Illmatic
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Singles from Illmatic | ||||
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Illmatic is the debut
The album debuted at number 12 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 63,000 copies in its first week. Initial sales fell below expectations and its five singles failed to achieve significant chart success. Despite the album's low initial sales, Illmatic received rave reviews from most music critics, who praised its production and Nas' lyricism. On January 17, 1996, the album was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, and on December 11, 2001, it earned a platinum certification after shipping 1,000,000 copies in the United States. As of February 6, 2019, the album had sold 2 million copies in the United States.
Since its initial reception, Illmatic has been recognized by writers and music critics as a landmark album in
Background
As a teenager, Nas wanted to pursue a career as a rapper and enlisted his best friend and neighbor, Willy "Ill Will" Graham, as his DJ.[8] Nas initially went by the nickname "Kid Wave" before adopting the alias "Nasty Nas".[8] At the age of fifteen, he met producer Large Professor from Flushing, Queens, who introduced him to his group Main Source. Nas made his recorded debut with them on the opening verse on "Live at the Barbeque" from their 1991 album Breaking Atoms.[9] Nas subsequently made his solo debut on his 1992 single "Halftime" for the soundtrack to the film Zebrahead. The single added to the buzz surrounding Nas, earning him comparisons to the highly influential golden age rapper Rakim.[10] Despite his buzz in the underground scene, Nas did not receive an offer for a recording contract and was rejected by major rap labels such as Cold Chillin' and Def Jam Recordings. Nas and Ill Will continued to work together, but their partnership was cut short when Graham was murdered by a gunman in Queensbridge on May 23, 1992;[11] Nas' brother was also shot that night, but survived.[12] Nas has cited that moment as a "wake-up call" for him.[12]
In mid-1992,
Once MC Serch assumed the role of executive producer for Nas' debut project, he attempted to connect Nas with various producers. Numerous New York-based producers were eager to work with the up-and-coming rapper and went to Power House Studios with Nas. Among those producers was DJ Premier,[16] recognized at the time for his raw and aggressive jazz sample-based production and heavy scratching, and for his work with rapper Guru as a part of hip hop duo Gang Starr.[17] After his production on Lord Finesse & DJ Mike Smooth's Funky Technician (1990) and Jeru the Damaja's The Sun Rises in the East (1994), Premier began recording exclusively at D&D Studios in New York City, before working with Nas on Illmatic.[17][18]
Recording
[Nas] didn't know how he was gonna come in, but he just started going because we were recording. I'm actually yelling, "We're recording!" and banging on the [vocal booth] window. "Come on, get ready!" You hear him start the shit: Rappers .... And then everyone in the studio was like, "Oh, my God", 'cause it was so unexpected. He was not ready. So we used that first verse. And that was when he was up and coming, his first album. So we was like, "Yo, this guy is gonna be big."
—DJ Premier on the recording of the song "N.Y. State of Mind"[19]
Prior to recording, DJ Premier listened to Nas' debut single, and later stated "When I heard 'Halftime', that was some next shit to me. That's just as classic to me as '
In an early promotional interview, Nas claimed that the name "Illmatic" (meaning "beyond ill" or "the ultimate") was a reference to his incarcerated friend, Illmatic Ice.
Concerning the recording of the album's opening song "N.Y. State of Mind", producer DJ Premier later said "When we did 'N.Y. State of Mind,' at the beginning when he says, 'Straight out the dungeons of rap / Where fake niggas don't make it back,' then you hear him say, 'I don't know how to start this shit,' 'cause he had just written it. He's got the beat running in the studio, but he doesn't know how he's going to format how he's going to convey it. So he's going, 'I don't know how to start this shit,' and I'm counting him in [to begin his verse]. One, two, three. And then you can hear him go, 'Yo,' and then he goes right into it."[19]
Themes
Illmatic contains highly discerning treatment of its subject matter:
[W]hen my rap generation started, it was about bringing you inside my apartment. It wasn't about being a rap star; it was about anything other than. I want you to know who I am: what the streets taste like, feel like, smell like. What the cops talk like, walk like, think like. What crackheads do — I wanted you to smell it, feel it. It was important to me that I told the story that way because I thought that it wouldn't be told if I didn't tell it. I thought this was a great point in time in the 1990s in [New York City] that needed to be documented and my life needed to be told.[29]
Nas's depictions of project life alternate from moments of pain and pleasure to frustration and braggadocio.
