Explain Nas' Illmatic To Me

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"?

if you think busta just shouts we'll never see eye-to-eye on this.

Re: Nas' narrative structure. I'd argue that it isn't essential for a hip hop lyricist to present their stories in a linear, narrative fashion. Although there are those that do (and you mentioned a few of them), i think that it's perfectly acceptable for Nas' to paint a mosaic of his life and environment. Nas presents conflict, action, and possible resolutions. To my ears, Illmatic is nearly flawless.

also, i don't think that you're taking into account that illmatic was recorded ages ago (in relative hip hop ) and Nas pioneered many of the lyrical templates that you see as boring or conventional.

BTW, Nas' capacity for a linear narrative is one of the few things that improved after Illmatic, in my opinion.

On Illmatic, I just love the sound of his voice rolling down those samples. I'm not sure what's so striking about it, especially with all the different producers, which is usually the kiss of dud. Something about his blank stare in the lyrics gets you. Something about the Rakim-gray you find so boring: not cool, more just... cold. Sounds like a fall day in New York.

Always I'm in some shit, my abdomen is the clip
The barrel is my dick, uncircumcised
Pull my skin back and cock me, I bust off when they unlock me
Results of what happens to niggaz shock me
I see niggaz bleedin, runnin from me in fear, stunningly tears
fall down the eyes of these so-called tough guys, for years
I've been used in robberies, givin niggaz heart to follow me
Placin peoples in graves, funerals made cause I was sprayed
I was laid in a shelf, with a grenade
Met a wrecked-up tech with numbers on his chest that say
Five-two-oh-nine-three-eight-five and zero
Had a serial defaced, hopin one day, police would place
where he came from, a name or some sort of person to claim him
Tired of murderin, made him wanna be a plain gun
But yo I had some other plans, like the next time the beef is on
I make myself jam right in my owner's hand

(Chorus)

Yo, weeks went by and I'm surprised
Still stuck in the shelf with all the things that an outlaw hides
Besides me it's bullets, two vests and then a nine
There's a grenade in a box, and that tech that kept cryin
Cause he ain't been cleaned in a year, he's rusty as clear
He's bout to fall to pieces, cause of his murder career
Yo, I can hear somebody comin in, open the shelf
His eyes bubblin, he said, "It was on"
I felt his palm troubled him shakin
Somebody stomped him out, his dome was achin
He placed me on his waist, the moment I've been waitin
My creation was for blacks to kill blacks
It's gats like me that accidentally go off, makin niggaz memories
But this time, it's done intentionally
He walked me outside, saw this cat
Cocked me back, said, "Remember me?"
He pulled the trigger but I held on, it felt wrong
Knowing niggaz is waiting in hell for 'im
He squeezed harder, I didn't budge, sick of the blood
Sick of the thugs, sick of wrath of the next man's grudge
What the other kid did was pull out, no doubt
A newer me in better shape, before he lit out, he led the chase
My owner fell to the floor, his wig split so fast
I didn't know he was hit, it's over with
Heard mad niggaz screamin, niggaz runnin, cops is comin
Now I'm happy, until I felt somebody else grab me
Damn!

I put Illmatic on last night and decided I don't love it but I do like it. I like it because it's great background music - unless I'm concentrating hard I hardly notice Nas or the beats, it all meshes together too perfectly to engage with me but perfectly enough for me to never find the experience un-enjoyable. I think what Sterling(?) was saying upthread about it being the basic hip-hop album, like a re-founding of hip-hop, holds true. It's like if you asked somebody to imagine what generic "hip-hop" sounds like they might well think of something like Illmatic in the same way as someone asked what "jazz" sounds like might well think of Kind Of Blue. It's an album so strong it can stand for all albums - which is its advantage and disadvantage.

(Exception - those sing-songy choruses annoyed me this time.)

It's funny, but teachers actually are assigning out a lot of hip hop homework...

