Let's talk about Illmatic (Nas)

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One of the few albums in existence that I can play without touching forward or back unless I have an itch for a certain track. This is like one of the absolutes in good hip-hop. I didn't even care much for the genre until I started exploring in freshman year of high school, found this album, and racked up something like 20 plays of each track within the first 2 days of me owning the album.

We all know about how the singles are classics and how N.Y. State of Mind was game changer tier, but let's talk about something else for a second. Represent and the story behind it's backing track is one of the most amazing things I've ever heard in my life. To get a sample from a movie as old as that and create one of the best beats ever, Premier is a fucking god.

I mean fuck.

And Deja Vu is disgustingly good for a "leftover" track.
 
CoffeeJanitor said:
You know I really used to love the album until I stepped back and listened to the lyrics. That shit is fucked up. The music I am fine with, but the lyrics really represent a ton of things I am very against. I'm sure he's just trying to get the feeling of living in the ghetto or w/e through, but when the n-word gets thrown around like nothing and images of people getting shot like crazy are being thrown around, I can't help but look down on the album a little bit.

At the same time NY State of Mind is my favorite song easily, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
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He wrote it in his teens while living all his life in the QB projects, what do you want him to write about? You should be looking down on how the U.S.' policies against blacks for the last 100+yrs before Illmatic came out lead to bullshit like Ill Will's shooting. #dat socio-economics.
 
CoffeeJanitor said:
You know I really used to love the album until I stepped back and listened to the lyrics. That shit is fucked up. The music I am fine with, but the lyrics really represent a ton of things I am very against. I'm sure he's just trying to get the feeling of living in the ghetto or w/e through, but when the n-word gets thrown around like nothing and images of people getting shot like crazy are being thrown around, I can't help but look down on the album a little bit.

At the same time NY State of Mind is my favorite song easily, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
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Are you fucking serious?

Not off Illmatic, but ocne again shows Nas' genius:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1fFRM8WiPI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLnZUjBLQR8 - MS paint version.
A track called Rewind, watch the video.
 
I know this thread is about Illmatic, but or any of you fans of God's Son? I don't really know where I'd rank it with his other albums but he has some pretty nice tracks on there. The Cross is definitely a favorite of mine.
 
eternaLightness said:
I know this thread is about Illmatic, but or any of you fans of God's Son? I don't really know where I'd rank it with his other albums but he has some pretty nice tracks on there. The Cross is definitely a favorite of mine.
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I thought it was very average compared to some of my other favorite Nas albums, though I loved the tribute track he did for his Mom. I'd rank it 5th behind Illmatic, Stillmatic, Lost Tapes, Street's Disciple.

BTW, was anyone else really pissed when they learned Scarlett wasn't real?
 
Excellent excellent album. One of my top threee, if not top album of all time.

Memory Lane and NY State of Mind are amazing.
 
MrOogieBoogie said:
I'd be curious to hear impressions from people who heard the album when it first released. Like, what went through your mind at the time?
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Best of all time.

When that album came out I was deep into hip hop, my sister who loved in the US sent it (vinyl and CD) to me about a week after it had come out (I lived in a foreign country and the internet wasn't invented yet). I was the hottest ish at my school for the next few weeks, I had people coming over to my house to listen to it. I also was DJ'ing at the time and being able to drop Illmatic did some wonders for my gigs.
The days before music was cheap and readily available internationally are mind boggling to think about these days.
 
I recognize that Illmatic is probably the greatest Hip-hop album of all time and it holds the
#1 rank in my top five (Illmatic, Liquid swords, 36 Chambers , Supreme Clientele, Midnight Marauders). While I love Illmatic and bang it every day, I tend to listen to a lot of *I am*, I mean a lot. I know it gets a lot of hate but it reminds me of the late 90's which was the golden era for east coast hip hop for me (Dmx, Ja, Jay-z, etc). Plus, if any other rapper would have come out with I am (minus a few dumb skits and Dr. knock boots) it would've been more acclaimed. I just feel Nas gets a bad rap since Illmatic was so great. Many of his other albums are clearly better than 95% percent of the stuff other rappers put out.
 
Illmatic is a headphones only album for me. I never listen to it in my car or remember hearing it at a party,club,etc... (i live on the west coast & didn't own it until like 1998 or 1999. I remember buying it at some record chain called "Camelot").

Still, it's a top-20 Rap album for me even though i don't listen to it as much as my other favorites.
 
Amazing album. Ridiculous atmosphere/imagery/poetry. Pure New York. I always listen to this and OC's Jewelz when I want some deep lyrical dopeness.
 
Surprised at the Life's a Bitch love, it's my least favourite track on the album.
Plus, AZ says "money orientated" which, due to not being an actual word, bugs the hell out of me.
Anyway, top 5 of all time for sure!
 
Nas needs to make more music between albums. The N-word mixtape was awesome. What It Is!!! Esco Let's Go! Cops Keep Firing was dope also.
 
Best rap album of all time no doubt, I've been listening to this for 6 straight years, and I haven't gotten tired of one track. From start to finish, it's flawless.
 
I absolutely adore this album, a straight up classic.

What is the concensus on the Elzhi EP, Elmatic?

elmatic.jpg


It Ain't Hard To Tell - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38HmE7fuE1w

Detroit State of Mind - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78Mtwi8MzEE

Haltime - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcKzOZ6Yc78
 
Tony Rocky Horror said:
I absolutely adore this album, a straight up classic.

What is the concensus on the Elzhi EP, Elmatic?

elmatic.jpg


It Ain't Hard To Tell - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38HmE7fuE1w

Detroit State of Mind - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78Mtwi8MzEE

Haltime - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcKzOZ6Yc78
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I think it's considered by all as a pretty good album, but it's impossible to listen to it from beginning to end.
You can't control the urge to go bump Illmatic

I loved how in the "post a perfect album" thread a lot of people were mentioning Illmatic. That thread made me proud of GAF.

My favourite line was already mentioned: "I Drink Moet with Medusa, gave her shotguns in hell". Beautiful shit.
 
I think what I really like most about Illmatic is how simple Nas keeps it. There's no ridiculous sampling or over-production or laundry list of guest-rappers. It's just Nas slinging his incredible poetry to absolutely dope beats. It was one of the first hip-hop albums I listened to, and it will forever command respect.
 
Forever my favourite album of all time.

I've listened so many times that I could probably recite it start to finish from memory but, despite this, it still manages to catch me off guard. I'll have missed some inflection or double meaning, and it'll just hit me and take my breath away the same way it did the very first time I listened to it.

It's just one of those things that's more than the sum of it's parts, yet the parts that makes every single second of it still feel incredibly dense with meaning.

It's one of my favourite things period.

I'm deep by sound alone
Caved inside a thousand miles from home
I need a new nigga
For this dark cloud to follow.
 
There's a reason why It Ain't Hard to Tell was the last track on the album.

Nas is like the afrocentric Asian, half-man half-amazing.
 
Timedog said:
There's a reason why It Ain't Hard to Tell was the last track on the album.

Nas is like the afrocentric Asian, half-man half-amazing.
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my most cited lyric, personally, next to medusa/shotguns in hell, and rappers i monkey flip em with the funky rhythm i be kickin'.

i'm assuming the GAF-hop delegation has not fully checked in here because the topic reads like "the sun will still come out tomorrow".
 
^ It's not illmatic. I like Elzhi and those guys who do it but people should just stop with the illmatic covers. I don't even want to see Nas attempt another illmatic.Leave it where it is and make somethign new
 
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