Who had the best-selling hip-hop album of 1996?
The summer of 1996 belonged to Nas. It Was Written came loaded with pressure, but the record blew right to number one and held long enough to quiet anyone who doubted Nas’s commercial potential.
Hip hop was having a heavy year, but nothing moved like this album. By the time the dust settled, Nas had the biggest-selling rap project of 1996 and the biggest hit of his lofty career.
The jump from Illmatic to It Was Written was bold. The debut made him a critic’s favourite but barely moved units. The follow-up was directed at a broader world, decked out in sharper production and mafioso ambition, and touched bases on every level. Singles such as ‘If I Ruled the World’ and ‘N.Y. State of Mind’ were heard on both rap and pop stations, and suddenly Nas was no longer a Queensbridge prodigy but a national star with real chart power.
What fuelled the numbers was not sellout but a change in scale. Nas enhanced the storytelling, enriched the sonic palette and made a cinematic style appropriate to the feel of the mid-nineties.
The Trackmasters gave him shiny drums and glossy samples, Dr Dre came in with a West Coast co-sign in a tense period, and Lauryn Hill created one of the decade’s memorable hooks. It Was Written straddled the street and the mainstream while not losing the grit that made Nas essential.
Nearly thirty years later, the legacy remains. Triple platinum stateside and receiving decorations across Europe, the album was Nas’s greatest commercial moment and one of the defining East Coast rap records of the nineties.
It helped to solidify mafioso rap as a dominant style, inspired generations of conceptual lyricists and proved that complex writing could flourish on an international level. In 1996, nobody outsold Nas. It Was Written, it was the one that got the crown.
What were the other big-hitters in 1996?
- Falling Into You – Celine Dion
- Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morissette
- Spice – Spice Girls
- The Score – The Fugees
- All Eyez on Me – 2Pac
- Load – Metallica
- Tragic Kingdom – No Doubt
- Daydream – Mariah Carey
- Odelay – Beck
- Coming Up – Suede
But in the world of hip hop, none could beat Nas. And for once, that proved that commercialism and great art could coincide.