By Jamil Weeks

So much has happened in 30 years. The OJ verdict. 9/11 and the Middle Eastern wars that followed. The first black President. The pandemic. We are living in a completely different world from 1994. One thing that remains the same, however, is the brilliance of Illmatic. I remember seeing videos for “Halftime”, “It Ain’t Hard to Tell”, and “The World Is Yours" on Rap City with Prince DeJour as the host. For whatever reason, I chose to sleep on Illmatic. When it comes to Nas, I was a “Johnny-Come-Lately” fan. It Was Written was the first album from him that grabbed me. After It Was Written stopped me in my tracks, it was essential for me to go back and listen to Illmatic. While It Was Written is considered in the eyes of many to be the best Nas album, there is no denying that Illmatic is the greatest album in the man’s illustrious career. Illmatic is the album that even the biggest Nas haters cannot front on or dismiss. The album is a true certified classic and arguably a top 10 rap album of all time. There is a sizeable faction within the hip hop community that considers it to be the best rap album ever made. You can certainly make an ironclad case for that argument. The replay value. Zero skips. The impact the album has had on the culture. No filler. In many ways, Illmatic is the perfect rap album. A piece of art that Nas poured his entire life into making up to 1994. For the past couple of years, I have been able to get my daily Nas fix with the Kings Disease and Magic trilogies. With the 30th anniversary of Illmatic finally arriving, it has made me go back to earlier Nas material that raised me in the 90s. The past week has been a welcome trip down memory lane.

Illmatic is a special project. No gimmicks. No clout-chasing antics. Just a pure hip hop album where everyone understood the assignment. The star of the show, Nasir Jones, was heralded as the next great emcee to carry on the tradition established by the greats of the 1980s golden era. Debuting on Main Source’s “Live at the BBQ”, the Queensbridge emcee, who boldly proclaimed to “snuffin’ Jesus”, put every emcee in the game on notice that he was coming for the throne. From ’92 to ’93, Nas continued the meteoric momentum with his classic verse off MC Serch’s “Back to the Grill” and by releasing “Halftime’ on the Zebrahead soundtrack, which starred Michael Rapaport. Nas also dropped a slew of freestyles, most notably on the Stretch and Bobbito Show in 1993. Nas was anointed as the chosen one, the same way Lebron was by basketball fans in the early 2000s before he was drafted. Nas was a hybrid of Slick Rick, Tragedy Khadafi, Kool G Rap, and Rakim. He was the one that would restore prominence back to the name of his neighborhood, Queensbridge Projects, after KRS and Boogie Down Productions declared the Bridge was over in the late 80s during the iconic Bridge Wars. With his debut album, the hope was that Nas would join the ranks of the greatest, such as Kane, LL, KRS, G Rap, Cube, Kurtis Blow, Chuck D, etc. Nas had his work cut out for him. A wave of brilliant masterpieces was released during the making Illmatic. From ’92 to ’94, The Chronic, Enta Da Stage, Doggystyle, Enter the Wu (36 Chambers), Midnight Marauders, and other heavy hitters were released. Competition was stiff amongst his peers. The West Coast was dominating. The East Coast was experiencing an underground renaissance. Outkast and Biggie were coming. Nas had a lot to live up to and the streets were eagerly anticipating the official arrival of his debut. Heavy bootlegging may have put a dent in the early commercial success of arguably the greatest launch in hip hop history, but that dent ultimately proved to be delayed success.

For his vision to be fully realized, Nas assembled a team of producers that became the rap version of the Dream Team. That team consisted of Large Professor from Main Source, DJ Premier from Gang Starr, Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest, Pete Rock from Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth, and the underrated L.E.S. to add some Queensbridge flavor to the Illmatic dish. Erick Sermon has recently confirmed in interviews that he had an opportunity to be on Illmatic but passed on the chance to produce on the album. While it would have been monumental to hear Nas over an early 90s Erick Sermon instrumental, like Keith Murray’s “Get Lifted”, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because Illmatic would end up becoming one of the most complete projects ever crafted. The jazz-infused production provided by this iconic team provided Nas with the perfect music to catch wreck. The timeless production allowed Nas to get into a zone where the vocabulary would spill forth to create some of the most seminal verses of his career. The production on the album added class to the poignant lyricism of Nas. The dream team created a cohesive sound sonically with a New York City aesthetic that rhythmically and melodically transported you to the project tenement buildings, urine-stained hallways, bullet-riddled windows, and cracks on the pavement of Queensbridge streets. One can make the argument that there has never been a better ensemble of producers since Illmatic. Every beat that was contributed to Illmatic was an essential piece of the puzzle that would make Illmatic an undeniable classic.