Along with its narratives, Illmatic is distinct for its many portrayals and descriptions of places, people, and interactions.
Drug violence
Many of the themes found in Illmatic revolve around Nas' experience living in an environment where poverty, violence, and drug use abound. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, residents of Queensbridge experienced intense violence, as the housing development was overrun by the
Other writers, such as Mark Anthony Neal, have described these lyrical themes as a form of "brooding introspection", disclosing the tortured dimensions of drug crime and its impressions on an adolescent Nas.
Artistic credibility
The content of Illmatic informed notions of artistic authenticity.[40] The promotional press sheet that accompanied the album's release implied Nas' refusal to conform to commercial trends, stating: "While it's sad that there's so much frontin' in the rap world today, this should only make us sit up and pay attention when a rapper comes along who's not about milking the latest trend and running off with the loot."[26] At the time of the album's release, the hip hop community was embroiled in a debate about artistic authenticity and commercialism in popular music.[40] Chicago rapper Common describes in the preface to Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas's Illmatic the concerns that were felt by him and his contemporaries: "It was that serious for so many of us. We didn't just grow up with hip hop; we grew up with hip hop as hip hop was also growing, and so that made for a very close and intimate relationship that was becoming more and more urgent – and we felt it. Our art was being challenged in many ways as the moneymen began to sink their teeth into us."[41]
In the context of this debate, music writers have interpreted Illmatic as an admonishment for hip hop purists and practitioners.[42][31] In the opening track, "The Genesis", Nas bemoans the lack of legitimacy among other MCs in the projects, insisting that he has "Been doin' this shit since back then."[31] Citing songs such as "Life's a Bitch", Guthrie Ramsay Jr. argues that Nas "set a benchmark for rappers in an artistic field consumed by constantly shifting notions of 'realness', authenticity, and artistic credibility."[43] Sohail Daulatzai writes: "Though Illmatic was highly anticipated release, far from under the radar, Nas's taking it back to 'the dungeons of rap' was...a kind of exorcism or purging ('where fake niggas don't make it back') that was at the very least trying to claim a different aesthetic of resistance and rebellion that was all too aware of hip-hop's newfound mainstream potential."[40]
Musical endowment
In addition to its lyrical content, many writers have commented on the thematic significance of Illmatic's musical endowments. "Drawing on everything from
Music writers have characterized the album's contents as a commentary on hip hop's evolution. As Princeton University professor
Lyricism
Illmatic has been noted by music writers for Nas' unique style of
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Focusing on poetic forms found in his lyrics, Princeton University professor Imani Perry describes Nas' performance as that of a "poet-musician" indebted to the conventions of jazz poetry. She suggests that Nas' lyricism might have been shaped by the "black art poetry album genre," pioneered by Gil Scott-Heron, The Last Poets, and Nikki Giovanni.[42] Chicago-based poet and music critic Kevin Coval attributes Nas' lyricism to his unique approach to rapping, which he describes as a "fresh-out-the-rhyme-book presentation": "It's as if Nas, the poet, reporter, brings his notebook into the studio, hears the beat, and weaves his portraits on top with ill precision, and comments on the rapper's vignettes of inner-city life, which are depicted using elaborate rhyme structures: "All the words, faces and bodies of an abandoned post-industrial, urban dystopia are framed in Nas's tightly packed stanzas. These portraits of his brain and community in handcuffs are beautiful, brutal and extremely complex, and they lend themselves to the complex and brilliantly compounded rhyme schemes he employs."[32]
Production
Illmatic garnered praise for its production. According to critics, the album's five major producers (
The majority of the album consists of vintage funk, soul, and jazz samples.[52] Commenting on the album and its use of samples, Pitchfork's Jeff Weiss claims that both Nas and his producers found inspiration for the album's production through the music of their childhood: "The loops rummage through their parent's collection: Donald Byrd, Joe Chambers, Ahmad Jamal, Parliament, Michael Jackson. Nas invites his father, Olu Dara to blow the trumpet coda on "Life's a Bitch". Jazz rap fusion had been done well prior, but rarely with such subtlety. Nas didn't need to make the connection explicit—he allowed you to understand what jazz was like the first time your parents and grandparents heard it."[26] Similarly, journalist Ben Yew comments on the album's nostalgic sounds, "The production, accentuated by infectious organ loop[s], vocal sample[s], and synthesizer-like pads in the background, places your mind in a cheerful, reminiscent, mood."[53]
Songs
The intro, "The Genesis", is composed as an
Setting the general grimy, yet melodic, tone of the album,[52] "N.Y. State of Mind" features a dark, jazzy piano sample courtesy of DJ Premier.[55] It opens with high-pitched guitar notes looped from jazz and funk musician Donald Byrd's "Flight Time" (1972), while the prominent groove of piano notes was sampled from the Joe Chambers composition "Mind Rain" (1978).[52] The lyrics of "N.Y. State of Mind" have Nas recounting his participation in gang violence and philosophizing that "Life is parallel to Hell, but I must maintain", while his rapping spans over forty bars.[56] "N.Y. State of Mind" focuses on a mindstate that a person obtains from living in Nas' impoverished environment.[38] Critic Marc Hill of PopMatters wrote that the song "provides as clear a depiction of ghetto life as a Gordon Parks photograph or a Langston Hughes poem."[47]
In other songs on Illmatic, Nas celebrates life's pleasures and achievements, acknowledging violence as a feature of his socio-economic conditions rather than the focus of his life.
