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Illmatic
Nas
1994
Wikipedia
Reviews
Like a review? Give it a thumb up to help us display relevant reviews!So, I never really listened to Nas much before today. And I'm decently versed with most hiphop. Nas just never really appealed to me, though. Luckily for me, this project is forcing me to listen to things that don't appeal to me because Nas really IS an extremely talented rapper. His rhyme game is on point. The constantly interweaving internal rhyme schemes are out of control and really unexpected for an east-coast act in '94. According to the wiki article, it kinda started with him. Well, thanks Nas. Docked a star because, while the lyricism is off the chain, the content is ... repetitive and shallow (though still better than 99% of the east-coast rap of the time).
One of the best hip hop albums I've ever listened to, the beats are real crisp, the samples and scratches are mega cool, and the vocals are just amazing, this is a must for every hip hop fan out there
An absolute classic If hip-hop is supposed to be a window into the streets, ILLMATIC sounds, feels, and even fucking SMELLS like NYC in the '90s. When the war against the Disney-fication of NY was still being waged. By 1994 hip-hop was nationwide but Nas grabbed the mantle and brought it back home.
Album #1 Although I've rinsed this album from start to finish many times when it came up as the first one to listen to I was more than happy to dive in again. There is nothing I can say about how great this album is that hasn't already been said by droves of people far more qualified than me. If anyone who doesn't listen to much hip-hop asks me where they should start, this is the first album I point them to. Few albums receive the privilege of acting as a benchmark for their genre, and that is exactly what Illmatic does for hip-hop. This benchmark applied even more so in '94 when the genre was still young and proving itself. On Illmatic, everything comes together perfectly. From the soulful yet raw beats to the poignant yet infectiously addictive flows. They work in tandem to weave a story of a city frozen at a point in time and one young man's place within it. Favourite Track: Memory Lane (Sittin' in da Park) Least Favourite Track: N/A
Not really much to say about this classic slice of east coast hip hop except how ace it is. Top 5 hip hop off all time
ok basically back on schedule now! been putting this album off for a while because tbh i was scared i wouldnt "get it" (hip hop is still not quite my genre of choice) but nah this bangs. mr nas raps way too fast for me to get everything hes saying but like the rapping is great and the beats are also really good so who cares? and when i can make out the lyrics theyre pretty great. lifes a bitch is basically perfect. not every beat hits it outta the park for me (one love) but its still fairly consistent just bc nas is really fucking good the entire time. dont get the love for the genesis though. feels like a bit of a superfluous intro. mayb i simply dont get it.
Instant classic, from the day it was released. Not a bad track on here. Best hip-hop album of all-time? Best album of all-time?
Nas was 19 when he wrote this album - the talent. This was the beginning of east coast rap as it is today. Thank you Nas! Side note, I saw him play most of this album at Gov Ball in 2013.
One of the best. Collabs are on point. I feel like this is the transition album between old school and new school.
I see why this is a classic. The beats. The samples. Nas has a great flow and great word play.
Probably a top 10 rap album all time. Nas is one of the great storytellers and wordsmiths of rap with a buttery smooth flow. Love this album.
Not usually a big rap listener, but I really enjoyed this album. Great beats and lyrics.
One of the greatest albums of all time. One of my personal faves and overall flawless. Lots of nostalgia everytime I hear a song from this album. Lyricism is amazing!
Oh man, what an album! One of the best hip-hop records of all time! Even if you don’t like hip-hop this is worth a listen.
"I rap for listeners, blunt heads, fly ladies and prisoners" Escuchar este disco es visualizarse en un auto, ventanas bajas cruzando el Bronx, literalmente donde nació el rap. No culpo en lo más mínimo a la gente que dice que Illmatic es el mejor disco de rap de la historia o el lugar donde comenzó la era dorada del género. Soul, funk, jazz. Este disco lo tiene (y samplea) todo. Cierra de principio a fin. Si bien fue producido en conjunto con un montón de productores es notoria la contribución de Q-Tip, proveyendo carácter y personalidad a la voz de Nassir. El flow y el sonido de este disco solo se compara con un grupo muy selecto de discos de la época/genero. Es rarísimo mirar atrás y decir que las letras de este disco son las más… ¿Educadas? Nas tiene esa capacidad de demostrar lo horrible de vivir en un ghetto y a su vez señalar la esperanza de salir, o de vivir en uno. Por supuesto que todo se vuelve full circle cuando lo comparás con discos que venían de la otra cosa como el amado The Cronicle de Dr. Dre. No hay notas adicionales, el disco lo dice todo y más. Si querés hacer un viaje por los gigantes del rap, Illmatic va a estar entre las 3 primeras paradas que quieras hacer.
