Explain Nas' Illmatic To Me

this is pretty much how i hear rakim, too, though.

(i've never really thought rakim was any more hot shit than any other hot shit rapper of his era. he could just go for longer without a breath.)

Uh, what were you expecting?

Nas' whole deal with illmatic was precisely that he was just this dude talking about not doing much, but dreaming about maybe living large and really just petty hustlin' at best to get by. And there's this romance to that "ghetto poet" image which projects an aura of authenticity and a feeling like "he's taking it to what hip-hop was about at the start" except of course he's taking it someplace new. And if everyone did this it would be really boring, but as a one-off it fuels and becomes a perfect componant of a "way it never was" backstory.

Mike Skinner seems poised to to an oddly similar thing, except he has a way better sense of humor and lyrical touch.

Here's Mike Skinner:

Has it come to this?
Original Pirate Material
Yer listening to the streets
Lock down your aerial
Make yerself at home
We got diesel or some of that homegrown
Sit back in yer throne, turn off yer phone
Cos this is our zone
Videos, televisions, 64's Playstations
We're paring with precision
Few herbs and a bit of Benson
But don't forger the Rizla,
Lean like the Tower of Pisa
Liza, I'll raise yer,
And this is the day in the life of a Geezer
For this ain't a club track
Pull out yer sack and sit back
Whether you white or black
Smoke weed, chase brown
Or toot rock
We're on a mission, support the cause
Sign a petition, summon all your wisdom
The Music's a gift from the Man on high
The Lord and his children
Triple teenyear rudeboys
Come rain or snow the boodah flows
You don't know?
Stand on the corner watch the show
Cos life moves slow
Sort yer shit out then roll
Sex, Drugs 'n' On The Dole
Some men rise, some men fall
I hear ya call, stand tall now

So: Short, simple rhyming couplets. No more than ten syllables per line. Few internal rhyme schemes. It's a static scene: Skinner and his audience are sitting around smoking drugs, listening to pirate radio and playing video games. United by these activities and their subsistence on the dole.

Now, Nas:

Rappers I monkey flip em with the funky rhythm I be kickin
Musician, inflictin composition
of pain I'm like Scarface sniffin cocaine
Holdin a M-16, see with the pen I'm extreme, now
Bulletholes left in my peepholes
I'm suited up in street clothes
Hand me a nine and I'll defeat foes
Y'all know my steelo with or without the airplay
I keep some E&J, sittin bent up in the stairway
Or either on the corner bettin Grants with the celo champs
Laughin at baseheads, tryin to sell some broken amps
G-Packs get off quick, forever niggaz talk shit
Remeniscing about the last time the Task Force flipped
Niggaz be runnin through the block shootin
Time to start the revolution, catch a body head for Houston
Once they caught us off guard, the Mac-10 was in the grass and
I ran like a cheetah with thoughts of an assassin
Pick the Mac up, told brothers, "Back up," the Mac spit
Lead was hittin niggaz one ran, I made him backflip
Heard a few chicks scream my arm shook, couldn't look
Gave another squeeze heard it click yo, my shit is stuck
Try to cock it, it wouldn't shoot now I'm in danger
Finally pulled it back and saw three bullets caught up in the chamber
So now I'm jetting to the building lobby
and it was filled with children probably couldn't see as high as I be
(So whatchu sayin?) It's like the game ain't the same
Got younger niggaz pullin the triggers bringing fame to they name
and claim some corners, crews without guns are goners
In broad daylight, stickup kids, they run up on us
Fo'-fives and gauges, Macs in fact
Same niggaz'll catch a back to back, snatchin yo' cracks in black
There was a snitch on the block gettin niggaz knocked
So hold your stash until the coke price drop
I know this crackhead, who said she gotta smoke nice rock
And if it's good she'll bring ya customers in measuring pots, but yo
You gotta slide on a vacation
Inside information keeps large niggaz erasin and they wives basin
It drops deep as it does in my breath
I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death
Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined
I think of crime when I'm in a New York state of mind