The nostalgic "Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park)" contains a
"
Artwork
On the
Album cover
The album cover of Illmatic features a picture of Nas as a child, which was taken after his father,
The accepted cover, designed by Aimee Macauley, features a photo of Nas as a child superimposed over a backdrop of a city block,[38] taken by Danny Clinch.[63] In a 1994 interview, Nas discussed the concept behind the photo of him at age 7, stating "That was the year I started to acknowledge everything [around me]. That's the year everything set off. That's the year I started seeing the future for myself and doing what was right. The ghetto makes you think. The world is ours. I used to think I couldn't leave my projects. I used to think if I left, if anything happened to me, I thought it would be no justice or I would be just a dead slave or something. The projects used to be my world until I educated myself to see there's more out there."[21] According to Ego Trip, the cover of Illmatic is "reputedly" believed to have been inspired by a jazz album, Howard Hanger Trio's A Child Is Born (1974) — whose cover also features a photograph of a child, superimposed on an urban landscape.[64] Nas has revealed that the inspiration for the album cover was derived from Michael Jackson. "I'm a big Michael Jackson fan," Nas has stated. "I'll tell you something I never said. On my album cover, you see me with the afro, that was kind of inspired by Michael Jackson – the little kid picture."[65]
Since its release, the cover art of Illmatic has gained an iconic reputation — having been subject to numerous parodies and tributes.
On the song "Shark Niggas (Biters)" from his debut album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... (1995), rapper Raekwon with Ghostface Killah criticized the cover of The Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die (1994), which was released a few months after Illmatic, for featuring a picture of a baby with an afro, implying that his cover had copied the idea from Nas.[69] This generated long-standing controversy between the rappers, resulting in an unpublicized feud which Nas later referenced in the song "Last Real Nigga Alive" from his sixth studio album God's Son (2002).
Commercial performance
Illmatic was released on April 19, 1994, through
Critical reception
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Chicago Tribune | [48] |
Entertainment Weekly | A−[78] |
Los Angeles Times | [79] |
NME | 9/10[80] |
Rolling Stone | [81] |
The Source | 5/5[82] |
Spin | 3/3[51] |
USA Today | [83] |
Illmatic was met with widespread acclaim from critics,
Some reviewers were less impressed. Heidi Siegmund of the
The Source
Upon its release,
It's about 9pm ... I get to the office and I gather all the heads in the conference room. I remember who was there: [Matty C], [Chris Wilder], [Schott 'Free' Jacobs]. Everyone is nodding their heads, eyes wide, mouths open, it's hip-hop paradise. We had a pretty shitty system in there but it didn't matter, I pop in the tape and the powerful musical magic emits from the speakers. When those funky/eerie/powerful xylophone notes from 'One Love' come on, I remember [Jacobs] is literally lying on the floor .... He can't comprehend how good it is. None of us can. It's the best shit we've heard in our lives .... Internally, we start debating how we're gonna handle this. I say right away that it's gotta get a "5".[89]
Eventually, the review for Illmatic was handled by the magazine's columnist
Controversy
At the time, it was unheard of for a debuting artist to receive the coveted rating.[88] Author Matthew Gasteier writes, "It's difficult to overestimate the impact of receiving the five out of five mics, the first such rating given to any new release by the magazine since its then-editor Reginald Dennis put a moratorium on them."[90] Reginald Dennis, former music editor of the magazine and XXL co-founder, later recounted, "Awarding records 5 mics – classic status – has always been, on some levels, troubling to me. I mean, we are not only saying that a particular piece of music is superior to everything that is out now, but it will be better than most things released in the future as well [...] I only gave one 5 under my watch and it went to Nas's Illmatic."[88] Dennis cited it as "the only time I ever broke the 'no 5' rule" and added, "I told Jon that we'd work all of that stuff out when it was time to review the album. But everyday, Jon was like, 'yo, this album is 5 mics — seriously, Reg, 5 mics!'[88]
The rating did not come without its share of controversy.
