"Illmatic" Turned 25 Years Old Today
THE SMOOTH CRIMINAL ON BEAT BREAKS//NEVER PUT ME IN YA BOX IF YA SHIT EATS TAPES
At its grimiest, ILLMATIC sounds like an armed robbery. From the moment the gun’s pulled, to the shakedown, to the run back to the getaway car, to the recounting of the day’s events back at the crib. In fact, that’s where the album feels like it starts. Nas and AZ counting money, bullshitting, twisting up Phillies, pissed off about the wack shit on the radio, just wishing someone could tell their story. Bang, right into NEW YORK STATE OF MIND.
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If aliens came to Earth and demanded you to teach them about rap using only five albums, this would undoubtedly be one of them. ILLMATIC is a classic in every sense of the word. 25 years later and Nas is still eating off of it. The instrumentals are eternal. The storytelling is so vivid it isn’t tied to the era in which it was released while simultaneously being the quintessential early-’90s New York soundtrack. Spend the next 40 minutes paying homage to one of the greatest front to back albums of the past 25 years for any genre.