What a wonderful album. Possibly one of my favorite beats/samples in the last track. So many dissertations have been written about how great this album is. What else is there to say?
Terrible discazo, la produccion me encanto, tiene buenas liricas, esta excelentemente rapeado. 5/5
damn this one slaps! NY State of mind is a stone cold classic, I really like the mixing and that flow! again, damn!
Insane he pulled this off his debut, I mean the production alone Is stacked. The cover is literally one of the first images in my head when I hear “hip hop”
Absolutely fantastic and an obvious classic. This album paints such vivid pictures of New York that it feels like a movie. Beats, rapping, flows, storytelling, everything is about as good as it can be. Insane record.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about music, and this includes Illmatic. But I hold strongly that Nas's debut album, Illmatic, is the greatest and most important hip-hop album of all time. I cannot and will not dispute this. It goes hard. The sampling and the beats, Nas's flow on each song, the lyrics, the whole product. It's the combination of Boom Bap production with hardcore lyrics and flow. But the lyrics aren't just braggadocious or tough, they're a reflection of reality. Nas was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Queens, later dropping out of school and fully immersing himself in music. Nas, of course, is a natural wordsmith and lyricist. His cadence along with the depth of the bars elevates the art of rap to a multi-dimensional instrument. Each song stands on their own, you can tell that love and care went into the album as a whole. It is not a product of commerce, but of passion. Incredibly impactful and insanely catchy, Illmatic is an all-timer.
När jag i mellanstadiet ville bredda mina musikhorisonter och lyssna på något annat än Eminem, läste jag på internet om Nas' Illmatic, och hur den beskrevs som en "hip-hopbibel". Sedan dess har albumet följt mig. Jag återkommer alltid till det efter några månader, inte för att det påverkat eller betytt särskilt mycket för mig, utan för att jag vet att när jag slår på Illmatic har jag 40 minuter ren kvalité framför mig. Varje låt, varje beat, varje rad är så nära perfektion man kan komma i hip-hop. Detta trots att Nas i vad som kanske är tidernas bästa hip-hoplåt, N.Y. State of Mind, inför första versen lägger in en brasklapp: "I don't know how to start this shit, yo...". Albumet är perfekt rakt igenom, men extra bra är ovan nämnda N.Y. State of Mind (såklart), Life's a Bitch, One Love, och Represent. Straight out the fuckin' dungeons of rap! Bästa låt: N.Y. State of Mind.
Straight classic in the rap genre. Biting, intense lyricism and amazing crisp production and beats.
OK! I liked this the first time through. Liked it even more the second time through. Yep, the music is catchy, the rhymes are clever. All the talk of M-16s, M-10s, .9s, and the threat of death or prison makes me viscerally anxious, so I'm not sure if I'll listen to it regularly (and I acknowledge the privilege that I have that allows me to say and do that). But this is a great album and I can see why it's on this list.
This album brought back memories of when I used to hustle on the streets of Brooklyn. 1. I have never been to New York. 2. I have never hustled on the streets.
It's Illmatic by Nas. The best rap album of all time. Nas's lyrics are so slick that they slide off his tongue and spread like an oil spill in your brain, and the beats from the best craftsmen in the game (QTip, Large Professor, Premier, Pete Rock, L.E.S.) back him up so perfectly that they feel like a part of him, a natural extension of his craft. The album might honestly have the best three song run in hip-hop history. It should be illegal to follow New York State of Mind with Life's a Bitch and The World Is Yours, and the album never stops from there. Poignant slice of life tales on Memory Lane and One Love give the album an emotional through line and enhance the heady blend of ambition and apathy, power and weakness, joy and tragedy that defines the life of Nasty Nas. Represent is similarly incredible, with a hungry and passionate Nas giving it his all. It Ain't Hard to Tell, One Time 4 Your Mind, and Halftime are the only "subpar" tracks, meaning that they're 8/10 instead of perfect 10s and above like the rest of the record, but they all deliver standout moments and are probably the favorites of many listeners. This album is a touchstone of hip-hop, as Nas's measured, neverending flow and poignant, deadly lyrical skills either directly or indirectly inspired B.I.G., a future rival in Jay-Z, and countless other rappers. His lines have been reused countless times, and every contemporary hoping to make his or her bones in the game pays homage at some point to the album. It isn't rap's most important album, but it's the best there ever was.
Somehow I missed actually listening to this thing. Seems to be about worth the hype. The low end backs up the bars, and reinforces their sheer density. Probably the best fusion of East Coast sound and jazz that I've heard yet. Deserves a closer listen than I gave it, though.