So: Immediately, it's obvious that the rhythms are much more complex. There are five internal rhymes in the first two lines alone. Metaphorical equation between the gun and the pen sets the street poet theme. Halfway through, the metaphor is extended to the jungle. Around line 8, the narrative begins: After setting the scene of his everyday life in 6 lines (this takes Skinner his entire verse), Nas takes us through a gang shootout filled with tension (he kills someone, his gun gets jammed, he has to run), only to quickly pull back to set a larger picture: The kids who watch him run through the building lobby are half his height, but they'll be on the corners soon, if they aren't already. The game has changed, and in the final lines Nas goes on to sketch the basic details of selling cocaine, before finally summing it all up with the indelible line "I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death."

In other words, no contest! And that's without even mention the fat bassline Nas rolls over on this track and his pinpoint rhythms....

And hey, at least he has metaphors...

I step out my yard through the streets
In the dead heat
All i got's my spirit and my beats
I play fair don't cheat
And keep the gangster's sweet
Turn the page
Don't rip it out at your rage
Move to the next stage
Lock the rage inside the cage
Like SK, it's a new day
But don't take the shortcut through the subway
Its pay or play
These geeza's walk the gangway
Deep seeded urban decay
Deep seeded urban decay
Rip down posters alight from last week's big garage night
And the next Tyson fight
I cook 'em at 90 degrees farenheit
And don't copy the copyright
I got 'em in my sights
Blindin with the lights
Takin 'em to dizzy new heights
Blindin with the lights
Blindin with the lights
Dizzy new heights

The difference is that hundreds of rappers have followed in Nas' footsteps since he wrote that stuff. Nobody has followed Skinner. Naturally, he seems fresher.

It's not haphazard, either. Each part of the narrative leads naturally into the next.

And the "what does that quite mean" mentalism of "Don't take the shortcut through the subway" and besides the heat is really dead, not like a dead-heat finish to a race and he's not blinded BY the lights but he's "blindin with the lights" and etc.

Nas has a better sense of drama and a knack for a memorable phrase, Skinner has a sense of the mood of the moment and a subtle sense of humour.

The perjorative argument for why you might like the Streets and not Nas is that if you're not a confident person you may feel intimidated or alienated by an album which is basically a straight-up statement of self-belief and a determination to be somebody.

The even-handed argument would be that you're not a romantic and thus prefer your moments of drama to be periodically punctured during the course of an album so you know the artist sees the absurdity of what he's doing as much as you, the listener, do.

Personally I don't require Nas to be intelligent enough to do that, but it's a reasonable enough criticism if you're of that frame of mind...

Or the "his writing isn't good enough to make sense" mentalism...

Nabisco, I just don't see that as haphazard, I see it as him pinning each part of the rhyme down. First setting the stage, then moving into tight focus, then pulling back for the big picture. The obvious word is cinematic...

I think Nas is plenty intelligent enough to know the absurdity of what he's doing:

I'm the young city bandit, hold myself down singlehanded
For murder raps, I kick my thoughts alone, get remanded
Born alone, die alone, no crew to keep my crown or throne
I'm deep by sound alone, caved inside in a thousand miles from home
I need a new nigga, for this black cloud to follow
Cause while it's over me it's too dark to see tomorrow
Trying to maintain, I flip, fill the clip to the tip
Picturin my peeps, now the income make my heartbeat skip
And I'm amped up, they locked the champ up, even my brain's in handcuffs

"It's Yours"

I prefer Skinner cause I can relate more to Skinner, and (therefore?) his jokes make me laugh more. The great thing about his record is that he doesn't and can't present himself as a hustler or his locality as particularly dangerous - though quite reasonably he's always trying to avoid danger. There are 3 or 4 violent incidents through all of OPM - all minor incidents, not a gun in sight. This strikes me as an actually pretty realistic depiction of daily life - most of the record is in the pub, dicking about, chatting to mates, at home, smoking dope, with the occasional high point - off to Amsterdam wahey! - and low point (getting menaced or in a fight down the chip shop).

