History Music / Illmatic

[[caption-width-right:350:''I'm out for dead presidents to represent me.'']]

It's truly impossible to understate just how much of an impact Nas made on hip-hop with ''Illmatic''. Before its release, the West Coast was dominating the charts and airwaves, the rap scene in Queens was all but dead, and AlternativeHipHop acts like Music/DeLaSoul and Music/ATribeCalledQuest were the only acts seeing sustained commercial success on the East Coast. Nas, along with Biggie and the Wu, brought New York's hardcore scene to the mainstream, revived Queen's hip-hop scene, and firmly re-established New York's position in hip-hop in the face of GFunk's dominance, starting the "East Coast Renaissance". ''Illmatic'' is universally cited as [[FirstInstallmentWins Nas' greatest work]], a regular contender for the greatest hip-hop album of all time, and an influence on countless other rappers, and was selected for preservation in the UsefulNotes/NationalRecordingRegistry by the Library of Congress in 2021.

* TheInsomniac: "I never sleep, 'cause sleep is the cousin of death". In other words, Nas is too scared to properly rest ([[ProperlyParanoid and rightly so]]) because a rival could easily kill him while he sleeps, so he's in a constant state of paranoia-fuelled insomnia.

''Illmatic'' is the debut album by Music/{{Nas}}, released on April 19, 1994. A landmark album for both New York hip-hop and the East Coast scene as a whole, it's cited as one of the three major albums that revitalized East Coast hip-hop, alongside Music/WuTangClan's ''Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers'' and Music/TheNotoriousBIG's ''Music/ReadyToDie''.

''Illmatic'' is the debut album by Music/{{Nas}}, released on April 19, 1994. A landmark album for both New York hip-hop and the East Coast scene as a whole, it's cited as one of the three major albums that revitalized east-coast hip-hop, alongside Music/WuTangClan's ''Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers'' and Music/TheNotoriousBIG's ''Music/ReadyToDie''.

After a string of guest spots, and being passed over by Creator/DefJamRecordings, Nas signed on with Creator/ColumbiaRecords, and began recording the album from June 1992 to February 1993. The entirety of ''Illmatic'' draws from Nas' life growing up in the Queensbridge projects, with vivid and frank descriptions about violence, drug dealing, gang warfare, and the desolate state of Queenbridge from poverty. As Nas would say years later to NPR, "I want you to know who I am: what the streets taste like, feel like, smell like. What the cops talk like, walk like, think like. What crackheads do — I wanted you to smell it, feel it." That said, the album is far from devoid of the [[BoastfulRap usual rap braggadocio]], and has moments of optimism ("The World Is Yours"), nostalgia ("Memory Lane (Sittin' In Da Park)"), and tributes to fallen friends who died prior to and during the recording of the album.

The album is also responsible for kickstarting the trend of having multiple "super-producers" on a rap album, which was unprecedented at the time. Pete Rock, Large Professor, [[Music/ATribeCalledQuest Q-Tip]], L.E.S., and [[Music/GangStarr DJ Premier]] all contributed to the album, contributing their respective [[SignatureStyle signature sounds]], while still retaining a cohesive atmosphere and aesthetic. ''Illmatic'' has been simultaneously praised and criticized for this, as while it worked to great effect on Nas' album, it led to many other rappers having whole teams of big-name producers on their albums, often leading to an inconsistent sound.

It's truly impossible to understate just how much of an impact Nas made on hip-hop with ''Illmatic''. Before its release, the West Coast was dominating the charts and airwaves, the rap scene in Queens was all but dead, and AlternativeHipHop acts like Music/DeLaSoul and Music/ATribeCalledQuest were the only acts seeing sustained commercial success on the East Coast. Nas, along with Biggie and the Wu, brought New York's hardcore scene to the mainstream, revived Queen's hip-hop scene, and firmly re-established New York's position in hip-hop in the face of GFunk's dominance, starting the "East Coast Renaissance". ''Illmatic'' is universally cited as [[FirstInstallmentWins Nas' greatest work]], a regular contender for the greatest hip-hop album of all time, and an influence on countless other rappers, and was selected for preservation in the UsefulNotes/NationalRecordingRegistry by the Library Of Congress in 2021.