The lyrical flow is great and works nicely with the samples and beat. But the content isn't much different than other rap albums.
An amazing rap album in every aspect, storytelling , lyrics, beat choice,... no misses one of my favorite hip hop albums 9.3/10
Nas’s flows on this are so good, literally flowing. Just so smooth. The instrumentals aren’t super grand or anything, but they’re groovey and funky, sort of minimalist here and there. Almost lo-fi hip hop/jazz inspired. I think it’s good, I know how influential this was, how big it was and has been since, but I can’t rank it a 5. Would like more hooks, more instrumental changeups, bigger sound. A couple songs that maybe go on 45 seconds too long
Yeeeh. Listen 4 times to this one to try to understand the hype. Sure the rhyme structure is interesting, his flow is nice and the production from prem is tight. For me, I think it lacks any killer hooks and maybe that is the reason I’ve never really got into Nas.
Finally, a rap album! I’m wondering how I’m going to feel about this one, though, as I’m not a big fan of glorifying violence. So I actually liked this one more than I thought I might.
I still have a hard time sitting and listening to rap because the words are a lot like poetry so I always feel like I need to read along. What I picked up from this I liked.
It's a very good classic rap album. For me, these songs could be more strong and the thematic sounds old for modern days, but I respect the historical music from the hip-hop movement.
Its that bridge to modern hip-hop. Halftime is rad. Memory Lane is rad. Aint hard to tell is a great closer
Keine Ahnung, soll ich jetzt wieder das alte Lied anfangen, von wegen früher war HipHop besser, die MCs haben's mehr real gekeeped und von der Consciousness an sich? Naja, aber für mich ganz persönlich/meinen Geschmack war das schon auch so. Auch wenn Nas meinem Lieblings-Flavor nicht durchgehend am nächsten kommt: meinen kross gebratenen Rehspeck kricht er natürlich trotzdem, und kriegen Premier, Large Professor, Q-Tip und die anderen für die Produktion. Für seinen supergechillten Old-Newschool-Flow, für das Selbstbewusstsein (mit 19!), für die klare Artikulation, und für Queensbridge: 4 Punkte
Some lyrics still as poignant today as when they were written which asks questions about how much social progress has really been made
A rap album that I actually enjoyed listening to and would consider coming back to if I ever wanted to listen to rap. Fav Track: Halftime
Amazing verses, liked the later songs on the album more than the well known first couple of tracks
I was quite enjoying this album, but I did have to listen to it in three goes, as it was a bit much to have blasting at home. From what I've read, illmatic was the first album of its kind, making way for people like dre, Jay z, biggie smalls etc. For this, it definitely deserves to be up there on this list.
Me gustó mucho. No puedo creer que este disco se me escapó cuando me estuve metiendo en Hip Hop de los 90s. En The Genesis, escuché una voz conocida ... el que canta en Public Enemy, puede ser? PD. En "NY State of Mind" dice "The city never sleeps, full of villains and creeps", es contradictorio pero me hace querer un poquito más a NYC 4/5
I don't like the language, but the music is phenomenal. What a talent. Really enjoyed this. Listened to it at least three times today and just keeps getting better.
Not a hip hop fan, but holy shit does Nas have the gift of poetry. This didn’t feel like a collection of songs, but a love letter to the gritty New York so many of us grew up in.
I've heard this before, a few years ago. It's a good album, one of the last I know of from before rap started to sound like shit a year or two later. Glad it came up, hit the spot this morning. 4/5.
Nas never had quite the best beats but he remains probably the best lyricist from the 90s. His Lifes a Bitch verse is my favourite rap verse of all time.
Haven’t ever listened to Nas before this and this isn't a genre I have much experience with... The rap on this is impressive, albeit with the occasional problematic lyrics. The music has lots of 90s flair, although iI found it was a little stripped down for me as the music and samples could become monotonous. Although I guess maybe that's part of the deal here since the focus is on the rap. I liked listening to this. Although I don't see myself listening to the whole album, there are some songs I will revisit again. Hovering around a 3.5 rating so I guess I'll round it up since the rap is so strong. Favorite songs: “Life’s A Bitch”, "Memory Lane (Sit-in' in da Park)", "Represent", "Ain't Hard To Tell".
I have some familiarity with Nas, but for most of this album, I was a first time listener. I was excited to see a classic hip hop album show up, and I am happy to now be familiar with the studio debut of Nas. I appreciate the artistry of storytelling and rhythm of delivery that Nas has. I also enjoy the musical mixes and beats backing the lyrics. It's good.
