Nas - Illmatic
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Category: Music CD
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CD Details
Artist: NasEdition: Music CD
Format: Explicit Lyrics
CD Release Date: 1994-04-19
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
- The Genesis - Nas, Braithwaite, F.
- N.Y. State of Mind - Nas, Martin, C
- Life's a Bitch - Nas, Jones, N.
- The World Is Yours - Nas, Phillips, P.
- Halftime - Nas, Mitchell, W.P.
- Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park) - Nas, Martin, C
- One Love - Nas, Davis, J.
- One Time 4 Your Mind - Nas, Mitchell, W.P.
- Represent - Nas, Nas
- It Ain't Hard to Tell - Nas, Mitchell, W.P.
Music reviews of Illmatic
Music Review: The pinnacle of the hip hop genre. It doesn't get better than this.
Rating: 5 Stars
New York MC Nas' debut album Illmatic is often hailed by critics as well as fans as one of the best hip hop albums of all time for a reason. In that way, it strikes a chord with the critics because little to nothing in mainstream rap at the time was as intelligent or well produced, and it garnered as many fans as it did because it was probably the catchiest, most smooth listen the hip hop industry had ever heard. Both sides of the coin play themselves out equally importantly. The album is loaded with catchy hooks, loops and beats, which are bolstered by the now legendary foursome of rap producers DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock, and Q-Tip. They treat the samples with care, making most of the album sound simultaneously pure and nostalgic (as the cover suggests) with their hazy jazz productions. The backbeats range from dark compositions (N.Y. State of Mind, Represent) to lighter jazz pieces (Life's a Bitch, Memory Lane), and both modes work effectively. The performance of these producers alone could have been enough to make this album a classic, but Nas remains the centerpiece of the album, with a smooth flow and consistently contemplative lyrics throughout. He mostly raps about what it is like to live in the ghetto, but he does it with sophistication and care, and even when he indulges in self promotion, the results are cool and composed, as opposed to the outwardly ridiculous trash talking of most gangster rap. Even on the rare occasions that the beats slip up short of excellence (One Time 4 Your Mind), Nas keeps his words and delivery solid enough to keep each song solid. But what makes the album particularly surprising is how equally matched the DJs are with the MC. Each song has at least a few memorable hooks, beats, instrumentations, or details, and several instantly quotable rhymes. Leaving the album at a scant forty minutes with no more than ten songs was a smart move too; the brevity leaves the listener that much more fixated on what is there, and thirsting for more. Latter efforts would not be as popular or influential, but at least for the span of Illmatic the world belongs to Nas.
Description of Illmatic
Nasir Jones made this debut album at the age of 20, already armed with the calm perceptiveness and been-there-done-that attitude of a much older ghetto vet, though sometimes his inner callow youth shows itself. Illmatic is a look back at a life spent in the culture of the projects, acknowledging joy as much as pain and taking note of violence as a fact of his environment rather than a focus of his life. It's enlivened by Nas's kicky, deep-threaded multiple rhymes--you can tell he grew up listening to Mr. Magic's rap show and internalizing the secrets of everybody's flow--and by tracks from a bunch of all-stars, including the Large Professor, DJ Premier, and, most memorably, Q-Tip ("One Love"). --Douglas WolkEast Coast CDs
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