Nas firmly established himself as one of the greatest lyricists to ever be birthed out of the New York streets. Illmatic was where Nas established the blueprint for a lot of emcees that came after him. The introspective bars that inspired so many emcees to look deeply within and thoughtfully convey those cavernous emotions on wax. What makes Illmatic so special was we got to hear a hungry Nas, filled with youthful vigor, pour his whole life onto some of the best production in the 90s. There was no stale “16 bar-hook-16 bar-hook-16-bar-hook” format, as Nas demonstrated on the opening song “NY State of Mind”. Nas tossed the rulebook out on Illmatic and emptied his soul out on every beat as if he had an endless book of rhymes. Illmatic was also the introduction of Nas as a master storyteller. The vivid imagery inspired by his rhymes was like a Donald Goines book come to life within your imagination. You could close your eyes as you listen to any selection off Illmatic, and it was as if you were watching the life story of Nas growing up in the projects on the big screen. Illmatic also solidified Nas as a master at his craft in his late teens/early 20s. Nas had a laid-back-in-the-pocket, effortless flow where he would squeeze so many words within a bar that would perfectly catch that slightly off-beat pocket with a multi-syllabic precision. Nas took lyricism to another level, much like Rakim and others did before him and late 90s rappers like Pun, Eminem, and Canibus would do after him. Nas so lucidly captured NYC at that time that much of what he rhymed about at that time remains relevant today, rather he was talking about the violence in the hood, street politics, friends succumbing to the street life that led to an early grave or being imprisoned in the belly of the beast, the desperation sprouting from poverty, or police brutality. Illmatic was Nas at his most famished as an artist and every thought that had built up inside him was unleashed to the world with Illmatic.

Illmatic has endured as the biggest triumph for Nas in his 30 plus-year career. Nas hit a homerun out the park with his initial step up to the plate. Illmatic was such a masterpiece that fans have shunned practically every Nas release since. Nas has other monumental gems in his portfolio, such as It Was Written, Stillmatic, Lost Tapes, God’s Son, Life Is Good, and most recently his albums with Hit Boy. However, in the eyes of people that control the message, none of those projects measure up to the genius of Illmatic. Illmatic was a gift and a curse for Nas because that is all some fans want to hear from him. I can understand this sentiment more as each year passes since the release of Illmatic on April 19, 1994. Never again will we hear Nas with so much to prove to the world. Illmatic was Nas at his hungriest, and it would be impossible for any artist to reproduce that sort of drive again. Nas knew exactly what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. With the help of AZ as the only guest feature, the production from rap’s Avengers-like production team, and cameos from his brother, Jungle, and close neighborhood friend, G-Wiz, Nas used his debut as the foundation for what would become one of the hip hop’s best stories ever told. So to everyone involved in the making of Illmatic, including the work behind the scenes from Faith Newman and MC Serch, I personally want to say thank you. Thank you for delivering an album that never gets old. That remains relevant to this day while sparking nostalgic memories in my coming-of-age years. That keeps me having the screw face and my head nodding like Biggie in the “One More Chance” video. The work of everybody mentioned helped create a body of work so important that it was inducted into he Library of Congress. That helped Nas become one of the first rappers to perform the album with an orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. That had Nas giving lectures at Ivy League schools. That inspired last year’s album of the year, MICHAEL, by Killer Mike. Illmatic is the album that everyone has attempted to duplicate in its 30-year run. Nasir Jones and company created an album that is up there with Run DMC’s self-titled debut, Paid In Full, Criminal Minded, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, Straight Outta Compton, Get Rich or Die Trying, and other true classics. So tomorrow on that beautiful April 19th sunny Spring morning, treat yourselves to history by streaming or listening to this ageless classic on vinyl, tape, or CD. Happy 30th anniversary to one of hip hop’s most important pieces of art ever created.