#44 Nas, 'Illmatic' (1994)

Previously #402

Nas had been kicking around since he was a teenager. Along with his best mate and DJ, Will “Ill Will” Graham, he worked his way through the underground Hip Hop scene, drawing comparison to Rakim due to the multi-syllabic internal rhymes in his rapping, although he struggled to gain a record deal. In 1992, when Nas was 18, Graham was murdered by a gunman. The same night Nas’s brother was shot but survived. This was a major wakeup call for Nas. He was finally signed and ‘Illmatic,’ his debut album was released in 1994.

The record deals with themes of gang rivalries, poverty and desolation. Nas gave us first-person narratives of life within the Queensbridge Housing Projects in Queens. His delivery while delivering his war-correspondent-like reporting is astounding. His flow is natural, smooth and quick. On ‘N.Y. State Of Mind’ he delivers 841 words in under 5 minutes. That’s 2.8 words a second. On ‘Life’s A Bitch,’ he succinctly sums up life in the projects; “Life's a bitch and then you die/That's why we get high/Cause you never know when you're gonna go.” Nas’s debut was so highly anticipated that it has since become the benchmark for upcoming anticipated rappers. “Is it the next ‘Illmatic,’” critics would ask. The record is a landmark release in East Coast Hip Hop and despite its relatively poor sales on release, has gone on to sell in excess of 2 million copies.

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