Explain Nas' Illmatic To Me

one thing that struck me when i got the album at first which i forgot to mention is how shit the chorus' are...its the only thing i don't like about the album,some of them are really annoying...

AZ's opening verse on Life's A Bitch is still as amazing as when I first heard it. I love AZ!

^

it's a tight, fantastic record that doesn't waste a second of space, unlike most hip hop records that i'm invariably turned off by. the lyrics are great and the delivery is one of the best i've ever heard from the genre.

that's just my 2 pence

Life's A Bitch is indeed one of if not my favorite rap track of all time, I think we can all agree on that. Whether you like the rest is opinion - I think some of it is under-produced and as far as albums go I think Mobb Deep topped it.

sterling clover, explain yourself jackass

Does that guy still post? I actually met him once - he lived (lives?) in Jersey City

the bitchslap was invented for that guy

I think some of it is under-produced

i was going to post 'ban humansuit' but i think we've gotten past that now or something

sterling clover, explain yourself jackass

-- am0n, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 03:13 (9 hours ago) Link

Does that guy still post? I actually met him once - he lived (lives?) in Jersey City

-- Hurting 2, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 03:14 (9 hours ago) Link

this explains so much

illmatic nas sounds almost like he's trying to sound like illmatic nas.

i have no idea what this could possibly even begin to mean.

but i love that o-dub showed up like 2 years late and went at dude hardcore.

i was going to post 'ban humansuit' but i think we've gotten past that now or something

? In the middle it bogs down, no question, and banning me won't change that.

the world is yours
halftime
memory lane
one love

which of these mid-album tracks 'bogs it down'? just curious

People were seriously trying to compare Nas and the Streets in 2002? "lyrical touch" wtf

i always hate it when albums get bogged down with super classic songs.

oh the streets! i remember when you changed the world. that was awesome.

Yeah big LOLs over Streets/Nas comparisons upthread. WTF.

I would have to pick The World Is Yours as the bogger out of those 4 but only cos I love the other 3.

haha, at last a 3-yr-old thread w/ contributions from me i'm not embarrassed of

I'll have to listen to Illmatic again and comment later - been a long time. But again I always felt that Mobb Deep really perfected what Nas started, although I love Illmatic. Comments?

i remember feeling overwhelmingly confused by the streets argument. like how folks feel when lex starts talking about ciara in a techno thread

nas made it a hot line, mike skinner made it a hot album about losing a thousand pounds in a television.
i see no problems with said comparison.

T/S: Lily Allen vs. Poor Righteous Teachers

holy shit this thread

the ben williams post comparing the 2 verses should have been the end of it

major lulz @ "Just this guy talking in rhythm for a long time"

ya rly

I'm just re-reading this and dude's degree of contrarianism is infuriating.

AZ's opening verse on Life's A Bitch is still as amazing as when I first heard it. I love AZ!

-- admrl, Monday, July 23, 2007 2:40 PM (Yesterday)

he sounds so good on this track
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4TJyUwoPDw

I used to hustle, now all I do is relax and strive
When I was young, I was a fan of the Jackson 5

This is probably my favorite thing on the whole record. Couldn't tell you why.

as an MC, obviously Nas destroys Mike Skinner. however if you can't appreciate the obvious parallels between Illmatic and OPM....you must be american or something.

most underrated part of this thread: "plenty rhythmic complexity though granted not on lines which you need to cycle breathe to deliver." Sterling Clover in secretly bitter asthmatic shocker?

however if you can't appreciate the obvious parallels between Illmatic and OPM....you must be american or something.

I don't think me mocking the comparison of Skinner's "lyrical touch" with Nas's skill has anything to do with discounting the fact that both albums are narrative observations of their respective surroundings. Or with me being american.

Can I observe and acknowledge the parallels but not appreciate them, though? hah!

haha i chose the word carefully...but i don't disagree re: their respective skills, it's more the 'wtf these albums cannot be compared' response that i find bizarre. i mean, even the artwork!

OK, so here it is: NY State of Mind in particular has monotonous production, to a noticeable degree. This similarly happens in Halftime and Memory Lane, and One Love to some extent - in these songs, Nas' rhymes take center stage and the beats are just there to keep time - a lot. Life's A Bitch and Represent have such energy that it makes these tunes seem flat to me. I think that Nas's rhymes are really the focus. But again, if you check out Mobb Deep Infamous right alongside Illmatic, you can see that plenty was borrowed. But in terms of production it was also a quantum leap forward. As a result IMO, Illmatic may have been the first, but Infamous is the true classic.

BAN HUMANSUIT

sorry al

yeah man i dunno i love mobb but illmatic is one canonical album i'll go to the mat for anytime.

but at least yr dissing it in favor of mobb and not some UK b.s.

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0428,clover,55004,22.html

But I'm not dissing it at all. I simply think that it was an early album and that the production wasn't there at the time. It's something that I feel about a lot of early rap albums. Nas' raps are amongst the best that are on any album, certainly, but personally I simply am more inclined to like things that have a musical complexity to them. So, I love Outkast's Aquemini while I respect but can't get into 'It Takes a Nation' all that much. I'm not telling you you have to agree, but I'm giving you some kind of logical reason for the original poster's position. Why that should result in calls for a ban I'm not sure - do you want everyone simply to agree all the time?

I don't remember what "Street Dreams" sounded like and unfortunately, I do remember what "If I ruled the World" sounded like, though I wish I had a memory erase function for that particular song.

qft o-dub

^^^Totally true. so many people seem to love it tho! lauryn hill cred or something

i'm a big it was written apologist!

street dreams is awesome! jacking eurthymics a++!

i like i ruled the world too, but not quite as much. i kinda like the nas does bad boy jiggy type feel of those songs.

I Ruled the World gets pretty annoying on repeated listening. It hasn't aged well. But It Was Written does contain a lot of very nice hidden gems.

nas's joint with lauryn >>>> com's joint with lauryn

also, "street dreams" has the "all eyez on me" beat

'the message' is my joint

and that joint with mobb deep

p's verse on that is insane