You Need Me : April 9th, 2009

Nas - Illmatic

Enough has been written about this record since it first came out to fill several books. Though not my favourite hip hop album of all time, I think it is the most essential for several reasons. The first and most important is that it that is essentially the turning point in hip hop, from old school to new school. Old school-New school junctures happened very often, potentially in 1981, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 etc. Basically every time someone pushed the envelope in this way or that. There have been hip hop purists wishing for a return to "real hip hop" since the Sugarhill Gang. However, in my opinion it was in 1994 that should forever mark that change. It's that year that the South, West, Mid-west, and East coast all started performing at less niche level, a year when you had acts like Biggie, Tupac, and Big Daddy Kane performing together at Madison Square Garden. There was so many different sounds, and this was when rap really went from being one of the popular forms of pop music, to being the quintessential sound of North American mainstream culture. Rather than simply drawing from other genres stylistically as it had from the beginning, hip hop was not noticable in every space, from rock to electro, etc.


What makes Illmatic so important in this regard is that it is perhaps simultaneously the start of this new era, and also the bridge. With its flawless production it married the new york underground street sound and lyrical subject matter, with a faster more modern flow. Talk of gunplay and drug dealing with 5%-er asiatic black man mythology and existential queries. To think that Nas was only 19 when he started working on it, and only 20 when it was released is pretty mindboggling.

There are obviously a bunch of other records that came out in the same year that were similarly important and influencial; most of all Ready to Die which is also marked the new era. To me, that album sounds more modern generally than Illmatic. It is even more of a marker of what was to come.

What inspired me to write this was that I am sitting in the sunshine in the library, and I am kind of hot. I might even be uncomfortable if I really thought about it. But my excitement for summer makes the rays on my back stimuatling enough that I can just indulge in a fantasy that it's June. Illmatic is similar to that for me; it excites me and makes me want to go outside. I think hip hop has to be fun, even when it's taking itself pretty seriously, and Illmatic is a great example of that. From back when I was listening to it on a discman at bus stops, to now when I dig it up out of my scratched up and sluggishly full 80 gig ipod, it still provides great aural pleasure.

Buy it here.

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Download it here.