Nas conversely has cocaine in line 3 and an M-16 in line 4: again this is realistic but it strikes me Nas is dramatising key incidents not wallowing in the genuinely everday. Of course I've no idea what daily life for Nas is/was like.

I prefer Nas (on Illmatic; don't have much time for most of the rest) because his beats rock much harder, his flow is much tighter and his lyrics are much better. And also I'm tired of people hyping the Streets ;)

Sterling I like Illmatic cos I like the beats and the samples (not afraid to be obvious eg the Human Nature one) and the rhymes don't get in the way. And it's tight and short. I will listen again and try and work out more reasons why.

With Primo, Large Professor, and Pete Rock on the boards, Illmatic was the best produced album of that particular hip hop scene. If you don’t like the production of this album, I find it hard to believe you would’ve liked anything coming out of NYC in the early-mid 90’s

Nas’ lyrics are thematically complex. He oscillates between violence and harmony, dread and hope, love and hate. He displays hip hop machismo and vulnerability. He manages to capture the chaos of gang warfare without turning it into a cartoon. He may exaggerate, but it comes across as authentic. And, in addition, Nas’ lyrics are a near-perfect match for the beats.

Peep out these lyrics from “The World is Yours”:

I'm the young city bandit, hold myself down singlehanded
For murder raps, I kick my thoughts alone and get remanded
Born alone, die alone, no crew to keep my crown or throne
I'm deep by sound alone, caved inside a thousand miles from home
I need a new nigga for this black cloud to follow
Cuz while it's over me it's too dark to see tomorrow
Trying to maintain, I flip and fill the clip to the tip
Picturin’ my peeps, now the income make my heartbeat skip
And I'm amped up, they locked the champ up, even my brain's in handcuffs

I may be a bit biased, since i've loved this album for a long time, but i still think it stands up pretty well.

a) The lyrics. He introduced a new level of realism (exaggerated or not) to hip-hop. You already mentioned that a while back. "A feeling like 'he's taking it to what hip-hop was about at the start' except of course he's taking it someplace new" is exactly it.
b) The flow. Really, his rhymes are very tightly coiled. You could strip the beats away and still hear the rhythms.
c) The voice. He projects authority (also, to me, one of the reasons why Rakim was great) and he enunciates very clearly. Every word is hard and direct.
d) Production. It doesn't hurt to have a great setting to shine in. All the "great MCs" have had that, I think.

I mean, what more do you want?

once again, to restate:
his imagery is sharp.
his themes are complex and don't belittle the subject matter.
his flows sync with the beat
the rhymes and internal rhythms, at the time, were pretty revolutionary.
his analogies are sharp and fitting for the subject matter.
there's a hunger and authenticity in his voice. if you don't hear this, then you are one of few.

What I guess I'm missing from Nas is a sense of narrative flow, or any real relation between the stories he tells and the flow of his lyrics, or any sense that his stories have any distinct structure. Also anything not utterly conventional and boring in his rhythms.

Are "hunger" and "authenticity" anything like "soul"? coz I can't hear that either.

Also: a neophyte?

But leaving that aside, what is a "relation between the stories he tells and the flow of his lyrics"?

haha he performed that on Nickelodeon?!?

haha

what a dope time to be into rap

right??????/

that is fucking dope

it was written is p great & 60-70% of tracks on 'i am' are dope too.

― lebroner (D-40), Thursday, June 9, 2011 9:21 PM Bookmark

yup

hey guys you used k-i-s-s-i-n-g as an example as why i was wrong

this video has seriously made my day thanks

"you owe me" which is probably his best attempt at a straight up pop single

― The Brainwasher, Friday, June 10, 2011 12:41 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark

that i can't think of a strong counter argument to this is proof that nas is horrible at pop singles

on joints like this nas comes across like wisest dude ever, it's almost effortless.

funny how nas can flip between sounding like this, the all knowing, almost parental, figure who has seen so much of life + would be a great person to seek advice from and then at other times a batshit pseudo-intellectual conspiracy theorist.

"If I Ruled the World" is his best pop single.

