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. 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." One Love" produced 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. Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music (ASCAP)/MJQ Music, Inc. (BMI). The World is Yours" produced for Mecca And The Soul Brother Productions, Inc. Recorded and mixed at Battery Studios, NYC. Reviewing Illmatic is like someone talking about your fantasy team: no one wants to even... Yup, it's firmly embedded in Dad Rap dogma; young kids grow up wanting to hate it; and minus a few moments, it's pretty much dude specific (however, some things like this are best left for one half of the species...). Listening to Illmatic is a GOLDEN AGE MONK RITUAL. You hope your offspring will appreciate it like you do, but really you don't. You don't want them to be tortured by yet another self-imposed permanent musical marker. So when you buy this record, please listen to it when you're alone. Don't even think about throwing it on at a party or a dinner. Close the door and look at the red vinyl and imagine you're one step from an epic bloodbath... running through QB... dodging Carhartt-clad snipers chasing you in a pristine M Series sedan. Bet.

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). Side B label has, additionally: Zomba Enterprises Inc./ Jazz Merchant Music (admin. by Zomba Enterprises Inc.) Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/Minder Music (USA) (ASCAP)/Taking Care Of Business Music/Total Experience Music Publishing Co. (BMI) 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.

Recommendations

Contains a sample of "Yearning For Your Love" as performed by The Gap Band and written by R. Wilson and O. Scott. Used courtesy Polygram Special Products, Inc. If you listen to it enough names start to pop out: Fatcat, Alpo, Grand Wizard, Mayo, the foul cop who shot Garcia, Jerome's niece, Little Rob, Herb, Ice, and Bullet. The entirety of "Represent". You start to wonder where they are now, or if they are. The album's lone guest AZ, lays it down flat: he's destined to live the dream for all the peeps who never made it. 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. The enduring vision of Nas: a baby-faced Buddha monk in public housing, scribbling lotto dreams and grim reaper nightmares in dollar notebooks, words enjambed in the margins. The only light is the orange glow of a blunt, bodega liquor, and the adolescent rush of first creation. Sometimes his pen taps the paper and his brain blanks. In the next sentence, he remembers dark streets and the noose. One Time For Your Mind" produced for Paul Sea Productions, Inc. Recorded and mixed at Chung King Studios, NYC.

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)

Contributors

Contains sample from "Smilin' Billy Suite Pt. II" as performed by The Heath Brothers and written by J. Heath. NY State Of Mind" produced for Works Of Mart Productions. Recorded and mixed at D&D Recording, NYC. Contains sample of "We're In Love" as performed by Reuben Wilson and written by R Wilson and P. Barsella.

Life's A Bitch" recorded and mixed at Unique Studios and Chung King Studios, NYC. Contains sample from "Yearning For Your Love" as performed by The Gap Band and written by R. Wilson and O. Scott used courtesy Polygram Special Products, Inc. Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/Minder Music (USA) (ASCAP)/Taking Care Of Business Music/Total Experience Music Publishing Co. (BMI) 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. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. 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. 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)

Large Professor Music Ltd./EMI April Music, Inc./Ill Will Music, Inc./Skematics Music/Minder Music (USA) (ASCAP) One Time 4 Your Mind" produced for Paul Sea Productions, Inc. Recorded and mixed at Chung King Studios, NYC. Contains sample from "Walter L" as written by G. Burton.