...ILLMATIC Appreciation Thread...

[Brooklyn Zoo]

I've been listening to this album for 7 of my 19 years on this earth and it NEVER gets old.

Recently, I wrote a research paper on the '94 classic. Hopefully most are familiar with the record, so I thought I'd share some interesting tidbits about Nas and the best hip-hop album ever created.

The Line-Up Card

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'94 Interview Transcript

http://home.gwu.edu/~noz/nas1.html

Original 5 Mic Source Review

http://home.gwu.edu/~noz/nas2.html

"The World Is Yours" Q-Tip Remix

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but above all...

Pre-Illmatic Nas Mixtape

(google and download IMMEDIATELY)

feel free to add your own opinions and links

[ktothe]

Nas is wack, rap is wack. Illmatic is nothing more than the musings of an unintelligent street thug.

[heBAY]

not sure if Ktothe is serious...but what IS wack is the fact that you listed "escobar" as a tag/something to have to do with NASTY Nas..."esco" thankfully was non-existant at the time Illmatic dropped...although I do love the "esco'esque" It Was Written album...as well as the first version of I Am...shit even Nastradamus had shit on it...Nas was still sharp lyrically and his flow was still something that young people aspired to take from/bite off of...(IMO, unlike today, although I think he's still relevant and capable of making a good song)...his ears and choice in producer's suffered after I Am got bootlegged and he started listening to the label.

But back to Illmatic...this was the pure Nas...no cross-over or sell-out Nas...no "big willie" Nas...no "(fake) thug" Nas...just Nasty. He came out at an incredible period in Hip Hop, surrounded by some of the greatest producers of the time...cats who all were behind the makings of classic albums (except LES...but that was definitely a career changing event for him)...how could he fail if he wasn't nice? I'm sure they'd send him back to the writer's bench if it wasn't something on point...or they wouldn't have worked with homey if he didn't really have the potential/talent.

Great album.

[the breaks]

"ny state of mind" in one take. thats all i gotta say. its over. its been over.

[brightbill]

Funny - I hear people talking about rap music today as jazzy or soulful, and most of it is just crappy horn sections and samples. Listening to Illmatic, you hear Nas taking the music of his upbringing (and the career of his father), twisting it for his own times and getting some of the best music every made, period.

I really don't think there's anything comparable anywhere else in music. The first three OutKast LPs have (at times) a similar feel to them but are more "out there" and abstract compared to this. And almost every other NY record of the time is too influenced by kingpin, mafioso styles to stand on the same level as Illmatic.

Pretty fucking good.

[Brooklyn Zoo]

i guess youre right about the tags, i was just trying to think of nas synonyms...

but how about AZs verse on LIfes a Bitch?

it could be, or very close to the most solid verse on the album

and it aint even nasty!

[drivel]

not sure if Ktothe is serious...

his avatar is madlib, so probably not.

[heBAY]

i guess youre right about the tags, i was just trying to think of nas synonyms...

but how about AZs verse on LIfes a Bitch?

it could be, or very close to the most solid verse on the album

and it aint even nasty!

Yeah AZ reaches (pretty much) "best cameo ever status"...the shit was just set up so nicely for him to launch a career off of (something that was still possible back then, just off of being dead nice)

[NESK]

in the past two days, this board became UGHH.com and it breaks my heart.

[Biff15]

...time is illmatic, keep static like wool fabric...

[ExileOnMainSt]

classic indeed, what sucked for Nas is that every album after illmatic was expected to live up to illmatic, he came close on stillmatic but every since then, he seems to be just getting worse, and his album concepts keep getting stupider.

One for the money

Two for pussy and foreign cars

Three for Alize niggaz deceased or behind bars

I rap divine Gods check the prognosis, is it real or showbiz?

My window faces shootouts, drug overdoses

Live amongst no roses, only the drama, for real

A nickel-plate is my fate, my medicine is the ganja

Here's my basis, my razor embraces, many faces

Your telephone blowin, black stitches or fat shoelaces

Peoples are petrol, dramatic automatic fo'-fo' I let blow

and back down po-po when I'm vexed so

my pen taps the paper then my brain's blank

I see dark streets, hustlin brothers who keep the same rank

Pumpin for somethin, some uprise, plus some fail

Judges hangin niggaz, uncorrect bails, for direct sales

My intellect prevails from a hangin cross with nails

I reinforce the frail, with lyrics that's real

Word to Christ, a disciple of streets, trifle on beats

I decifer prophecies through a mic and say peace.

I hung around the older crews while they sling smack to dingbats

They spoke of Fat Cat, that nigga's name made bell rings, black

Some fiends scream, about Supreme Team, a Jamaica Queens thing

Uptown was Alpo, son, heard he was kingpin, yo

Fuck 'rap is real', watch the herbs stand still

Never talkin to snakes cause the words of man kill

True in the game, as long as blood is blue in my veins

I pour my Heineken brew to my deceased crew on memory lane

fuckin' timeless..

[emceedrive]

This album was definitive for me.....I'm a hip-hop producer and i've always strived to achieve the level of perfection that this did.....hell, this is the album that influenced jay-z.....IMO, greatest rap album of all time