Retrospect
Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [96] |
Mojo | [97] |
Pitchfork | 10/10[98] |
Q | [99] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [100] |
XXL | 5/5[101] |
Since its initial reception, Illmatic has been viewed by music writers as one of the quintessential hip hop recordings of the 1990s, while its rankings near the top of many publications' "best album" lists in disparate genres have given it a reputation as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time.[102][103] Jon Pareles of The New York Times cited Illmatic as a "milestone in trying to capture the 'street ghetto essence'".[104] The album has been described by a number of writers and critics as "classic".[2][105][106][107] Chris Ryan, writing in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), called Illmatic "a portrait of an artist as a hood, loner, tortured soul, juvenile delinquent, and fledgling social critic," and wrote that it "still stands as one of rap's crowning achievements".[100] In a retrospective review for MSN Music, Christgau said the record was "better than I thought at the time for sure—as happens with aesthetes sometimes, the purists heard subtleties principled vulgarians like me were disinclined to enjoy", although he still found it inferior to The Notorious B.I.G.'s debut album Ready to Die (1994).[108] In 2002, Prefix Mag's Matthew Gasteier re-examined Illmatic and its musical significance, stating:
Illmatic is the best hip-hop record ever made. Not because it has ten great tracks with perfect beats and flawless rhymes, but because it encompasses everything great about hip-hop that makes the genre worthy of its place in music history. Stylistically, if every other hip-hop record were destroyed, the entire genre could be reconstructed from this one album. But in spirit, Illmatic can just as easily be compared to Ready to Die, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, and Enter the Wu-Tang as it can to Rites of Spring, A Hard Day's Night, Innervisions, and Never Mind the Bollocks. In Illmatic, you find the meaning not just of hip-hop, but of music itself: the struggle of youth to retain its freedom, which is ultimately the struggle of man to retain his own essence.[56]
Illmatic has been included in "best album" lists in disparate genres.
Impact and legacy
East Coast hip hop
Illmatic has been noted as one of the most influential hip hop albums of all time, with pundits describing it as an
Production
Illmatic has been noted as a creative high point for East Coast hip hop, since it featured production from renowned New York-based producers Large Professor, Pete Rock and DJ Premier.[118] The album solidified the reputation of these producers, whose contributions to Illmatic became influential in shaping the soundscape of New York's regional scene.[67] According to music writer Rob Marriott, Illmatic helped to establish DJ Premier as "the go-to producer for the jazz-and-blues-inflected knock that became so central to East Coast sound."[67]
Following the album's release, hip hop artists increasingly began to draw upon a broad stable of producers for their projects. At the time, the assembly of big-name producers was unprecedented, since most hip hop albums had primarily been the work of one dedicated producer and sometimes an embedded production team.[10] Yet author Adam Mansbach reflects on the impact of Illmatic's noteworthy producers, writing: "The psychological impact on the listener of having all these elite producers – some of whom, like Q-Tip, really weren't known yet for doing outside production work at all – coming together to lace the debut of this kid from Queensbridge was tremendous."[42] This same template would be used by other successful East Coast rappers. In an article on New York hip hop, Mosi Reeves of Creative Loafing wrote that "Nas' Illmatic . . . is the first to draw together top hip hop producers in the recording industry. That formula, most successfully mined by the late Notorious B.I.G. (1997's Life After Death), Puff Daddy (1997's No Way Out) and Jay-Z (1998's Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life), is what most N.Y. prospects still use today."[120] Jon Caramanica of The New York Times writes that after Illmatic's release, "[I]t became commonplace for rappers to search around for different producers who could enhance their sound."[121]
Yet while hip-hop artists continue to draw upon this template for album production, the practice has earned some criticism. In an article titled, "How Nas' "Illmatic" Ruined Hip-Hop," Insanul Ahmed of Complex argues that one "unintended consequence" of Illmatic was the overall decline in the cohesion and quality of rap albums: "Next thing you knew, rap albums started having a different producer for every song. And like a film that has a different director for every scene, albums became unfocused affairs. This meant that producers weren't tied to artists anymore."[122]
Queensbridge
We used to always hear it [Illmatic] chillin' with Nas [in Queensbridge]. What's funny about it was he was humble with it. I would listen to it and the songs were so ill, it made you wanna cry. He was just calm, like, 'How you like it?' We was hearing it piece by piece, so when it came out, it wasn't surprising to hear everybody's reaction. Everybody was going crazy. You could not walk through the 'hood without hearing Illmatic. It was on your brain.
