Nas Reminisces On It Was Written

This past Summer, Nas’ It Was Written album turned 15 years old. XXL reached out to God’s Son to get his thoughts on some of the key tracks from his sophomore album:

You worked with Dr. Dre in the middle of the East Coast/West Coast feud. What was the response on the East Coast?

It was unbelievable ‘cause Dre had The Chronic, he had Doggystle. And really that was it. So it was unbelievable. It was crazy.

So nobody was like, “Why you working with dude?”

Nah, they thought, “Wow, it’s amazing. It fucked ‘em up. Then Biggie had him and Bone Thugs. Nice move. I was like, “Wow, nice move.”

What was your inspiration for “I Gave You Power?”

A Premier beat. Just a beat from Premier… in the studio. Back then I was around a lot more guns and my reality was that. There was no armed security back then, it was just us moving around so that was a lot more in my world.

To read the entire interview including Nas explaining his beef with Pac over the “Street Dreams” record, head on over to XXL. -57thave

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