1994. Twenty years ago this month. The world would listen upon a hip hop album that would change the industry forever. Who would have thought that this short ten track album by a then twenty year old kid from Queens would have such a massive impact on the music industry. It was certainly unexpected at that time. Now before I continue with this let me get this out. Anyone that personally knows me knows that I am a big time Nas fan. He is the sole reason why I got into hip hop music in the first place. Once I bought and listened to his 1999 album I Am, I was instantly hooked. So even though you won't find many people who don't like this album, I'm just warning you all now to expect plenty of bias in this throwback review (as well as future Nas reviews). Anyway back to the topic. This album was a game changer on so many levels. At that time in hip hop, it was all west coast and east coast yes, but a lot of it was mainstream. Nas dropped this album at a time where lyricism was being taken for granted. His lyricism, rhyme pattern, flow and knack for good story telling pretty much forced his peers to step it up. He made some MC's change lyrically, he made them change how to approach story telling, he even made some change their flow and rhyme style completely. Of course because of that, it would lead to a few feuds and battles with other New York MC's (which is a whole other story. Listen to "Last Real Nigga Alive"). Then there's the production on this album which was just flat out brilliant. Handled by the likes of DJ Premier, Large Professor, L.E.S., Pete Rock and others. They were boom-bap styled beats that could only fit the powerful lyrical words of Nas and really brought his stories that he told to life. Let me now break down what I loved about this album, which was pretty much everything. After the intro, the album begins with the track "New York State Of Mind". Right from the gate Nas punches you with a brute lyrical force. That opening verse is one of the best, and longest, I've ever heard in my life. "Rappers I monkey flip em with the funky rhythm I be kickin/Musician, inflicting composition/of pain I'm like Scarface sniffing cocaine/Holding a M-16, see with the pen I'm extreme, now/Bullet holes left in my peepholes I'm suited up in street clothes/Hand me a nine and I'll defeat foes...". But the ending lines of this verse sums up the whole song and possible the album: ""Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined/I think of crime when I'm in a New York state of mind". See this album just paints such a vivid picture of a young man's world growing up in the violent surroundings of the projects in Queens. It at times feels like a short life story on wax. The next track "Life's A Bitch" is another favorite of mine. It features fellow Queens native and friend AZ who's the only guest feature on the album. Quite frankly, no other feature was needed after AZ dropped such a superior guest verse. It's a track where the two rap about accomplishing it all before their day comes to see the reaper. This includes acts of crime. It's powerful words because you can picture some of New York's greatest gangsters and drug dealers thinking and saying this kind of stuff. Seems like that who's being channeled in this song. Speaking of, the next favorite is the Tony Montana inspired "The World Is Yours". Here Nas spits as a guy who has just risen to power from the drug game. This track was brilliantly produced by Pete Rock who's also does the hook. Of course this is the song that ends with the iconic line "I'm out for presidents to represent me". Which of course would be later sampled by Jay-Z on his classic hit "Dead Presidents". "Memory Lane (Sittin' In The Park)" finds him reminiscing on old times growing up. It's again another lyrical assault with booming opening lines: "I rap for listeners, blunt heads, fly ladies and prisoners/Hennessey holders and old school niggas, then I be dissin a unofficial that smoke woolie thai/I dropped out of Kooley High, gassed up by a coke head cutie pie/Jungle survivor, fuck who's the liver/My man put the battery in my back, a difference from Energizer/Sentence begins indented with formality/My duration's infinite, money wise or physiology/Poetry, that's a part of me, retardedly bop/I drop the ancient manifested hip-hop, straight off the block/I reminisce on park jams, my man was shot for his sheep coat/Chocolate blunts make me see him drop in my weed smoke". I know that was a lot but it's so dope I had to extend it a little. Nas's poetic skill set is so vividly present on this album. Prime example: "One Love". This was just so brilliant on many levels. The song is basically a letter to his homie who's locked down. Telling him how things are going, some reminiscing and other stuff. Q-Tip produced this track and produced it so well. I love the eerie xylophones that goes so well with the songs topic. The album closes out the same way it began with mind bending lyricism. The track "It Ain't Hard To Tell". Large Professor dropped a gem here with this beat. But Nas's lyrics just totally makes you forget about the beat. "It ain't hard to tell, I excel, then prevail/The mic is contacted, I attract clientele/My mic check is life or death, breathing a sniper's breath/I exhale the yellow smoke of Buddha through righteous steps". All the other tracks, "Halftime", "One Time 4 Your Mind" and yet another DJ Premier masterpiece "Represent" were all so incredibly dope. In closing, there's really nothing more I can say about this. You would be hard pressed to find any rapper, especially the new young lyricists, who would say they haven't been influenced in some sort of way by Illmatic. Of course this gets the classic grade of a A+. As I mentioned in the beginning, this month makes twenty years since it's release. To celebrate, Nas will be re-releasing this album along with a few newly recorded tracks. You know, to call Illmatic a classic just isn't enough. This album changed the course of hip hop history. It laid down the blue print on poetic lyricism and story telling. It is an album that not only is one of the best in hip hop's history, but in the history of music period. It is timeless. It is immortal. It is hip hop. End.
Final Grade: A+
CREDITS
Executive Producer
Michael Berrin
Lead Artist
Nasir Jones
Producers
Curtis Martin
Leshan Lewis
Peter Phillips
William Mitchell
Jonathan Davis
Collaborators
Peter Phillips
Anthony Cruz
Label
Columbia Records
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