I'm getting visions of Nas doing a modified "I'm a little teapot" dance. Too cute.

Hip-hop is a culture obsessed with heroes, and whether they are the result of manufacturing or earnest hard work, they are rarely as immovable as they think. A culture whose music and approach assume a short attention span necessarily treats its stars the same way, and the debate about hip-hop's truly untouchable names would be a relatively short one. The days of Nas' undisputed spot atop that dawg-pile may be long gone, but he will always have his place in the discussion, not simply as a gifted lyricist, but as a prodigy.

Nas came into our world fully formed, first as a snot-nosed upstart who nonchalantly bragged that he "went to hell for snuffing Jesus" back when he was twelve, then as a twenty-year-old counting stacks with his partner AZ on "The Genesis," the weightily-named introduction to his debut, Illmatic. There are no moments of vulnerability on the album, no rags to put the riches of today in proper perspective. He arrives as a manchild in a broken land: a man because there is no childishness or uncertainty in his pose but a child because it is so obviously and precisely a pose and, as with many who inherit a precocious brain but a plain heart, he relies more on instinct and response than emotional certainty, conviction or stability. It was as though the questions one wrestles in youth (idealism, material, morality, "the future")-the mortal world-didn't matter, for Nas arrived immortal.

As such, Illmatic is fearless, shocking and literally unbelievable. There was a brazenness to Nas' "understandable smooth," Yeah-I-said-it delivery, a cool absence of thought or hope (maybe both), and whether he was indeed the journal or the journalist, there were few images as crisp and brags as cold as his. I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death. Cause I'm as ill as a convict who kills for phone time. I rap in front of more ni**az than on the slave ships. On "One Love," his description of an over-anxious, would-be young thug from around the way-"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 blunt's ash from my clothes/Then froze, only to blow the herb smoke through my nose"-wasn't just a dope rap lyric; it was an amazing piece of writing, regardless of age.

Through it all, Nas himself seems to seek very little in the exchange. If he is to be believed, he was already very rich, and though he would later try and refashion himself as a martyr-in-progress, on Illmatic he seemed too young and jaded to care much about any end, because in the end, nothing happens. Life's a bitch, as his song goes, but then what? Do you find redemption in ether? Philosophy? Do you pray for a merciful God? No. Life's a bitch and then you die, and the only thing Nas seems to believe in is the grace of falling. Religion clearly doesn't matter ("Cause yeah, we were beginners in the hood as five-percenters/But somethin' must of got in us cause all of us turned to sinners" from AZ's verse on "Life's a Bitch") and when Nas boasts that he "loves committin' sins" ("Represent"), you almost believe him.

Almost because there's still something behind Nas' eternally negative, harum-scarum worldview-not fear, but a dim consciousness of his own status as immortal. It is the belief that, though we may not live to see tomorrow, someone will. And, with history as our witness, we better seem pretty fucking fly to them. On Illmatic, Nas cared less about his place in God's eyes than his place in history, and history alone provided young Nas with a sense of salvation; a sense that the depravity surrounding him would one day be enshrined as the conditions for his genius. The album, like the man himself, excels because it is obsessed with the bright, fawning legacy that trails faithfully behind. He says as much on "Nas is Like," a song he wrote during the Illmatic sessions: "But what's it all worth? Can't take it with you under this Earth/Rich men died and tried, but none of it worked/They just rob your grave, I'd rather be alive and paid/Before my number's called, history's made."

