SONY LEGACY CELEBRATES 25 YEARS OF NAS' IT WAS WRITTEN

Sony Legacy is releasing an expanded digital edition of Nas' It Was Written in celebration of the groundbreaking album's 25th anniversary. The expanded digital edition of It Was Written presents Nas' original album with the addition of bonus tracks "Silent Murder" and "Street Dreams," previously unreleased through digital service providers.

Additionally, Get on Down will issue limited-edition 25th anniversary physical versions of It Was Written, including a two-LP silver-and-clear Galaxy Effect iteration housed in a gatefold jacket and an old-school cassette with an original eight-panel J-card featuring full lyrics, contained in a custom slip case. Get on Down will also offer a 7" silver-and-black A-Side/B-Side Effect vinyl single of "The Message" b/w "Street Dreams" (extended version) nestled in a custom picture jacket. The two-LP vinyl, 7" vinyl and cassette will further be available in a special 25th anniversary bundle, projected to ship in September.

It Was Written was originally released in July 1996 by Columbia. Nas' second studio album, it signaled a paradigm shift in the world of hip-hop, redefining the game for generations to come. Adding radical new narrative and musical dimensions to the raw, underground-hardcore ethos he'd established with Illmatic, his 1994 studio debut, It Was Written was both a landmark album and a flash-point event in East Coast hip-hop history.

It was an immediate commercial success, debuting at #1 by selling more than a 250k units its first week.