— Hip hop artist and childhood friend
Illmatic is credited with reviving the Queensbridge rap scene.
Following Illmatic's release, Queensbridge returned to prominence after years of obscurity, with the ascendancy of the influential
Decline of alternative hip hop
Illmatic was one of the first major recordings to emerge from New York's burgeoning
Heimlich cites Nas' role in the resurgent
West Coast hip hop
The critical acclaim surrounding the album helped to shift attention away from the melodious, synth-driven, and funk-induced G-funk subgenre, which dominated the charts for some time after Dr. Dre's The Chronic (1992).[126] Citing the example of Snoop Dogg's wildly popular Doggystyle (released six months prior to Nas' debut) author Matthew Gasteier writes, "The first thing immediately noticeable about the [Source magazine] review, is that, like essentially every other review about Illmatic in publications like Vibe, Spin, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times, it mentions Snoop Doggy Dogg's Doggystyle in the first paragraph."[90] That nearly every reviewer felt the need to contextualize their response to Illmatic within the frame of West Coast G-Funk "is a reminder of just how pervasive the style was within the hip hop world and the music community as a whole."[90]
Yet according to writer Mickey Hess, Illmatic was among those East Coast records that helped "create sparse, rough and rugged soundscapes that clearly differed from Dre's multi-layered melodies."
Despite these regional differences, Hampton credits Illmatic with providing a long-term artistic common ground for rappers on the West Coast and East Coast rap scenes. In the 2009 essay "Born Alone, Die Alone," she recounts the album's impact on West Coast artist, Tupac Shakur.[128] While working as a journalist for The Source in 1994, Hampton covered three court cases involving Tupac. Around this time, she received an advance-copy of Illmatic and immediately dubbed a cassette version for Tupac, who became "an instant convert" of the album. The next day, she writes, Tupac "arrived in his assigned courtroom blasting Illmatic so loudly that the bailiff yelled at him to turn it off before the judge took his seat on the bench." In her essay, Hampton implies that Nas' lyricism might have influenced Tupac's acclaimed album Me Against the World, which was recorded that same year.[128]
West Coast artist
Lyricism
During the time of its release, Illmatic brought a renewed focus on lyricism to hip hop—hearkening back to the heyday of
Nas, the poetic sage of the Queensbridge projects, was hailed as the second coming of Rakim—as if the first had reached his expiration date. [...] Nas never became "the next Rakim," nor did he really have to. Illmatic stood on its own terms. The sublime lyricism of the CD, combined with the fact that it was delivered into the crucible of the boiling East-West conflict, quickly solidified [his] reputation as the premier writer of his time.[129]
Despite its initial low sales, the album had a profound impact on the hip hop underground circuit, and marked a major stylistic change in hip hop music by introducing a new standard of lyricism.
Many rappers have taken note of Illmatic's influence on their lyricism. Ghostface Killah recounted, "When I used to listen to Nas back in the days, it was like, 'Oh shit! He murdered that.' That forced me to get my pen game up .... The whole Illmatic album forced you to go ahead and do shit .... It was inspiration."
Hip hop poetry
In addition to his
According to author and poet Kevin Coval, Nas "raise[d] the bar for MCs" by advancing his lyricism "from punch lines and hot lines to whole thought pictures manifest in rhyme form." Together with
Many of the poetic tropes found in Illmatic have become terms and phrases within hip-hop lexicon.[67] "'The World Is Yours,' Nas' reference to the blimp in Scarface," writes Rob Marriott, "has remained a trope hip-hop has taken to heart .... Even the word "Illmatic" itself [...] became synonymous with anything surprisingly excellent, street-born and/or out of left field."[67] In 2013, music writer Jeff Weiss commented on the extensive vernacular usage of Illmatic, writing: "The phrases and images are so deeply rooted in rap consciousness to have become cliché. Over the last 19 years, a million secret handshakes and scratched hooks have been executed to lines from Illmatic."[26]
Hip hop artists
Respected mainstream and underground rappers have acknowledged Illmatic's influence. These wide range of artists include the
In 2006, Marc Mac of the
He's the best rapper in the world. He was the first from the generation after Rakim to embody the same spirit. He said shit that was bone-chilling. He had more heart than anyone else out there at the time .... I knew he was good before Illmatic, but the album superseded whatever you expected from any rapper at that time.
