As a hip hop head, I’ve a confession to make: Illmatic doesn’t really do it for me. I get that it appears regularly on best of lists and gets five mics in The Source. Nas’ flow is nice, The beats are smooth. NY State of Mind and Represent are absolute classics (those samples - nice). But there’s not much else I return to regularly. Why is this? I don’t vibe over the other tracks - Nas can’t quite decide on the mood he’s after- a little jazz sample like ATCQ here, a little MJ sample like something more mainstream there - leading to an unevenness overall. Also surprisingly short. A 3,5 respectfully rounded up to a 4.