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Throwback Classic: Nas - Illmatic
Article by:
Michael Ivey
 “Nas, Nas, na-na-na Nas” is all I heard when I was with my man Odell. Me, him and my cousin Bam would be walking to the courts and that outburst forever preceded: “Man! I gotta get dat tape again!” The tape was Illmatic, Nas’ mind twisting jewel made of everything physical and abstract in Queensbridge. The year was ‘96. See, when I was a shorty hoops dominated my mind. I listened to hip hop but mostly current stuff like Big, Pac, Fugees, new Nas. “Street Dreams” and “If I Ruled the World?” It ain’t get no better. Wasn’t till 2000 that my man Apex blessed me with a blood red CD - “Columbia” emblazoned atop a modest track list. I know what you thinking: fucked up ain’t it? Homes call his self hip hop and hadn’t heard a groundbreaking classic till the author was ouchie wallying and prophesizing. I say…everything in due time. My ensuing education made me the rare mid eighties baby who truly appreciates hip hop’s last rhyme fest and everything prior. Hug me don’t reject me.
The same cousin who used to back me down and blow me out on the court shared hours zoning to Illmatic. When I got accepted to Howard I could care less about going to school, so every night I’d ride the bus to his house and beam up. We almost always skipped the intro, but two things stuck: never let Phillies burn and when it’s real you doing hip hop even without a deal. The latter: the foundation of my outlook on this music. The former set the table for…well… some creative references to a teenage hobby. The highlight of “New York State of Mind” for us was Nas’ crystal image of running “like a cheetah with thoughts of an assassin” then watching his gun jam after bucking. He ends up racing through his crowded building lobby but “probably couldn’t see as high as I be.” Me and Bam always tripped over Nas getting his “first piece of ass smoking blunts wit hash” on “Life’s a Bitch” too. The song became especially real three years later, cause I was “twenty, it’s a blessin/ the essence of adolescence leaves my body now I’m fresh and/ my physical form is celebrated cause I made it/ one quarter through life…” You feel me.
Don’t get it twisted though, we had fun but remained analytical. Bam just grinned, squinting his crimson eyes, when I said naively, “He say the hook at the end of every verse!” The lyrics on Illmatic are crucial, but I was impressed by an equally tight structure. It’s a macrocosm of Nas’ uncanny timing on beats. We start out doing 40 with “New York State of Mind”, “Life’s a Bitch” and “The World is Yours” then accelerate to 60 at “Halftime.” Illmatic’s mid point contains dart after dart. My favorite made me see Nas through the windshield of an unmarked cruiser, diddy bopping across a dark street, straight grilling the boys. “…I’mma Nike head/ I wear chains that excite da feds,” he spits.
Legendary DJ Premier helps coast to 25 on “Memory Lane.” Premo flips Reuben Wilson’s “We’re In Love” into soul melting hip hop. And Nas’ portrait of his rap genesis would wow my English professors. “Jungle survivor, fuck who's the liver/ My man put the battery in my back, a difference from Energizer/ Sentence begins indented… with formality/ My duration's infinite, money wise or physiology/ Poetry, that's a part of me, retardedly bop, I drop the ancient manifested hip-hop, straight off the block.” Exquisite!
We maintain a chill pace with “One Love” and “One Time 4 Your Mind.” Executive producers Faith N. and M.C. Serch made a great decision to speed up slightly, ending with “Represent” and “It Ain’t Hard to Tell.” I guess it’s hard to go wrong with nine classics, but they made the tracks flow steadily.
Illmatic was a key step in my growth as a listener. Those nights with my cousin made me hip to examples of tremendous lyricism complimented by dope beats and sequencing. It also made us closer. Every time I dig in the crates and play Illmatic my heart finds its’ favorite moments. I may have been late, but my spot on that park bench down Memory Lane is reserved forever. Peace.
Related Links: Nas - On Making Illmatic (Video)
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