There's something alluring and inevitably unsatisfying about seeing someone so nihilistic go about life, especially at such a young age. You can say you want to (or will) die before you get old, but those words feel cheap and flat when you live just cautious enough to survive well into your late-20s and early-30s. When you grow up against the anti-philosophy you lay out in the dim idealism of youth, you go from old school to old fool, and somewhere along the way, old Nas realized that he wanted redemption. He thought he would find it by earning the plaques and sales that he rightfully deserved, refashioning himself as a pretty thug and then again as the champion for the masses, finding solidarity with lesser cliques (Bravehearts, Murder Inc.) and beefing with Jay-Z, the man who took the best parts of Nas' blueprint and gave it both corporate and heartfelt dimensions. But nothing worked, and these muted expressions of fear only served to make Illmatic seem that much more unbelievable. As a kid, Nas didn't fear God; he just thought he was better, and he wanted people to know that tomorrow. Unfortunately that next day came, and the boy who was ahead of his time grew into a man forever captive to it.

Sterling - look, don't bully people into insisting why Illmatic is the shit. I'm not going to insult you if you don't believe it is but you seem to have this chip on your shoulder to dislike Illmatic to the point where you're ridiculing people's civil attempts at suggesting that maybe the album is actually pretty good.

Why not just chalk this up to "I'm not feeling it" and leave it at that? This complaint of yours that Nas' songs have no structural relationship between content and flow reminds me musicology students I've come across who seem more intent on dissecting the mechanics of a song rather than talk about their emotive affect. The two aren't mutually exclusive but one shouldn't need to justify either a like or dislike of a song or artist based on its structural qualities anymore than one should judge a painting solely based on its brush work.

YOU DON'T LIKE NAS. Ok, we heard you the first time, but goading people into proving you wrong is a waste of both people's time. You're clearly defiantly intractable in your position.

For the record - I'm not a huge Nas fan, mostly for many of the reasons Hua points out - dude has squandered his talents time and time again and I find Nas' acolytes to be a funny bunch of believers who continue to insist he can do no wrong despite having made a catalog's worth of shitty songs. That said, Illmatic is firmly planted on my top 10 list of all-time great hip-hop albums for all the reasons that people have already stated and if people disagree, that's cool with me.

Frankly, I'm not feeling the Streets and you know why? I can't hang with his accent and no amount of lyrical analysis can overcome that bias on my part. I guess now I'm being defiantly intractable. :)

--Oliver

The first thread on this board ever, back in 2000 (or late 99?) was Tom "provoking" ppl into defending emo.

This board has a long long history of exactly this sort of discussion, and its always been when it works out one of its strengths.

Sterling...where do you stand on Illmatic now? Has it changed for you?

i like illmatic a lot but it sounds old and soft to me. that lyrical style everyone says they like is all over the next seven albums. he's not perfect (five mics for stillmatic didn't make any sense because it kind of sucks), but lyrically, pretty much everything else he did kills illmatic badly. it's almost like people enjoy the philosophy or something of illmatic more than anything else or maybe the idea of it, the whole reactionary, tired dullness of it. like, "damn, why'd this guy hook up with hot producers and get hot rappers on his shit and step his lyrical game way up when he could have remade illmatic a million times???"

I'm not saying Nas is irredeemable but Jay-Z had it right - Nas' consistency is pretty far off, at least in my opinion, and the only people who really seem to go to bat for him (yourself excluded) are precisely kids who fell in love with Illmatic and keep desperately hoping that he comes back to that.

In other news, there are rumors that Columbia is planning on doing a remix version of "Illmatic." 10 producers for each of the 10 songs. Hot or not?

I like Hua's essay lots but it sorta misses the "uplift" side that ppl get from him which was there well before "I Can" and also I'm a bit skittish about the teleology reading Illmatic as a prophecy of future downfall or something. Something in nas' "there-i-said-it delivery" (great line) implies to some people at least, some sort of spiritual redemption in itself -- not quite the seamless valorization of a fall from grace. I've been listening to Illmatic less than ever, really and don't even think I've unpacked it after my move this summer. But I thought of Nas recently when I thought of the trying-too-hard-teen-poetry quality of the Pac verses on the Biggie duet.

Explain what is reactionary, tired and dull about Illmatic. Other than the fact that there is a consensus of opinion about it, which obviously bothers you.

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