Legacy and tributes
Illmatic has become a benchmark for upcoming rappers whose albums are widely anticipated by critics. Hip hop pundits have viewed debut albums as crucial in generating publicity and shaping the legacy of an artist's career. Given the historic anticipation and acclaim surrounding Nas' debut, Illmatic has become a byword for this sort of phenomenon. As one columnist for the
Illmatic? For people to even put my album in the light of that, is an accomplishment. It's crazy to even be mentioned with it but it's scary at the same time .... That era – I wanna say the age range now would be 30, 30 to 40 – they can recognize this was the album. Illmatic's the album for the '90s era when I was growing up ... it's just a weird feeling to be in that same type of light, 'cus it takes a whole lot of responsibility to keep that up in the long run and longevity, and that's something I don't have yet ... so Illmatic will always be #1.[150]
Illmatic has been cited as a musical template for other hip hop artists. Common's critically acclaimed album Be (2005) has been said to have been molded after Illmatic.[151][152][153] In 2010, underground hip hop artist Fashawn released the mixtape Ode to Illmatic to "pay homage, 'cause Illmatic was one of them kinda albums that really impacted my life".[154] Detroit rapper Elzhi released a remake of Illmatic titled Elmatic (2011).[155] Taking note of a trend of tributes to Illmatic in 2011, Richard Watson of The Guardian wrote, "To quote Nasir Jones himself ... 'It Ain't Hard To Tell' why today's rappers are paying tribute to his debut album. Illmatic has become a totem, a work that both looked back into hip-hop history and pointed towards its future."[156]
Intellectual response
Illmatic has received notable attention from scholars and authors outside the music industry. Since its release, the album has become the subject of scholarship within academic and literary circles. In 2009, as part of the 33⅓ book series, author Matthew Gasteier published a deconstruction of Illmatic, that focuses on the dualities that inform its narratives. In 2012, playwright Shaun Neblett created a tribute play titled Homage 3: Illmatic, which tells the story of an aspiring artist and explores the themes found in Nas' debut.[157] "[A]s its title suggests," writes one reviewer, "the play is completely based on and acts as a tribute to Nas' Illmatic album. The rappers' bars come alive on stage through Homage 3, which deliberately shows how intellectually well-versed Nas truly is, and much bigger than that, how much Hip-Hop has to offer, culturally, outside of the radio, clubs and the street."[157]
Illmatic is the focus of a significant work of hip-hop scholarship,
[S]ome might ask, why Illmatic? Why not
Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation to Hold Us Back, or Ice Cube's AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted? No doubt these were great albums, coming at a moment when hip hop was cutting its teeth on social commentary and refining its ear on dusty breaks, hard snares, and sonic mayhem. But there is something about Illmatic that transcends the categories that have ever existed about hip-hop. Something complex about its simplicity, something elusive that we felt we wanted to explore. Straight up though, Illmatic is just a dope album, embodying everything that is hip-hop while mastering what matters most: beats and rhymes.[42]
Hip hop debates
Illmatic has helped to shape the attitudes and perceptions of hip hop fans, who cherish it as a music template that defines the genre's conventions. As music critic Jeff Weiss writes, "Illmatic is the
For this reason, Caramanica considers Illmatic to be "unusually significant to the intellectual development of the [hip-hop] genre" yet he remains critical of the divisiveness spawned by its "zealots."[121] In his essay, "'Night Time is More Trife Than Ever': The Many Misuses of Nas," he writes: "Illmatic is responsible for countless pointless 'rap versus hip-hop debates,' a shocking amount of hip-hop self-righteousness, the emergence of the backpack movement as something more than a regional curio, and the persistence of the idea that lyricism is the only standard great rap music should be held to."[121] Commenting on these polarized debates, Jeff Weiss suggests that Illmatic is "best heard by ignoring the dogma, culture wars, Nas clones, and would-be saviors that have accreted since April 1994. Who cares whether it's the greatest rap album of all-time or not? It's an example of how great rap can be, but not necessarily the way it should be."[26]
