1994 was the year
when rapper, Nas, took the hip-hop game by storm with his debut album Illmatic. The basis of the album was
Nas’ life in Queensbridge, New York and the subject matter ranges from “gang
rivalries, desolation, and the ravages of urban poverty.” While Illmatic is arguably the greatest
hip-hop record of all time, it wasn’t always like that. In retrospect, it
debuted at number 12 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and sales were lower than
expected with five failed singles. It wasn’t until 1996 that the album became
gold, and later platinum in 2001. So what’s all the buzz about? It was the
debut of a lyrical master who took his art seriously and crafted an album that
spoke of the struggles of his hood as he overcame them.
When you listen to “N.Y. State of Mind”, you can hear Nas
opening the track by saying, “Straight out the fucking dungeons of rap/Where
fake niggas don't make it back/I don't know how to start this shit, yo.” The
dungeons of rap symbolize the underground word of hip-hop and he was making a
statement to his breaking out into the mainstream and hopes of being a success.
“N.Y. State of Mind” was actually recorded in one take despite Nas openly
admitting that he had no idea what he was doing. Clever lines like “Bullet
holes left in my peepholes, I'm suited up in street clothes/Hand me a nine and
I'll defeat foes”, show the violence Nas faced and fought back against.
“Peepholes” served as a way to describe the violence outside on the streets and
is also considered a homophone for the “people” getting shot out. Nas’ stream
of consciousness on this song vividly describes shooting out the police to
defend himself and is later ended by his thoughts on the youth and their
misinterpretation and abuse of violence. Lines like “I never sleep, cause sleep
is the cousin of death/Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined/I
think of crime when I'm in a New York state of mind” and “The city never
sleeps, full of villains and creeps/That's where I learned to do my hustle had
to scuffle with freaks” go to show the lifestyle he lived growing up in New
York and how his past has made him the go-getter he is today.
In a 2012 interview with NPR Music, Nas explained his
inspiration for exploring this subject matter: "[W]hen my rap generation
started, it was about bringing you inside my apartment. It wasn't about being a
rap star; it was about anything other than. I want you to know who I am: what
the streets taste like, feel like, smell like. What the cops talk like, walk
like, think like. What crackheads do — I wanted you to smell it, feel it. It
was important to me that I told the story that way because I thought that it
wouldn't be told if I didn't tell it. I thought this was a great point in time
in the 1990s in [New York City] that needed to be documented and my life needed
to be told."
NPR Music Interview: http://www.npr.org/2012/07/22/157043285/nas-on-marvin-gayes-marriage-parenting-and-rap-genius
Even the album artwork speaks to the albums center theme of
the youth growing up in a life full of poverty and violence. It is a picture of
Nas at the age of 7, superimposed on a picture of the New York City projects.
Nas states, "That was the year I started to acknowledge everything [around
me]. That's the year everything set off. That's the year I started seeing the
future for myself and doing what was right. The ghetto makes you think. The
world is ours. I used to think I couldn't leave my projects. I used to think if
I left, if anything happened to me, I thought it would be no justice or I would
be just a dead slave or something. The projects used to be my world until I
educated myself to see there's more out there.” By the age of 10 years old, Nas
had already been writing.
“Memory Lane” is a perfect juxtaposition to “N.Y. State of
Mind”. Having only lived a quarter of his life, Nas raps about growing life experiences
in the past 20 years. The track opens up with, “I rap for listeners,
bluntheads, fly ladies and prisoners/Henessey-holders and old-school niggas”
representing the audience he believed he had at his early beginnings. The
infamous hook, "Now let me take a trip down memory lane"/"Coming
outta Queensbridge" are samples from Biz Markie and Craig G, respectively.
The second part is especially significant because the sampled song comes from
the exact time and place Nas raps about in his track (80s Queensbridge Housing
Projects).
As a whole, when you hear the seamlessness of content on Illmatic and take into consideration
Nas’ confident ability to speak of the life he lived in such an effortless
poeticism, it makes sense why people consider this to be the blueprint of
hip-hop. As controversial as it sounds, Nas was young and figuring the ropes
out but he had within him the confidence and the ego of the greatest rapper
alive and the combination lead to an album that sounded like it was from a
seasoned rapper with the notion that he was only 20 years old and struggling
present in the stories he rapped about. It offers 40 minutes of raw and
continuous rhymes with complete absence of female-sung hooks, no guest stars
and no single producer – this was Nas’ project. Prefix Magazine’s, Matthew
Gasteier writes, “In Illmatic, you find the meaning not just of hip-hop, but of
music itself: the struggle of youth to retain its freedom, which is ultimately
the struggle of man to retain his own essence.”
10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Illmatic: http://www.complex.com/music/2012/04/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-nas-illmatic/
Nice work ! Your post really discusses the album as a whole. I think it's cool how Nas was so young and inexperienced in the rap game but still managed to produce such quality work. I also find it refreshing when a rapper shares their life story because it allows us to get to know them better.
ReplyDeleteVery cool background story on Nas! I had no idea about his life or even who he was until his name came up in class, but now I know and appreciate him a lot more to thanks to your blog post this week. I'm guessing this is the same topic for your paper?
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post, it was very informative! I really liked the fact that Nas always wanted to stay true to himself and was able to create good quality music while doing that.
ReplyDeleteVery infirmative post. I can tell you really took the time out to listen to the allbum as a whole and try to decipher Nas' reasoning behind the different songs on the album.
ReplyDeleteAll I have to say is that this is going to make my post extremely difficult since this one is so good and I have the same topic. You set the standard very high, good job!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! You did an excellent job of looking at the album as a whole and even examining the album artwork. I knew nothing about Nas before, but feel like I know his life after this album
ReplyDeleteImpressive, I knew nothing about Nas prior to this homework assignment and your post makes me want to re-listen to the album!!
ReplyDeleteThe critical success of a rap song or album, and really music in general, is judged by how well the artist can relay his message to the audience. In Illmatic, Nas accomplishes this through the amazing imagery and meaning he puts in his rhymes and the album is given even more weight when you consider the serious theme of the album .
ReplyDeleteI like how you touched on all different parts of the album like the background information, art work, and songs! You definitely supported your point and I learned a lot about Nas like I wasn't aware that "N.Y. State of Mind" was recorded in one take!
ReplyDeleteGreat job! I really enjoyed your breakdown and interpretation of the album as a whole, it added insight that I overlooked.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very thorough analysis and description of one of the most legendary albums that belongs to hip-hop. It combined so many elements of street wit, perseverance, and intelligence that enabled it to be the classic it is. Nas, one of the rawest lyricists in the game was arguably in his prime during this record and it was truly exploited through each and every one of his songs
ReplyDeleteFrom what I have read/heard from people who actively listened to hip-hop at that time, Nas had built up a large amount of hype prior to the release of the album. He had generated a buzz for himself through mixtapes and bootlegged cassettes of those mixtapes. It is interesting to note that hype still works the same way in hip-hop, as A$AP Rocky's rise to fame took a very similar route (I would say about as similar as you can get in the 2010's).
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