notice how no one ranks rock album tracks?

"Its just works as an album!!!"
hip-hop, of course, not doing so.

― djdee2005, Sunday, February 29, 2004 12:55 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

20,000,000 poll threads later I think it's safe to say that this was a false assertion

illmatic by a country mile

i'd really like to see an illmatic track poll

Does anyone else get really f'ing annoyed by Puff Daddy (excuse me; "Diddy")? His ridiculous syncophantic murmurings on Ready to Die really irritate me, like he just couldn't bear to let Biggie Smalls shine all on his own. Oh well. At least it isn't near as bad as on Life After Death.

Anyone going to see "Notorious" stateside?

i saw Notorious last night. despite the generally excellent casting (puffy reminded me more of bobby brown than puffy, kim and biggie REALLY nailed it, lil cease reminded me of the dad in the wayans brothers hood movie spoof film in a good way) and really nice sets, the script was all over the place and the directing style was not very good. it wasn't terrible, but they tried to make it into some kind of redemptive character piece and thats just not really the reality of it. i think something far more atmospheric and abstract would have been better, but oh well. it was still slightly entertaining.

i'd really like to see an illmatic track poll

― Kevin Keller, Friday, November 14, 2008 12:54 PM (2 months ago)

this ended up disappointingly :/

illmatic > reasonable doubt > ready to die

challop

yeah but life after death > illmatic

i would normally say k3v otm but i probably listen to illmatic least of the three these days

i much prefer 'ready to die' to reasonable doubt

yeah wtf at reasonable doubt over ready to die

yeah reasonable doubt is great but it is just not on rtd's level