An instant classic, probably the greatest hip hop album of all time. Highlights for me are N.Y. State of Mind, Halftime, Represent, and It Ain't Hard to Tell
Definitely caught and kept my attention. There's a darkness to many of the track's rhythm and harmony that I like. It's not so dark as to be overly dissonant or grating to my ear, and it's not a downer; it's really a texture or layering that I'm feeling. Melodically, it's a bit more interesting to my ear than other rap and hip-hop I've heard. I could almost see the notes climbing up and down the staff as a song progressed, and I don't normally get that kind of visual imagery. Very cool. I'll need to go back to listen again and read the lyrics, too. As someone who loves poetry, I'm hearing some intriguing uses of meter and lyricism. 'Memory Lane' and 'Represent,' among others...I need to dig in. Great album. (Follow-Up: I just scrolled the Wikipedia article; dang, that's a long one! I'll definitely have to read it.)
Illmatic is a properly impressive piece of work honestly. He wrote this piece when he was 19 and at that time had more lyrical ability then most rappers would ever achieve honestly. It's a really solid piece of work, but I don't think I'm a huge huge fan of it. I've listened to it a quite a few times, and it's sort of the album that people respect you for listening to. But eh, I don't like it all that much. Could be my southern bias too a certain degree, but I don't think I love it as much as everyone else does.
Solid album. Fully appreciated the Michael Jackson sample on It Ain't Hard to Tell when listening through.
Abjectly East Coast. Didn't realize NAS came up around Tribe. Harder than Tribe, though.
First time listening to this. I kept having moments where I thought the music sounded familiar but then realized that it's because the rapper Logic seems to copy a ton of Nas's themes. Good album.
Illmatic by Nas (1994) Here we have intensely local East Coast hip hop brought to the listener by a variety of producers supporting the considerable talents of 20-year old Nasir Jones, ‘Nas’. With relatively smooth beats, and softly pulsing R&B and jazz keyboards rocking in the background, these tracks are generally free of production gimmicks, tending to focus the lister’s ears on the poetry of the lyrics. And the lyrics are every bit poetic. With a consistent meter that isn’t evident on the printed page, we hear a mature mix of cadence, alliteration, creative visual figures, syncopation, and exquisite internal and external rhyme. Nas delivers his poetry with crisp diction and disciplined spoken tone. It helps to have an ear for urban slang and street life references, but there are resources available to the serious listener who wants to understand (I recommend a critical use of the Genius app). Several nice touches are heard here in the midst of the violence, drugs, and sex, like the outro to “Life’s a Bitch”, with a very nice low register jazz trumpet performance by Olu Dara Jones, Nas’ father. It’s a “keepin’ it real” declamation of the criminal, violent, and drug-saturated facts of life for the young men living in the low-cost high-density habitation of the Queensbridge Houses (‘projects’) on the eastern banks of New York’s East River. Who was the genius who decided to keep these people poor and far from Fifth Avenue but close enough to Manhattan to make a daily commute for doing the dirty work? The unified field theory of 20th century American urban planning is cheap labor. Nas draws vivid pictures of the results. “Life’s a bitch and then you die; that’s why we get high, ‘cause ya never know when you’re gonna go.” “Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined; I think of crime when I'm in a New York state of mind.” “My strength, my son, the star will be my resurrection; Born in correction, all the wrong shit I did, he'll lead in right direction.” One may recoil, or wish it away, but this is an integral element of the artistic trajectory of our day. And on this album, it is done well. 4/5
A pretty good album,not up to the standard of the best from Eminem, A Trube Called Quest or Kanye but NY State of mind and Life's a Bitch, Halftime are great. 3.75 stars
im 100% sure one of my friends remixed the vocal stems from this but im p sure they removed the remix
Nas oli teininä yksi parhaista! Edelleen lepposaa räbää ja muutaman kerran pyöri ympäri.
L'album contiene diversi pezzi che sono rimasti dei classici del genere, i testi sono interessanti descrivono una realtà tanto cruda quanto desensazionalizzata. Le basi sono molto orecchiabili
Strong. Great attitude and energy. Strong lyrical content and i'm into Nas' rapping style.
Love 90s rap way more than modern rap. Did enjoy this, but not something I'd listen to on the regs
Nonostante non ascolti solitamente il genere ho veramente apprezzato l'album, basi solide ed interessanti su cui la voce interagisce bene. Per aprezzarlo meglio sarebbe probabilmente bene ascoltarlo con il testo così da capire tutte le rime
I appreciate it for what it is, but not my style. David really liked it. Life's a bitch then you die
Another one of those classic 90's hip-hop albums that I didn't care about back in the day, but that prove to be really good works of art.
