Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Nas "Illmatic" [1994]
On Nas' supposed "breakthrough" CD "Illmatic" -- "breakthrough" is in quotes because nobody cared about this album when it came out -- the New York rapper does what was previously thought impossible: he makes the Geto Boys sound reasonable. Not much here but tales of drug-running in the 'hood that sound like they were left on the cutting room floor from the "Menace II Society" soundtrack. Then again, by this time the criminal element of hip-hop had migrated in droves to Compton; Nas probably couldn't get arrested on the streets of Queens in '94, try though he might. More claustrophobic and with sadder jazz passages than anything The Roots ever bummed anyone out with, "Illmatic" couldn't get anyone to even point a gun at Nas, let alone see him "get got" like Biggie Smalls did. About the only static Nas ever experienced publicly was in his beef with Jay-Z years later, and even though many lyrics were spilled in the back-and-forth rap feud, to this day nobody knows what the fuck either of them were talking about. But at least Jay-Z knew that strictly representing for the projects was no way to get rich. Then again, if Nas really smokes as many blunts as he brags about throughout this album, that he managed to get himself off the goddamn couch in the first place is at least somewhat noteworthy.
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