Impact and legacy of Illmatic
[7] Illmatic has been noted as a creative high point for East Coast hip hop, since it featured production from renowned New York-based producers Large Professor, Pete Rock and DJ Premier.
[6] According to music writer Rob Marriott, Illmatic helped to establish DJ Premier as "the go-to producer for the jazz-and-blues-inflected knock that became so central to East Coast sound.
"[7] Following Illmatic's release, Queensbridge returned to prominence after years of obscurity, with the ascendancy of the influential hardcore rap group Mobb Deep (whose affiliation with Nas garned them credibility) and later with the emergence of the trend-setting underground duo Capone-n-Noreaga.
"[15] Yet according to Heimlich, Illmatic provided an "explosive, explicit rejection of the cultural assimilation of most previous hip-hop," due to its rugged use of language and its uncompromising portrayal of crime.
"[16] The critical acclaim surrounding the album helped to shift attention away from the melodious, synth-driven, and funk-induced G-funk subgenre, which dominated the charts for some time after Dr. Dre's The Chronic (1992).
"[18] That nearly every reviewer felt the need to contextualize their response to Illmatic within the frame of West Coast G-Funk "is a reminder of just how pervasive the style was within the hip hop world and the music community as a whole.
"[18] Yet according to writer Mickey Hess, Illmatic was among those East Coast records that helped "create sparse, rough and rugged soundscapes that clearly differed from Dre's multi-layered melodies.
"[19] As AllMusic's Steve Huey writes, "It helped spearhead the artistic renaissance of New York hip hop in the post-Chronic era, leading a return to street aesthetics.
"[16] Contrasting these aesthetics with the themes found in G-Funk, writer and filmmaker Dream Hampton writes, "Illmatic was a dirty bomb thrown at the orchestral sonic soundtrack that was The Chronic ....
This wasn't a backyard bikini barbeque where the Ohio Players and DJ Quik were mashed up; this was a three-month bid on Rikers Island, a dirty dice game, blunts of brown Brooklyn sparked in the park after dark.
During the time of its release, Illmatic brought a renewed focus on lyricism to hip hop—hearkening back to the heyday of Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, and Rakim.
[8][21] Music journalist Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times wrote of Illmatic, stating that Nas "perfected a dense, rat-a-tat rhyme style that built upon the legacy of 1980s pioneers like Rakim and Big Daddy Kane.
[8][21] Music critic Rob Marriott notes, "[R]appers like Mobb Deep, Tragedy Khadafi, Nature, Cormega, Noreaga, Capone, Raekwon, Ghostface, and even the Windy City wordsmith Common seemed to find new inspiration in Nas' self awareness, internal rhyme schemes, and mastery of street detail", and describes the impact of Illmatic's "poetic approach" on Jay-Z, writing: "The Brooklyn MC switched his style up from his fast-talking Jaz-O days enough to produce Reasonable Doubt, an album marked by Nas-like introspection".
Professor Adilifu Nama of California State University Northridge writes, "With Illmatic, hip-hop witnessed the birth of an urban griot telling hard-boiled tales of ghetto alienation and triumph like a spoken-word of a Chester Himes novel".
"[30] An OhWord.com columnist similarly described Nas as a "genius introvert who rose out of the rubble of Reaganomics to bless the mic with a forward brand of introspective, redemptive street poetry".
[32] "It is from this point on," he writes, "that style, technique and craft merge with collage/pastiche, braggadocio, stark portrait-painting from the margins, frenetic, fun and funny wordplay, and the rupture of linear storytelling schemes.
"[6] In 2013, music writer Jeff Weiss commented on the extensive vernacular usage of Illmatic, writing: "The phrases and images are so deeply rooted in rap consciousness to have become cliché.
[33] and Reef The Lost Cauze,[34] conscious rappers Talib Kweli[35] and Lupe Fiasco,[36] the producers Just Blaze[37] and 9th Wonder,[38] as well as the platinum-selling artists Wiz Khalifa,[39] Alicia Keys[40] and The Game, who makes references to the album on his debut, The Documentary.
"[42] Speaking in 2012, British producer, DJ Semtex described Illmatic as "an exemplary album of perfection that forced the evolution of lyricism and production values within hip hop.
In 2012, playwright Shaun Neblett created a tribute play titled Homage 3: Illmatic, which tells the story of an aspiring artist and explores the themes found in Nas' debut.
The rappers' bars come alive on stage through Homage 3, which deliberately shows how intellectually well-versed Nas truly is, and much bigger than that, how much Hip-Hop has to offer, culturally, outside of the radio, clubs and the street.
With contributions from figures such as Greg Tate, Adam Mansbach, Eddie Glaude, Dream Hampton, Marc Lamont Hill, and Suheir Hammad, Born to Use Mics is the first academic project to assemble a group of scholars, poets, filmmakers, journalists, novelists, and musicians to reflect on a specific hip hop album.
No doubt these were great albums, coming at a moment when hip hop was cutting its teeth on social commentary and refining its ear on dusty breaks, hard snares, and sonic mayhem.
"Illmatic" he writes, "mobilized a national network of dissidents craving something true to the streets but eager to distance themselves from what was beginning to be perceived as a scourge – gangster rap."
"[11] Commenting on these polarized debates, Jeff Weiss suggests that Illmatic is "best heard by ignoring the dogma, culture wars, Nas clones, and would-be saviors that have accreted since April 1994. Who cares whether it's the greatest rap album of all-time or not?
[58] After manager Steve Stoute convinced Nas to aim his efforts in a more commercial direction for his follow-up album It Was Written (1996), he enlisted the production team Trackmasters, who were known for their mainstream work at the time.
[59] Many fans of Illmatic labeled his subsequent efforts as 'selling out', due to his crossover sensibilities (e.g. his participation with the hip hop group The Firm) and radio-friendly hits aimed at the pop charts, such as "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" (1996) and "Hate Me Now" (1999).
[8] Reflecting this widespread perception in the hip hop community and adding to his ongoing feud with Nas at the time, Jay-Z mocked him in the song "Takeover" (2001) for having a "one hot album [Illmatic] every ten year average".
"[61] Nas made something of a comeback with his fifth album Stillmatic (2001) and the acclaimed follow-up God's Son (2002), as well as The Lost Tapes (2002), a compilation of previously unreleased tracks from the I Am... and Nastradamus sessions.
[65] Illmatic will be reissued as a deluxe CD bundled with a 48-page hardcover book featuring photos, reproduced artwork, lyrics, and liner notes courtesy of The Source founder Jon Schecter.