That song sucks

its still his best pop single

First rap song I ever memorized.

Love it to this day

Sometimes I sit back with a Buddha sack
Mind's in another world thinking how can we exist through the facts
Written in school text books, bibles, et cetera
Fuck a school lecture, the lies get me vexed-er
So I be ghost from my projects
I take my pen and pad for the week
And hitting L's while I'm sleeping
A two day stay, you may say I need the time alone
To relax my dome, no phone, left the 9 at home
You see the streets have me stressed somethin terrible
Fucking with the corners have a nigga up in Belleville
Or h.d.m., hit with numbers from 8 to 10
A future in a maximum state pen is grim
So I comes back home, nobody's helping shorty doo-wop
Rollin two Phillies together in the Bridge we called 'em oowops
He said, "Nas, niggas could be bustin' off the roof
So I wear a bullet proof and pack a black tres-deuce"
He inhaled so deep, shut his eyes like he was sleep
Started coughing when I peeked to watch me speak
I sat back like the mack, my army suit was black
We was chillin' on these benches where he pumped his loose cracks
I took an l when he passed it, this little bastard
Keeps me blasted he starts talking mad shit
I had to school him, told him don't let niggas fool him
'cos when the pistol blows the one that's murdered will be the cool one
Tough luck when niggas are struck, families fucked up
Could've caught your man, but didn't look when you bucked up
Mistakes happen, so take heed never bust up
At the crowd catch him solo, make the right man bleed
Shorty's laugh was cold blooded as he spoke so foul
Only twelve trying to tell me that he liked my style
Then I rose, wiping the blunts ash from my clothes
Then froze only to blow the herb smoke through my nose
And told my little man that I'm a go cyprose
There's some jewels in the skull that he can sell if he chose
Words of wisdom from Nas try to rise up above
Keep an eye out for Jake shorty what
One love

---

Seriously if you can't get down with that I don't think rap music --or life-- is for you.

sayin

Interesting that Eric Weisbard claimed to prefer "It Was Written" to "Illmatic" in SPIN back in '96. It was part of the larger theme of his column that pleasure in rap was considered suspect:

http://books.google.com/books?id=I6ZfZSHzFXIC&lpg=PA139&dq=nas%20it%20was%20written%20spin&pg=PA139#v=onepage&q&f=false

Rollin two Phillies together in the Bridge we called 'em oowops

^^love this line

if i ruled the world rules

Seeing things like I was controlling, click rolling
Tricking six digits on kicks and still holding
Trips to Paris, I civilized every savage
Gimme one shot I turn trife life to lavish
Political prisoner set free, stress free
No work release purple M3's and jet skis

my local shop had this for $11 yesterday, so i snagged it, filling a hole in my vinyl collection.

in a world of $20+ single LPs this seemed like a steal. but for all i know there was a deluxe/remastered/180-gram'd/bonus-track'd/whatever'd reissue like 6 months ago that devalued what i bought.

was there? or did i get a sweet deal?

Doesn't look like there was a reissue: http://www.discogs.com/Nas-Illmatic/master/20148

my local shop had this for $11 yesterday, so i snagged it, filling a hole in my vinyl collection.

in a world of $20+ single LPs this seemed like a steal. but for all i know there was a deluxe/remastered/180-gram'd/bonus-track'd/whatever'd reissue like 6 months ago that devalued what i bought.

was there? or did i get a sweet deal?

― alpine static, Sunday, 25 November 2012 19:25 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

very sad post

so sad

i come up with really good, complicated reasons why it was okay for me to spend $19 on a record sometimes, you need to hone your reflexes to just believe that you got a bargain & not interrogate the evidence too coolly. otherwise you will not acquire the records.

bro, i acquire the records, at a pace that i can't really afford. there is no problem there. i hear what you're saying, but your concern is misplaced in this case. i can come up with all kinds of reasons - good and bad - why it's ok for me to spend $x on a record.

that said, i lol'd when i saw the $48 price tag on the 2xLP, 45 RPM reish of Nirvana's Inscesticide the other day. and I am a mega-fan of said band. but that is beyond ridiculous, even for the vinyl-gouging game.

