Nas: Biggie Said ‘You Finally Got That Monkey Off Your Back’ When “It Was Written” Went Platinum [Video]

Illmatic wasn’t the only great rap album to drop in 1994 (in fact, we highlighted 49 dope discs that dropped the same year). But Nas’ classic album was most closely matched by his friend Biggie Small’s debut Ready To Die, which was released five months later and quickly dwarfed Illmatic’s modest sales with platinum-plus numbers. Needless to say, the pressure was on for the Queensbridge poet to make a major mark commercially. In this sit-down interview with VIBE, Nas speaks about how Ready to Die helped him realize rap’s endless possibilities, the pressure to sell a million records and—in the words of The Notorious One, himself—how he “got the monkey off his back” when finally went 3x platinum with It Was Written.

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Nas Remembers “Illmatic” Moments w/ Faith Newman, Part 5: The Genesis [Video]

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the hip-hop classic Illmatic, we reunited Nasty Nas and Faith Newman, the A&R rep for his debut album. In the final episode of this five-part series Nas talks about the opening interlude on this 9-track masterpiece, an evocative audio montage known as “The Genesis,” and Faith asks him to return her VHS copy of Wild Style.

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T.I., DJ Toomp, Mannie Fresh & KLC @ Super Producers Beat Summit [Video]

BMI, & Flight School presents the “Super Producers Beat Summit”. In Attendence: Big Krit, Pastor Troy, Zaytoven, Killer Mike, Cory Mo, Young Joc, N.O. Joe, Sonni Digital, Dj Holiday, Jason Geter, Chaka Zulu DTP, Clay Grand Hustle, Bobby Valentino, Stringz, Big Country Cane, Fort Knox, Wendy Day, Motown, Dj Jelly, Julia Beverly, Diamond, Isaac Hayes III, 4-ize & many more… hosted by Rude Jude.

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Army Of The Pharaohs – God Particle (Mr. Green’s “Live From The Streets” Remix) (BTS) [Video]

We teamed up with the talented duo Mr. Green and Sam-Lipman Stern to give the new Army of the Pharaohs track “God Particle” their “Live from the Streets” remix treatment. Check out the full track at soundcloud.com/enemysoil. Army of the Pharaohs “In Death Reborn” available April 22nd on Enemy Soil. Pre-order now on iTunes.

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