Subsequent work by Nas
While its success helped Nas' career immeasurably, hip hop aficionados have cited the album as his inextricable "gift and curse".[30][47] Due to its critical fame, Nas' subsequent studio albums have been weighed against Illmatic, despite all of them outselling his debut.[30] Against this standard, they are often critically deemed as mediocre follow-ups.[47] After manager Steve Stoute convinced Nas to aim his efforts in a more commercial direction for his follow-up album It Was Written (1996), he enlisted the production team Trackmasters, who were known for their mainstream work at the time.[10] It was criticized for its embrace of gangsta/mafioso themes and materialistic subject matter, but proved to be a commercial success, selling over three million copies.[10] Critics gave it mixed reviews, and general consensus was that it failed to live up to the classic status of Illmatic.[159] Many fans of Illmatic labeled his subsequent efforts as 'selling out', due to his crossover sensibilities (e.g. his participation with the hip hop group The Firm) and radio-friendly hits aimed at the pop charts, such as "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" (1996) and "Hate Me Now" (1999).[10]
When he released his third and fourth studio albums, I Am... and Nastradamus (1999), which underwent editing due to bootlegging of the recording sessions,[10] many fans and critics feared that his career was deteriorating, as both albums received further criticism for their commercially oriented sound.[10] Reflecting this widespread perception in the hip hop community and adding to his ongoing feud with Nas at the time, Jay-Z mocked him in the song "Takeover" (2001) for having a "one hot album [Illmatic] every ten year average".[160] A journalist writing for The Source commented on the demanding legacy of Nas' debut: "Blame excellence, blame perfection and aggression. Blame one of hip-hop's most beautiful moments for the prison that traps Nasir Jones today – blame Illmatic."[161] Nas made something of a comeback with his fifth album Stillmatic (2001) and the acclaimed follow-up God's Son (2002), as well as The Lost Tapes (2002), a compilation of previously unreleased tracks from the I Am... and Nastradamus sessions.[10] Afterwards, his subsequent albums have all been well received by critics.[162] Nevertheless, most fans have regarded Illmatic as his definitive album.[47]
In 2011, Nas performed the album in its entirety at Rock the Bells music festival.[163] The show featured the album's personnel, including Pete Rock, DJ Premier, and AZ, and a stage design depicting the urban landscape of Queensbridge, with graffiti-lined streets, a subway entrance,[164] and models of Queensbridge's housing project.[165] In 2012, he performed the album in its entirety at South by Southwest music festival, with the same personnel and stage design.[165] Illmatic will be reissued as a deluxe CD bundled with a 48-page hardcover book featuring photos, reproduced artwork, lyrics, and liner notes courtesy of The Source founder Jon Schecter.[166]
In 2014, Nas announced Illmatic XX, the 20th Anniversary Edition of the original album Illmatic, released April 15, 4 days prior to the 20th Anniversary of the original's release date (April 19). Illmatic XX includes a remastered version of Illmatic, an extra disc of demos, remixes, and unreleased records from that era of Nas' career. He announced his plans for a tour where he will perform the whole album front to back on each stop.[167][168]
Track listing
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "The Genesis" |
| Large Professor | 4:20 |
6. | "Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park)" |
| DJ Premier | 4:08 |
7. | "One Love" | Q-Tip | 5:25 | |
8. | "One Time 4 Your Mind" |
| Large Professor | 3:18 |
9. | "Represent" |
| DJ Premier | 4:12 |
10. | "It Ain't Hard to Tell" |
| Large Professor | 3:22 |
Total length: | 39:51 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Life's a Bitch" (Remix; featuring AZ) |
| Rockwilder | 3:00 |
2. | "The World Is Yours" (Remix) |
| Vibesmen | 3:56 |
3. | "One Love" (Remix) | Nick Fury | 5:09 | |