happy w/ my Nas purchase regardless, don't worry.

i'm just trying to get my head around the idea that an Illmatic on vinyl that was possibly pressed in 1994 would be devalued by a more recent reissue

So many gems in this thread

Speaking of which, if Nas did a whole album like "I Can" but maybe over all different sorts of classical music then i'd love it.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Thursday, January 29, 2004 12:11 AM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmbo

Nas does have one of the best non-album catalogues ever.

that said, i lol'd when i saw the $48 price tag on the 2xLP, 45 RPM reish of Nirvana's Inscesticide the other day. and I am a mega-fan of said band. but that is beyond ridiculous, even for the vinyl-gouging game.

otm, it is just fascinating when you see like a fleetwood mac record inexplicably priced at $50, & scan the lil sticker on the shrinkwrap to see how they've justified this

does he really? obv some great songs here and there but it feels like the overwhelming majority of his best work is actually on his albums, which can't be said for most rappers that have debuted since like 2000 (xpost)

that said, i lol'd when i saw the $48 price tag on the 2xLP, 45 RPM reish of Nirvana's Inscesticide the other day. and I am a mega-fan of said band. but that is beyond ridiculous, even for the vinyl-gouging game.

otm, it is just fascinating when you see like a fleetwood mac record inexplicably priced at $50, & scan the lil sticker on the shrinkwrap to see how they've justified this

― absurdly pro-D (schlump), Monday, November 26, 2012 4:14 PM (31 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you have so much to learn about HOT STAMPERS

"oh wow 180-gram vinyl, double vinyl" *wallet explodes from pocket, bills flutter checkoutwards*

xpost:

Yeah. I sometimes zone out to these fan made comps from a few years back. They hold up:

Tracklisting:
-------------

Disc 1

01. Nas - Formal Introduction (2:51)
02. Nas - Deja Vu (No DJ) (3:53)
03. Nas - On The Real (3:26)
04. Nas - Street Dreams (Remix) (4:46)
05. Nas - The Second Coming (3:34)
06. Nas - My Worst Enemy (4:06)
07. Nas - The Rise And Fall (3:57)
08. Nas - Tales From The Hood (4:00)
09. Nas - Escobar 97 (3:31)
10. Nas - Good Morning (2:22)
11. Nas - Find Ya Wealth (3:40)
12. Nas - High (2:30)
13. Nas - New York Talk (3:52)
14. Nas - Silent Murder (With Bonus Verse) (3:23)
15. Nas - Stay Chizzled (Large Professor Remix) (3:29)
16. Nas - Star Wars (4:08)
17. Nas - Understanding (3:13)
18. Nas - Life is Like a Dice Game (Extended Mix) (4:22)
19. Nas - Take it in Blood (Alternate Verses) (4:18)
20. Nas - You Don't Know Me (3:39)
21. Nas - Project Window (Original Version) (5:04)
22. Nas - 2Nd Childhood Remix Medley (Bonus Track) (4:33)
23. Nas - The World is Yours II Dead Presidents Blend (Bonus Track) (2:55)

