The It Was Written sampler boasted the following message: "Since his universally acclaimed debut Illmatic in '94, the world of hip hop has waited for the second chapter from the voice of the Queensbridge projects, Nas. It was Written, the second chapter from Nas will hit July '96 and delivers all it promises, with production by Trackmasters, Dr. Dre, DJ Premier, L.E.S., and featuring Lauryn Hill (Fugees), D'Angelo and Method Man (Wu-Tang Clan). It Was Written will justify the anticipation... Nas is coming." You wouldn't be wrong to wonder where the D'Angelo and Method Man tracks are, because it's not on this sampler and they certainly weren't included on the album. History has it that both D'Angelo and Method Man missed their studio sessions so the songs were never recorded. Do I believe that? I mean... it's weird to promote tracks that weren't even recorded yet. The album came out on this day in July and promo materials were delivered in late May, so I have my doubts, but weird shit happens everyday, B. Plus, that'd be prime material for his series, The Lost Tapes, so I guess it's true or else we would've heard that material by now. Right, Nas? To celebrate its anniversary, below is the album's sampler cassette. I ripped it from cassette years ago, so apologies if it's a bit lo-fi, but dig into it below. If it gets taken down, lemme know! Oh, and just for the record, us New Yorkers were wrong to hate on this album back in '96... my bad, Nas! I still don't think it's better than Illmatic or Stakes Is High, but that's a topic for another day...
If you want to see the actual cassette, here's one of two covers released for the tape...