4. | "It Ain't Hard to Tell" (Remix) |
| Nick Fury | 3:26 |
5. | "On the Real" | Marley Marl | 3:26 | |
6. | "Star Wars" |
| Large Professor | 4:08 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "I'm a Villain" |
| Jae Supreme | 4:30 |
2. | "The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show on WKCR October 28, 1993" (featuring 6'9", Jungle and Grand Wizard) | Stretch Armstrong | 7:46 | |
3. | "Halftime" (Butcher Remix) | Joe "The Butcher" Nicolo | 4:36 | |
4. | "It Ain't Hard to Tell" (Remix) | Large Professor | 2:49 | |
5. | "One Love" (LG Main Mix) | The LG Experience | 5:32 | |
6. | "Life's a Bitch" (Arsenal Mix; featuring AZ) | Def Jef & Meech Wells | 3:30 | |
7. | "One Love" (One L Main Mix; featuring Sadat X) | Godfather Don, The Groove Merchantz & Victor Padilla | 5:43 | |
8. | "The World Is Yours" (Tip Mix) | Q-Tip | 4:28 | |
9. | "It Ain't Hard to Tell" (The Stink Mix) | Dave Scratch | 3:20 | |
10. | "It Ain't Hard to Tell" (The Laidback Remix) | The Creators | 3:36 |
Sample credits
The Genesis[169]
N.Y. State of Mind[169]
Life's a Bitch[169] The World Is Yours[169]
Halftime[169]
|
Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park)[169]
One Love[169]
One Time 4 Your Mind[169]
Represent[169]
It Ain't Hard to Tell[169]
|
Personnel
|
|
Charts
Weekly charts
|
Year-end charts
|
Certifications
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Canada (Music Canada)[180] | Gold | 50,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI)[181] | Gold | 100,000* |
United States (RIAA)[182] | 2× Platinum | 2,000,000‡ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Accolades
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: Citations are needed for each of these accolades. (February 2024) |
Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
About.com
|
United States | 100 Greatest Hip-Hop Albums[102] | 2008 | 1 | ||
Best Rap Albums of 1994[183] | 2008 | 1 | ||||
10 Essential Hip-Hop Albums[3] | 2008 | 1 | ||||
Blender | 500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die[184] | 2003 | * | |||
Ink Blot | Albums of the 90s | 2002 | 11 | |||
MTV | The Greatest Hip Hop Albums of All Time[185] | 2005 | 2 | |||
Music Underwater | Top 100 Albums 1990–2003 | 2004 | 45 | |||
Robert Dimery | 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die | 2006 | * | |||
Rolling Stone | The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
|
2020 | 44 | |||
The Essential Recordings of the 90s | 1999 | * | ||||
The Source
|
100 Best Rap Albums[114] | 1998 | * | |||
The Critics Top 100 Black Music Albums of All Time[111] | 2006 | 5 | ||||
Spin | Top 100 Albums of the Last 20 Years | 2005 | 17 | |||
Stylus | Top 101–200 Albums of All time | 2004 | 143 | |||
Tom Moon | 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die[186]
|
2008 | * | |||
Vibe | 51 Albums representing a Generation, a Sound and a Movement | 2004 | * | |||
Top 10 Rap Albums[49] | 2002 | 4 | ||||
Village Voice
|
Albums of the Year | 2000 | 33 | |||
Hip Hop Connection | United Kingdom | Top 100 Readers Poll[112] | 2003 | 3 | ||
Mojo | Mojo 1000, the Ultimate CD Buyers Guide | 2001 | * | |||
NME | The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time[187] | 2013 | 27 | |||
Albums of the Year | 1994 | 33 | ||||
The New Nation
|
Top 100 Albums by Black Artists | 2004 | 5 | |||
Select | Albums of the Year | 1994 | 18 | |||
The 100 Best Albums of the 90s | 1996 | 99 | ||||
Juice | Australia | The 100 (+34) Greatest Albums of the 90s | 1999 | 101 | ||
Exclaim! | Canada | 100 Records That Rocked 100 Issues | 2000 | * | ||
Les Inrockuptibles | France | 50 Years of Rock'n'Roll | 2004 | * | ||
Spex | Germany | Albums of the Year | 1994 | 9 | ||
Juice
|
The Hundred Most Influential Rap Albums Ever | 2002 | 4 | |||
OOR
|
Netherlands | Albums of the Year | 1994 | 42 | ||
VPRO | 299 Nominations of the Best Album of All Time | 2006 | * | |||
The Movement | New Zealand | The 101 Best Albums of the 90s | 2004 | 51 | ||
Dance de Lux | Spain | The 25 Best Hip-Hop Records | 2001 | 25 | ||
Rock de Lux | The 150 Best Albums from the 90s | 2000 | 134 | |||
Pop | Sweden | Albums of the Year | 1994 | 9 | ||
(*) designates lists that are unordered. |
See also
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External links
- Illmatic at Discogs (list of releases)
- Illmatic at MusicBrainz (list of releases)