Le basi sono molto interessanti e da profano del genere posso dire di aver adorato i testi e al contempo di non averli capiti appieno. Si tratta di una cultura troppo lontana dalla mia e senza approfondimento sono convinto si perda molto.
According to Wiki Nas is a brilliant poet lyricist and this is one of the greatest and most influential hip hop albums of all time. I think I would have appreciated more if I had listened more carefully and not just had it playing in the background while I worked. The lyrics may have been great but the beats were just ok.
Cool 90s East coast hip hop. Not my thing, but you can feel the musicality and quality in every of the songs of the record
Nice vibe, good production and samples. Played it back to back with my favourite Public Enemy album and it was more listenable. Lauded for it's lyricism but I couldn't tell.
nice album and a lot better than other music ive heard of the same genre from the same period but overall a good album
This album had such a variety of feeling which is great. 'lifes a bitch' reminded me of the film 'fish tank' because there's this really amazing scene where she's dancing to it with her mum
Not a Hip Hop/Rap guy. The beats were great. I could listen to this again, that's a rave review for me for not liking the genre.
I like this old school hip hop vibe. And q tip is a great feature artist. It's good lyrics and great flow. I like the tone of his voice too.
It just wasn't as good as I expected. It should be something I like, rap with multisyllabic internal rhyming, but I just didn't find the flow exciting.
The beats are simple and lacking a bit, rapping flow is nice. Overall a decent album that isn't too long
3 stars. There were a few bangers in the beginning, but second half definitely not as memorable
Not that fan of the genre hip-hop, but really liked elements of music from jazz and blues. Difficult to hear the text, but the flow and rhythms was good
Really good raps. that are engaging and well writen. I wish the music was more interesting , more nuanced. Most songs are just drum beats an a single synth figure that often sounds like a vibraphone. Some more varied instrumentation would help in my engaging in this otherwise excellent album Having said that it deserves further exploration. 3.5 stars
Been waiting a long time to listen to this legendary album. Beats are good. Taps "flow". It's kind of old school. I like. High 3.
A genre outside of my usual comfort zone, I was definitely not feeling okay about the world through "N.Y. State of Mind" and wasn't sure I could do this. "Life's a Bitch" was also rough, but I appreciated the sound of it more. And then I found myself quite liking "The World is Yours" and "Halftime" with its jingle bells. Heck, I liked the rest of it. Many of the repeated themes in these songs felt cliché, but I reminded myself that this was 1994 and these were compositions that inspired the clichés. It was a voice that ended up drawing me into its world for a little while.
Never listened to Nas before, +1 from me. Probably wouldn't have put this on but glad I did.
I can appreciate it, understand it, tip my hat to it, maybe even masterbate to it, but that doesn't necessarily mean I love it. Bumping it up a point for staying within a nice, tight run time.
Hiphop dieser Ära: ikonisch und doch mono. Ich darf mich glücklich schätzen, erst etwas später eingeschaltet zu haben, als Message, Samples, Struktur als Ganzes ein neues Level erreichten. Nas ist schon okay, aber für meine Lesart ein stepping stone zum goldenen Ufer. Kendrick gibt mehr als 1.9
The good news about Illmatic is it's sonically pleasant. The beats have flava (shoot me for using the slang) and the samples are tasteful, well-chosen and varied. There's some nice scratching on The World is Ours and Memory Lane. Olu Dara's sinuous trumpet lines are welcome on Life's a Bitch. Unfortunately, it's all downhill from there. There are few new insights here, just the same old gangster rap tropes and DJ braggadocio you've heard a million times before. Okay, that might be a little harsh. Nas redeems himself slightly as a storyteller on Memory Lane and One Love, which have a palpable sense of place and an elegiac, melancholy tone, unusual in rap. Unfortunately, Nas' raps are rhythmically remedial. They're fluid enough, but lack creativity and variety. Frankly, Illmatic mostly bored the shit out of me. One small blessing: the usual misogyny and homophobia are kept to a minimum. 1 1/2 points for the musical backgrounds, 1/2 point for the raps. 2/5
Not my favourite genre of music but for rap it’s more than listenable. While I did enjoy the pleasant flow it’s not an album I’ll actively seek to play again. If ‘90s rap is your style though, you’ll probs really dig it. 2 Stars!
Why was this not considered gangster rap? I read it supposedly show the NYC rap scene as still relevant compared to the West Coast scene of "gangsta rap". But the lyrical content seems basically the same.
Gang gang
Memoriiiiiiiiies