Hello! 😊👋
Welcome to a new edition of the Daily Music Picks newsletter!
Today’s music pick celebrates the 30th anniversary of the greatest debut album in hip-hop history.
Genre: Hip-Hop, Jazz Rap
Label: Columbia
Release Date: April 19, 1994
Vibe: 💯
Even with a career that spans three decades, includes a handful of genuine classic albums, and features countless bars that testify to his lyricism and craftsmanship, it’s crazy to think that Nas’ reputation as a rapper still rests largely on Illmatic’s shoulders. Scholars and long-time hip-hop heads alike talk about it with such reverence that it’s become hip-hop’s Citizen Kane—a mind-blowing debut from a young prodigy who’d spend the rest of his career trying to step out from under its shadow.
At this point, the trappings of Illmatic’s pop culture significance are well-known: the five-mic rating in The Source, its role in shaping East Coast rap’s sonic bedrock, and how it helped revive a flagging alternative scene. Like the Welles flick, that air of importance and all the baggage that comes with it masks how entertaining the record is in addition to being such a profound artistic achievement. The literate nature of Nas’ rhymes makes the world he describes and the autobiographical scenes he depicts feel so lived in that it’s impossible not to get sucked in by its gritty realism. Illmatic isn’t just his story—it’s also a cautionary tale of how the Queensbridge projects dictated his and many others’ outlook on life. “When I was a kid, I just stayed in the projects,” he told The Source in April ‘94. “Everybody's mentality revolves around the projects. Everybody's gotta eat. It's just the attitude out there, it's just life. You can't be no sucker.”
What’s equally insane is how slow a burn Illmatic was commercially. It only sold a little over 300,000 copies in its first year and took seven more years to be certified Platinum by the RIAA. Russell Simmons, who passed on Nas over at Def Jam, was thought to be a genius when he signed Warren G instead and rode “Regulate” to a massive financial windfall. But it’s Mr. Jones who’s ultimately had the last laugh. You can’t go more than four or five names in the GOAT emcee conversation before he is mentioned—especially when you have a tracklist that reads like an East Coast rap highlight reel. “N.Y. State of Mind,” “Halftime,” “Life’s a Bitch,” “Represent,” and on and on and on. With boom-bap titans like DJ Premier, Large Professor, Pete Rock, and Q-Tip contributing to the world-class production, you literally can’t go wrong with any cut on this album.
As I’ve said for other 10/10-level classics covered in this newsletter, if this is your first time going through Illmatic from start to finish, I envy you.
👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