Illmatic

The first time I heard Illmatic I was a freshman in high school. My school, the Academy of Independent Studies (A.I.S) offered Music Production as a major and I was eager to start the year to finally learn about the creative process behind music that I enjoyed to listen to. The teacher of the program, Mr. Figuereo, was what you could call a hip hop historian. He was always dropping knowledge about the history of the genre and the artists in it. I was an aspiring rapper and vocalist myself, trying to get myself, little by little, to ease up my inhibitions to perform in front of people. I was also nervous about sharing my content with people because I thought they wouldn’t get it. Naive in that way, I thought of myself as weird and an outcast in the field of rapping and I wasn’t sure if I even belonged in that field begin with.

There was another rapper in the school, Trevor was his real name. His stage name at the time was T Jay-Tag. He was the only rapper in the school who was taking himself seriously as an artist. My brother, Abbas, played guitar and played while T-Jay rapped. I showed my brother a verse of mine and he told me that I should show T-Jay. Its so funny thinking how seriously I took him at the time because we ended up being close friends, and even performers together. But I digress.

So with my brother’s encouragement, I decided to show T-Jay a verse of mine, that I wrote to a Lupe Fiasco song (I can’t remember for the life of me the name of the song). So I pulled out my phone and went into my notes, rapped my verse, and to my surprise he enjoyed it very much. He immediately took me to Mr. Figuereo, room. A music studio with white rock walls, that looked as if they were covered in pebbles. The room was filled with Macs desktops for students to use the various music production softwares that were on them (like Logic Pro 9, and Pro Tools). I performed my verse even more nervous then when I did in front of T-Jay. The first thing he said to me was that I listened to too much Eminem before even asking me whether or not I did. To my embarrassment I did in fact only listen to Eminem. and he told me to start listening to different artists.

I took his advice and throughout my freshman year I learned more about hip hop music and culture than the rest of the kids my age, and even the rest of the school (granted there was only 110 kids in the whole school, though). One of the artist’s that I stumbled upon, naturally, was Nas. I quickly found Illmatic, which people said was his best work. I listened and found a 10 song collection of some of the best hip hop songs of the 90s. This album featured the production of the best producers in the game at the time: Q-tip, DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Large Professor, and L.E.S. Accompanied by the beautiful poetry of Nas, Illmatic was a certified classic as soon as it was put out. Oh and I forgot to mention that he was 18 when he put this out. 18!! I was 14 at that time. All I was obsessed with at the time was trying to be the best rapper, and I remember thinking “if I’m trying to be better than him I only have 4 years! ” He made it seem impossible to top.

Left to Right (Pete Rock, L.E.S, Nas, Large Professor, Q-Tip, DJ Premier)

I was in my music class one day and Mr. Figuereo was talking about Illmatic and asked us whether or not we knew it well. In a way to test us. Neither of us did that well only knowing 2 or 3 songs on it. He pulled us aside to show us a song I had never heard before Memory Lane.

(As always, I highly suggest you use a music streaming service like Apple Music or Spotify to have the best quality sound possible).

Memory Lane

As soon as it started I was entranced by the steady pace of Nas’ verse riding above the  instrumental done by DJ Premier. Then my teacher made me realize what it was: “Are you noticing how many words he’s saying? This was in 1994, nobody was rapping like this. The closest was Rakim. and even he wasn’t rapping as quick, with lines that were as potent.” The main reason Nas stood out among the other artists in the game at the time was because he said his lines with a natural grace, like he was talking – but it was still deep, you know. He was deemed a “street poet” for a reason.

In a way I looked at the level of skill as unmatchable initially, but after a bit I realized that if he had the ability to manifest the best album in hip hop history at the time at the age of 18, basically a teenager, then why couldn’t I? So I turned to another classic form the album: The World Is Yours.

The World Is Yours

Nas paints a picture of of who he is as as a person starting the perfect juxtaposition to explain who he is as an artist and as an individual:

“I sip the Dom P, watching “Gandhi” ’til I’m charged
Then writing in my book of rhymes, all the words past the margin
To hold the mic I’m throbbin’, mechanical movement
Understandable smooth shit that murderers move with.”

Drinking liquor, watching Ghandi, and writing his rhymes past the margin, unconfined and breaking the status quo. Nas is explaining who he is, which he continues to do through out the verses. The Chorus “Whose world is this, The world is yours.” sung by Pete Rock, is Nas saying that he knows that he can do whatever he wants, and he’s telling everybody that they can too. That sentiment resonates with me to this day and though I’ve learned about way more music – hip hop and other genres included – I look back at this song as a reminder of where I started at, where my musical roots are at, and also how I felt during those times, like I could conquer the world because I saw other artists who who did.

Even though I was intimidated by the standard I put on myself, I felt encouraged and even empowered to try the best I could to develop as an artist that freshman year. and to learn as much as I can about the history and progression of hip hop. I did and even though the majority of albums I’ve been talking about have been classic rock, hip hop music will always be my foundation.

From left to right (DJ Premier, Q-tip, Nas, Large Professor)