[[caption-width-right:350:I'm out for dead presidents to represent me.]]

''Illmatic'' is the debut album by Music/{{Nas}}, released on April 19, 1994. A landmark album for both New York hip-hop and the east coast scene as a whole, it's cited as one of the three major albums that revitalized east-coast hip-hop, alongside Music/WuTangClan's ''Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers'' and Music/TheNotoriousBIG's ''Music/ReadyToDie''.

''Illmatic'' is also notorious for the heavy bootlegging it went through; something that would continue to plague Nas later in his career. ''Illmatic'' was so highly anticipated among the hip-hop community, bootlegs were extremely commonplace; to the point where MC Serch, the album's executive producer, claimed at least one bootlegger had somewhere between 60-70,000 bootleg copies in a garage. Even Music/TupacShakur, who had not yet spurned the east coast, had a bootlegged tape he played in court during his sexual assault trial. The extreme bootlegging forced Nas and Columbia to rush the album out in mid-1994.

Upon release, ''Illmatic'' was critically acclaimed among both critics and the hip-hop community, and it debuted at #12 on the Billboard 200; [[AcclaimedFlop but the high bootlegging caused sales to nosedive fairly fast]], and it wouldn't reach Gold status until 1996, and eventually got an RIAA Platinum certification in ''2001''. For perspective, Biggie's ''Ready to Die'', released that same year, went Gold in two months, and Double Platinum in just over a year.

It's truly impossible to understate just how much of an impact Nas made on hip-hop with ''Illmatic''. Before its release, the west coast was dominating the charts and airwaves, the rap scene in Queens was all but dead, and AlternativeHipHop acts like Music/DeLaSoul and Music/ATribeCalledQuest were the only acts seeing sustained commercial success on the east coast. Nas, along with Biggie and the Wu, brought New York's hardcore scene to the mainstream, revived Queen's hip-hop scene, and firmly re-established New York's position in hip-hop in the face of GFunk's dominance; starting the "East Coast Renaissance". ''Illmatic'' is universally cited as [[FirstInstallmentWins Nas' greatest work]], a regular contender for the greatest hip-hop album of all time, influenced countless other rappers, and was selected for preservation in the UsefulNotes/NationalRecordingRegistry by the Library Of Congress in 2021.

The album is also responsible for kickstarting the trend of having multiple "super-producers" on a rap album, which was unprecedented at the time. Pete Rock, Large Professor, [[Music/ATribeCalledQuest Q-Tip]], L.E.S., and [[Music/GangStarr DJ Premier]] all contributed to the album, contributing their respective [[SignatureStyle signature sounds]], while still retaining a cohesive atmosphere and aesthetic. ''Illmatic'' has been simultaneously praised and criticized for this, as while it worked to great effect on Nas' album, it lead to many other rappers having whole teams of big-name producers on their albums, often leading to an inconsistent sound.

* JazzRap: Not as overt as some other albums, but the jazz essence is strong on the album.

* TheCynic: While he's not entirely devoid of optimism and hope, Nas is still a product of Queenbridge's ruthless streets, and it shows.

It's truly impossible to understate just how much of an impact Nas made on hip-hop with ''Illmatic''. Before its release, the west coast was dominating the charts and airwaves, the rap scene in Queens was all but dead, and AlternativeHipHop acts like Music/DeLaSoul and Music/ATribeCalledQuest were the only acts seeing sustained commercial success on the east coast. Nas, along with Biggie and the Wu, brought New York's hardcore scene to the mainstream, revived Queen's hip-hop scene, and firmly re-established New York's position in hip-hop in the face of GFunk's dominance; starting the "East Coast Renaissance". ''Illmatic'' is universally cited as [[FirstInstallmentWins Nas' greatest work]], a regular contender for the greatest hip-hop album of all time, influenced countless other rappers, and was selected for preservation in the UsefulNotes/LibraryOfCongress in 2021.