Nas Speaks On How Biggie's "Ready To Die" Album Helped Him Realize Rap's Endless Possibilities!

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. —John Kennedy Via VIBE Magazine
Posted By Abdul