Disc 2: Verses From... the Bowels of Hell

01. Nas - Verse From 93 Westwood Show (2:15)
02. Nas - Sinful Living (1:46)
03. Nas - Firm Clue Freestyle (2:02)
04. Nas - Verse From Funk Flex Volume 2 (1:28)
05. Nas - The Foulness (Part 1 And 2) (3:14)
06. Nas - One Plus One (Minus One) (1:39)
07. Nas - Hot 97 Freestyle (True Dialect) (0:46)
08. Nas - Verses From Everything is Real (1:19)
09. Nas - Bonus Verses From Ain't Hard to Tell (2:31)
10. Nas - Bonus Verse From Street Dreams (1:10)
11. Nas - Verse From Desperados 2 (1:37)
12. Nas - Verse From Affirmative Action Remix (1:27)
13. Nas - Verse From Thug Calm Down (1:19)
14. Nas - Verse From Last Words (1:54)
15. Nas - Eye For An Eye Freestyle (1:30)
16. Nas - Verse From to My (1:11)
17. Nas - Verses From Soundtrack to The Streets (2:11)
18. Nas - Live From The Bridge (Minus Clue on The Bridge) (2:25)
19. Nas - Verse From a Few Good Niggas (1:48)
20. Nas - Verse From Let My Niggas Live (1:13)
21. Nas - Stillmatic Freestyle (2:26)
22. Nas - Verse From It's Mine (1:03)
23. Nas - Verse From Be Ez (1:21)
24. Nas - Verse From Show Discipline (0:42)
25. Nas - Verse From Da Bridge 2001 (0:56)
26. Nas - Verse From Made U Look Remix (0:58)
27. Nas - Verse From Some of Em (1:12)
28. Nas - Verse From in Between Us (1:01)
29. Nas - Verse From Self Conscience (1:34)
30. Nas - Verse From Road to Zion (1:03)
31. Nas - Verse From Never Too Late (1:41)
32. Nas - Verse From Journey Through Life (1:24)
33. Nas - Verse From Good Life (0:43)
34. Nas - Verses From Let Em Hang (1:22)
35. Nas - Verses From I Want it (1:58)
36. Nas - Jonesin' (1:19)
37. Nas - Verse From Bravehearted (0:58)
38. Nas - Verse from Livin Thug (1:04)
39. Nas - 2006 Freestyle (1:51)
40. Nas - The Curse (1:01)
41. Nas - My Will (1:49)
42. Nas - Zone Out Over Just Blaze (Bonus Track) (1:45)

Disc 3: Synergy

01. Nas - Life's a Bitch Featuring AZ (Statik Selektah Mad Sol Remix) (2:39)
02. Nas - In Too Deep Featuring Nature (3:41)
03. Nas - John Blaze Featuring Big Punisher Jadakiss And Raekwon (3:54)
04. Nas - Mo Money Mo Murder Homicide Featuring AZ (5:11)
05. Nas - The Foulness (Part 3) Featuring Nature (1:44)
06. Nas - Serious Featuring AZ (2:14)
07. Nas - Streets of New York (No Singing) Featuring Rakim (1:42)
08. Nas - Analyze This Featuring Jay-Z (2:40)
09. Nas - Fast Life (Buckwild Remix) Featuring Kool G Rap (4:53)
10. Nas - Wake Up Show 94 Anthem Featuring Lauryn Hill, Organized Konfusion, And Ras Kass (2:23)
11. Nas - The Foulness (Part 4) Featuring Nature (1:40)
12. Nas - Tick Tock Featuring Prodigy (3:47)
13. Nas - Queenstyle Featuring Noreaga (4:41)
14. Nas - Body in The Trunk Featuring Noreaga (3:45)
15. Nas - Time Featuring AZ And Nature (3:44)
16. Nas - Everyday Thing Featuring Nature And Dre (4:36)
17. Nas - Sometimes I Wonder Featuring Nature (4:51)
18. Nas - Thugz Mansion (Cookin Soul Remix) Featuring 2Pac (3:40)
19. Nas - Why (Remix) Featuring Jadakiss And Common (3:02)
20. Nas - Music For Life Featuring Common (4:57)
21. Nas - Eye For An Eye Featuring Mobb Deep And Raekwon (4:48)
22. Nas - Verbal Intercourse Featuring Raekwon And Ghostface (3:31)

Rap & Bull bonus disc:

01. Nas - Sincerity Featuring Mary J Blige And DMX (5:07)
02. Nas - Ice King (Remix) Featuring Res (3:52)
03. Nas - Did You Ever Think (Remix) Featuring R.Kelly (4:19)
04. Nas - It Must Be Nice (Remix) Featuring Lyfe (4:20)
05. Nas - Streets of New York Featuring Alicia Keys And Rakim (4:37)
06. Nas - Make it Last Forever Featuring Mariah Carey And Joe (5:07)
07. Nas - Finer Things Featuring Jon B (5:01)
08. Nas - Man Up Featuring Amerie (3:33)
09. Nas - Love is All We Need Featuring Mary J Blige (4:14)
10. Nas - Locked Up (One Love Blend) Featuring Akon (4:57)

