It Was Written "Illmatic", the album contains a more detailed and elaborate production, while it shares similarity to the G-funk sound, relying heavily on sampled and looped funk grooves. "It Was Written" has Nas experimenting with a theatrical mafioso concept under the alias of "Nas Escobar" (inspired by the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar). The album's subject matter has been noted for its focus on materialistic excess and other mafioso lyrical themes. Jon Pareles of "The New York Times" wrote of Nas's shift in lyrical themes from "Illmatic", stating he "repeatedly cites the Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar and drops brand names of
Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar as a journalist; her testimonies under oath in historic criminal cases that resulted in lengthy convictions; her description of atrocities and massacres in her book and in the court; the threats that she had received from members of the Colombian Government and the paramilitary; and the brutal character assassination of the journalist in media owned by presidential families or their powerful associates, all of them documented in hundreds of pages of evidence and later erased from the Internet. According to the author's agent, Liepman AG of Zürich, the book ""Amando a Pablo, odiando a Escobar"" will be released in foreign