Classic Albums: Illmatic by Nas

Release Date: April 19 1994

I’ve been thinking about talking about my favourite albums ever a lot recently, but I couldn’t think what to pick. I settled on this one. Where better to start then with what I think is the best rap album ever made and the best debut album ever made. Nas started writing Illmatic when he was 17 and it was finally finished when he was 21. Illmatic is a gritty retelling of his life and upbringing in New York in the 80s. To Describe this to full effect, Nas has a no-holds-barred approach, detailing the horrors of everyday life, violence, drugs paranoia and corruption. I love how on this album Nas expresses his frustration with the struggles his community experiences, in a way that is calm, collected and powerful. He even sounds optimistic on the song “Life’s a Bitch” despite the song’s grim subject matter. At no point through out the album does Nas trade the meaning of the sentence for a rhyme (which is one of my pet peeves in rap music). It is incredible to me not just how great his flow, his rhyme schemes, his writing was, but how consistently perfect they were from start to finish. Combine all that with his ridiculous talent for storytelling, making the songs intense, yet easy to follow. This whole album could listen like an audiobook book. The beats are minimalistic but are the perfect background for the lyrical blizzard going on in the foreground. It’s hard to truly put into words my love for Illmatic, but I tried. If you like hip-hop even just a little bit and you haven’t listened to this, take 40 minutes, lie on your couch, close your eyes and let this musical masterpiece wash over you. Sadly sadly sadly sadly Nas never lived up to this standard on any of his later albums. He showed flashes of Illmatic on “It was written” and “I am” and “The Lost Tapes”, but he hasn’t really had a classic since.

Song Ranking:

1. N.Y. State of Mind [track 2]

2. Represent [track 9]

3. The World Is Yours [track 4]

4. One Love [track 7]

5. Life's a Bitch [track 3]

6. It Ain't Hard To Tell [track 10]

7. Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park) [track 6]

8. One Time 4 Your Mind [track 8]

9. Halftime [track 5]

10. The Genesis [track 1]

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