NSO POPS: ILLMATIC WITH NAS, March 28-29, 2014, Kennedy Center Concert Hall, W. DC
American rapper Nas and the NSO Pops kicks off One Mic: Hip-Hop Culture Worldwide on March 28, 2014 with a symphonic celebration of the 20th anniversary of Nas’s 1994 debut album and instant classic, Illmatic. These performances by Nas and the NSO capture the spirit of the original album through supporting the verse with new orchestral arrangements. NSO Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke leads the orchestra.

"overblown orchestral arrangements of Illmatic in another city" was the elevator pitch for the Kendrick Lamar album

http://funkydl.bandcamp.com/album/jazzmatic-nas-remixes

Actually, the only white people who posted in this thread are Sterling Clover, J0hn D., & and what.

― The Reverend, Sunday, October 21, 2007 10:33 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is jess not white?

warning, horrible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Ofd0WwJyA&feature=youtu.be

is jess not white?

― flopson, Saturday, March 30, 2013 3:48 PM Bookmark

...

sorry!

im becoming a member of the NSO so i can get in on the pre-sale of this... feeling i might regret it... hope AZ shows up for his one verse

i've listened to this album a lot and loved it over the years but it always struck me how bad a lot of the answers were to sterl's provocations itt

like, yeah obviously there's lots of realistic detail and poetic facility in the lyrics but they're very hard to follow as narratives (not just because of nas's delivery), and you can only sell nas as a storyteller here if you try to get by on attitude instead of on like mid-career ghostface creative writing workshop storycraft

it struck me recently that ralph waldo emerson is conventionally faulted for some things related to things nas is faulted for. his writing is supposedly full of these intense gems that hang together in this entrancing way that has a tendency to seem like a tangle of empty rhetoric and attitude upon reflection, and his thought is supposedly kind of foolishly/blindly optimistic, in neglect of the facts. but the better things people write about emerson notice his continual oscillating between despair and hope, and his effort to find a way of, basically, being believable about the latter in the face of the former. so his writing is really self-conscious and concerned with its quality of consciousness, and unstable because it's trying to keep these seemingly opposed things in a kind of productive tension.

the knock against nas would be his nihilism instead of his optimism, but he has that same sort of all-encompassing ambition to take in all of life and the world at once, to be self-possessed in the face of it. and his lyrics are so complicated because they're pivoting all over the place between attitudes and frames of mind in response to the narrative details and the reminisces (lots of them for a 20-year-old!) and to nas's own attempts to be this idealist transparent-eyeball mc. and like emerson, super preoccupied with thinking/writing representatively so as to articulate something universal out of a local, everyday experience that people are usually dismissive of.

in other words hua hsu = star post itt

http://twitchfilm.com/2014/04/tribeca-2014-review-time-is-illmatic-an-illuminating-look-back-at-the-creation-of-a-hip-hop-classic.html#ixzz301ZK548s

Embedded in Nas' dark street tales are notes of optimism and hope, with the ultimate message to his listeners being, "I made it out of this alive, and so can you." A late scene that shows the announcement of a fellowship at Harvard named in his honor promoting hip-hop scholarship emphasizes this. Unlike most of the neighborhood folks whose photos were used for Illmatic's album cover art, Nas was able to escape the fates of death or prison, and Time Is Illmatic ultimately becomes a moving testimonial to how music literally saved Nas' life.

for me now, production is stone cold classic, but i never did really connect with the lyrics.

no contrarianism i do like some of the more animated delivery of other rappers way over nas' style here. did we ever discuss elzhi and elmatic? i'm not gonna say its better than illmatic, but i def enjoy listening to it more, maybe just because it feels fresher.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHBdH8aj5Co

http://emoji.fileformat.info/gemoji/corn.png

jfc

ez rock just died i'm gonna put up with this shit

lol the streets