Illmatic

Product Information

Represent" produced for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/DJ Premier Publishing/Gifted Pearl (ASCAP). N.Y. State Of Mind" produced for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. Contains sample from "Mind Rain" as performed and written by J. Chambers. Gifted Pearl/Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music (ASCAP) Memory Lane (Sittin' In Da Park)" produced for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. Like many others, because this was a live hip hop album, I wasn't expecting much in terms of its sound quality. That prejudice was smashed 10 seconds in due to the fantastic audio engineering that went into this album. The quiet parts are dead quiet, the vocals are surprisingly well balanced, and the icing on the cake is the orchestra. NY State of Mind, One Love, and Life's a Bitch in particular sound brilliant with the addition of these live instruments. Even though it's Illmatic and Nas does a solid job MC'ing, the orchestra truly is the focal point here as it adds a refreshing and powerful new addition to the best hip hop album ever made. I got goosebumps several times during the performance (for real), as this is a rare occasion. Usually fusions such as these sound mashed and clumsy. Not here for it's evident that a ton of work and rehearsal went into this performance.

pressing: fairly standard Columbia CD release: jewel case, fold-out booklet (no lyrics) with some good photography, sounds good

Side B label has, additionally: Zomba Enterprises Inc./ Jazz Merchant Music (admin. by Zomba Enterprises Inc.) B4 - Produced by DJ Premier for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. But Nas uses Illmatic as more than a vehicle to escape. The styles and stories that formed him fuse into something that withstands outdated slang and popular taste: it is a story of a gifted writer born into squalor, trying to claw his way out of the trap. It's somewhere between The Basketball Diaries and Native Son, but Jim Carroll and Richard Wright couldn't rap like Nas. A5 - Large Professor Music Ltd. / EMI April Music Inc. / III Will Music, Inc. / Skematics Music / Minder Music (USA) (ASCAP)

Halftime" produced for Paul Sea Productions, Inc. Recorded and mixed at Chung King Studios, NYC. Contains samples from "Dead End", "Soul Travelin'" and "School Boy Crush". Large Professor Music Ltd./EMI April Music Inc./Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/Minder Music (USA) (ASCAP)Thanks for supporting my small business, all made in my workshop at Papamoa Beach in the beautiful Bay Of Plenty Hip-hop was a teenager when Illmatic dropped*.* Old enough for biblical foundation, but young enough to be embroiled in an early identity crisis. The Columbia press sheet that accompanies it opens: "While it's sad that there's so much frontin' in the rap world today, this should only make us sit up and pay attention when a rapper comes along who's not about milking the latest trend and running off with the loot." B2 - Produced by Q-Tip for A Tribe Called Quest, Inc.. Recorded and mixed at Battery Studios, NYC. Contains sample from "Smilin Billy Suite Pt. II" as performed by The Heath Brothers and written by J. Heath. Memory Lane (Sittin' In Da Park)" produced for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. Contains sample from "We're In Love" as performed by Reuben Wilson and written by R. Wilson and P. Barsella. EMI Unart Catalog Inc./Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/Gifted Pearl (ASCAP) One Time For Your Mind" produced for Paul Sea Productions, Inc. Recorded and mixed at Chung King Studios, NYC.

This sounds insane in hindsight. When people start making greatest rapper lists you can't count to five before Nas' name is mentioned. The kid who went to hell for snuffing Jesus has become a sacred cow. Twenty years deep, he's nominated for a Grammy and is in Gap ads with his dad. There was the album with Damian Marley, the feud with Jay-Z, there was Belly. Nas is firmly entrenched in VH1 Special territory. He has crossed over enough without ever making radio hits, save for "Oochie Wally", in which he is out-rapped by his bodyguard-- all for oochie. B1 - Produced by DJ Premier for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. Contains sample from "We're In Love" as performed by Reuben Wilson and written by R. Wilson and P. Barsella. Removed from context, they seem unremarkable. When spit with criminal smoothness over beat breaks, they became iconic. If Rakim was rap's Woody Guthrie, Nas was the Dylan figure expanding the possibilities and complexity of the form, twisting old fables to match contemporary failings, faithful to tradition but unwilling to submit to orthodoxy. Have others noticed that the album cover picture is based on two negatives overlayed with the face picture being the top with the street and houses as the bottom.The phrases and images are so deeply rooted in rap consciousness to have become cliché. Over the last 19 years, a million secret handshakes and scratched hooks have been executed to lines from Illmatic: I woke up early on my born day; I sip the Dom P, watching Gandhi 'til I'm charged; you couldn't catch me in the streets without a ton of reefer, that's like Malcolm X catching jungle fever; I'm an addict for sneakers, twenties of Buddha, and bitches with beepers; vocabulary spills, I'm ill; life's a bitch and then you die.

No album better reflected the sound and style of New York, 94. Raw rap, soul samples and beat breaks. A gifted writer whose wordplay knows no bounds, Nas tells his own story, the archetypal anti-hero with ambitions of ruling the world, escaping the conflict, violence and brutality of New York's underbelly.Contains sample of "We're In Love" as performed by Reuben Wilson and written by R Wilson and P. Barsella. A3: Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/Minder Music/Taking Care Of Business Music/ Total Experience Music/ODAR Publishing May as well have been recorded in a crappy sounding arena, because you would never believe it was done in an acoustically sound amphitheatre, as it was.